The Pulteney StreetSurvey
WORKING AND LIVING BETTER
What I find interesting, in light of the pandemic, is the renewed reflection on the meaning and purpose of work and how we find satisfaction. We’ve seen how virtual opportunities can engage folks who might have been harder to reach in person, as well as the risks of losing the friendships, opportunities for mentoring and social skills that develop in the workplace and classroom. If you’ve seen the movie, WALL-E, you may remember that image of people in their recliners, clicking their way through life. It feels like that’s one direction that we could go, where we’re hibernating in our homes with our screens, but I’m much more hopeful that we emerge with a renewed value for our connections, and that we use technology to push our thinking and help us work and live better.
We’re at a point now where the pace of change is so dramatic that everyone in the labor market needs to be positioned to keep learning. Perhaps the one constant going forward will be the importance of human skills: effective communication, empathy, work ethic, individual ownership, responsibility, a willingness to adapt and work well with others — the things you learn in a liberal arts environment like Hobart and William Smith. The need for those skills isn’t going away; they’re just going to be applied in new environments, in combination with new technologies.
Lisa Soricone ’85 is Senior Research Director at Jobs for the Future, a national nonprofit that drives change in the American workforce and education systems to achieve economic advancement for all.