Though trust in the government may not be especially high right now, almost across the board, the experts I spoke to said the government needs to be part of any meaningful solutions to our broken employment system: from equalizing pay to establishing comprehensive wellness protections and weaving a social safety net strong enough to catch workers when they fall.

EmploymentSchawbel is incredulous that companies will, for instance, expand paid leave on their own — or at all. “It’s bigger than corporations. Governments have to promote it and force companies to do it. But companies own our government, so they won’t.”

Orkin, too, has doubts, but they’re laced with optimism. “My hope — I speak from a place of hope but not entire confidence that this will all happen — is that companies will pay ever more attention to these essential workers and be ever more thoughtful about designing policies to support them. And it goes well beyond financial support (though that’s a good place to start). It goes deep into health, wellness and creating environments and workplaces that are nurturing, and creating space for creativity, for personal connection — the things that make us human.”

There’s one thing she is sure of. “Many of our clients are [asking], ‘Who are we going to be on the other side of this?’ It will not be who we were going in.”

via The Coronavirus Reveals Everything That’s Wrong With Work In America | HuffPost Australia