Empirical measurement of attitudes to new forms of employment in the era of "coronacen"

Naberushkina Elmira Kamalovna Doctor of Sociology Professor, Department of Sociology, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation 107150, Russia, Moskovskaya oblast', g. Moscow, ul. Leningradskii Prospekt, 51, of. 507 ellana777@mail.ru

Introduction

The title of the article uses the term "coronacene" by analogy with the informal geochronological term "Anthropocene", denoting a geological epoch with a level of human activity that plays a significant role in the ecosystem of the planet. The issues of the development of new professions and new forms of employment are now closely linked not only with the development of technology, the processes of globalization and glocalization, but also with the new risks of modernity, including pandemics. 

It was during this period in 2020 that we carried out an empirical measurement of the attitude of working Muscovites to new forms of employment. The study involved citizens of working age (from 18 to 60 years) working in the territory of the metropolis. In addition to the quantitative survey, in-depth interviews were conducted with experts working in the field of digital space, digital technologies (HR managers; HR specialists; PR managers; UX|UI designers; Web developers; SMM specialists), a total of 20 in-depth interviews were collected. Interviews with experts were conducted in the same period (March-November 2020). 

Research methodology

The research toolkit consisted of two thematic blocks. The range of issues discussed in the first block concerned the remote form of work and was updated by the fact that in 2020 the labor market faced the objective realities of the pandemic, many labor functions were transferred to a remote format. The embedded indicators made it possible to assess the attitude to the new format of work, to identify the changes that have occurred between relatives and colleagues, to assess the prospects for further use of the remote format, to speak out about the acceptability of remote work. The questions of the second thematic block are devoted to the risks and difficulties that have arisen in connection with non-standard employment, assessment of readiness to move from the metropolis to other cities in case of maintaining the remote format.  The total sample size of the quantitative study was 150 people, which makes it possible to achieve a confidence interval of 8%. The information was processed using the SPSS Statistical v. 27 program.

The tools of qualitative measurement are aimed at a deeper study of the problems and clarification of expert opinion on the prospects for the development of professions. Qualitative research (n=20) was conducted using the Zoom Meetings program with a conversation recording. The information was processed using mechanical transcription.

Research results

The sample population was formed taking into account Mosstat data ^[1] on sexual structure. The age range of respondents ranged from 16 to 60 years, after processing the data, this group was divided into young (16 to 30 years old) and adults (31 to 60 years old) working. The gender distribution within each subsample was formed based on the percentages of men and women to the total number of residents in the city, thanks to which the representativeness of the sample was achieved.

Fig.1. Gender and age structure of respondents

Approximately 80% of the respondents surveyed at the time of the study worked remotely, which is a massively new form of employment for the current market situation. The majority of Muscovites (90%) worked remotely for less than 1 year during the survey period, the reason for switching to the remote format was the pandemic of coronavirus infection. At the same time, the remaining 10% of respondents have experience of remote work from one to three years, the reasons for leaving for remote employment before the lockdown were named - the crisis situation in the company and the need to combine work with study.  Half of the respondents in remote employment work the same amount and do not notice changes in the working regime. However, among those who spoke about the changes, a correlation was found between age and the number of hours allocated to work - adult working respondents faced more workload than working youth. For example, teachers of higher education stated that they had to work more remotely, and students, on the contrary, talked about the appearance of more free time.

Fig.2. Change in the time spent on work.

Half of the respondents noted minor changes in the work schedule, but a quarter of respondents indicated that their work schedule has changed dramatically, the rest of the work schedule has not changed. The subjective assessment regarding changes in the work schedule is largely due to the significant savings in time that employees previously spent on the road.

The income of the majority (80%) of employees was not affected by remote employment, but every fifth was affected by these changes, 18% reported a reduction in wages due to the pandemic and remoteness.

Fig.3. Changes in work schedule and wages

The changes also did not affect the social package in most cases (91.26%), and 5.8% of respondents replied that it did not exist, about one percent of respondents complained about the lack of compensation from the employer for the payment of communications, Internet and office equipment.

Talking about changes in relationships with colleagues and family, half of the respondents said,  that there is no lack of communication with colleagues in connection with remote work, however, as the results of correlation analysis show, the lack of communication is experienced more by people whose work experience is 6 years or more. Within the framework of M. Granovetter's theory of strong and weak ties, the longer the contact with colleagues at work, the more a person notes their importance in the development of human capital, since he is able to exert a positive influence on colleagues through his work and actions, which in turn strengthens the employee's position in the organization.

Fig.4. Lack of communication with colleagues.

For 70% of respondents, remote work turned out to be a factor that positively influenced relations with relatives, while only 15% of respondents faced difficulties. Among these problems, the following prevailed: the family distracts on household chores (childcare, attention to relatives) 7.76%; lack of personal and work space 4.85%; it is difficult to focus on the workflow 3.88%; background noise 2.91%; household problems 0.97%

Fig.5. Difficulties in relations with family members in conditions of remote work from home.

The answers to the question about plans to move from the metropolis while maintaining remote employment showed that the majority of respondents (84.15%) will remain working in Moscow, since Moscow is not only a place of work and income for them, but also a city of opportunities for leisure, entertainment and life.  Under no circumstances would a third of respondents (32.04%) agree to leave Moscow. The possibility of moving from the metropolis was considered, but only:

1. due to salary increase, career growth (29.13%);

2. due to personal and family reasons (9.71%);

3. in connection with moving from Russia in general (7.77%);

4. with a favorable situation in small towns (4.85%);

With permanent remote employment, only 15.9% would think about moving, and the main motive for moving is that the metropolitan metropolis for them is just a place to earn money.

When analyzing the risks associated with non-standard employment, it turned out that half of the respondents would agree with all the conditions of the employer, even to their own detriment, 40% would agree, but they would look for a solution convenient for everyone, and only a small part of the respondents said that remote work would be impossible for them. Among the reasons encouraging employees to stay in the workplace, even with the costs of remote employment, there were motives for maintaining employment, despite the change in the terms of the employment contract, for 28.16% of respondents it is convenient and comfortable to work remotely. In general, remote work as a new form of employment is accepted by employees, many are rated as very convenient for the metropolitan metropolis due to the significant savings in time and money spent on the road.

Reflecting on the relevance of their profession in the future, half of the respondents were sure that their professional activity would always remain relevant, since it relates to the management sphere. However, a third of respondents (32.6%) suggested that their profession will lose relevance in 5-10 years due to the development of digital technologies.

Experts in their reasoning also came to the conclusion that the professional field and forms of employment are changing due to digitalization and automation of human life.

"Because of the coronavirus, some were forced to close, only those who focused on delivery and online orders survived. So small and medium-sized businesses had to switch quite sharply to a new digital reality. In turn, large companies are forming their ecosystems, for example Yandex, Beac and others, they just realized that digital life and real life have long been fused"

Female, SMM specialist (3 years of work experience).

Due to the changing reality, new risks (pandemic) and the development of technology, young workers are building more mobile strategies of behavior in the labor market. It was revealed that working youth are more focused on mobility in the professional field than adult workers and are ready to quickly retrain and change the field of activity.

Fig.6. Plans to change profession.

Among the professions that, according to respondents, appeared or were updated in the last 5 years were named: IT-sphere (managers, digital marketers, Web analytics, smm services) (20.39%); Courier (4.85%); administrator of unmanned transport (1.94%); Community manager (1.94%); Tiktok blogger (1.94%); Data protection specialist (1.94%); Java programmer (1.94%). Most of these professions are directly related to working in a digital environment, which suggests that it is a large metropolis that acts as a growth platform for new professions and digitalization of the workflow, and some activities, for example, UX (user experience) and CX (customer experience)  the design will simply not be relevant outside the space of the metropolis.

The professions that are now losing their relevance mainly included activities related to physical labor.

"Those professions that can replace cars will leave the market, for example, taxis that are already being created without a driver, cafes for cooking something that eliminates the cook and the waiter, and the robot cashier in stores, as well as new carwashers, in general, all those people who can be replaced by cars will remain out of work"

Male, UX designer (3 years of work experience).

Intellectual work, according to the informants, will be modified, supplemented with digital assistance, which will speed up and simplify intellectual activity.

"And if we are talking about intellectual work, then it does not go away. It is transformed by digital tools, which is the most interesting thing, let's take a lawyer, I know that many things related to legal advice are being developed. This will allow you to conduct consultations automatically, and free up space for creative work"

Male, HR specialist (4 years of work experience).

 In connection with the development of new professions and forms of employment and the demands of modern business, experts raised the problem of the discrepancy between the training programs of Russian universities to the modern demands of the labor market.

"There are very few universities that are focused on business needs and you have to essentially study something, for example, programming in Python 3.0 on your own, while the university program stuffs you with something completely wrong, some Pascal that is not needed for business today at all. A good connection of training programs with new professions demanded by the modern labor market is observed only in large and leading universities of the country"

Male, Web developer (4 years of work experience).

 Conclusion

As a result of the study, it was revealed that new forms of employment, namely the remote format, are positively evaluated by the employed population, provided that basic guarantees (wages and work schedule) are preserved.  The respondents surveyed assessed the transformation of their activities into a remote format in connection with the pandemic quite calmly, there were no drastic changes in the workers, and the difficulties noted were of a local nature. The situation in 2020 has accelerated the legitimization of new forms of employment, so a new law on remote work came into force on January 1, 2021, which is important in the issue of institutionalization of remote employment.

Today, two key factors significantly affect the labor market and the spectrum of employment - the space of a large city and the digital space. Automation and digitalization lead to serious changes in the professional field, some professions lose their relevance, others appear and become leading. Against the background of digitalization, globalization and the increasing role of megalopolises, the Ford employment model, built in the logic of physical presence in the workplace, full-time, social package, etc., is losing its relevance, it is being replaced by new hybrid forms of employment.

The Coronacen era has triggered changes in the field of professional activity and everyday life of people, pushed states to act faster and more quickly regarding the introduction of remote employment, exacerbated the need for social institutions to respond quickly on the entire spectrum of issues related to social guarantees and conditions for the development of new forms of employment.