Tomorrowland

Shoppers turned online as infection rates made them hesitant to go out, and public health orders closed many physical retail spaces. That’s the so-called e-commerce acceleration effect, says Kirthi Kalyanam, the L.J. Skaggs Distinguished Professor and executive director of SCU’s Retail Management Institute. “Ten years of growth was compressed into eight weeks! That meant retailers moved quickly to add curbside pickup, mini-warehouses in stock rooms, and created more space to handle in-store returns. These changes are here to stay.” All of that time we collectively spent, alone, figuring out online grocery shopping makes us less likely to turn away from it—particularly as people see a benefit in time saved by not having to go to the store, Kalyanam says. People who were reluctant users of online shopping tools are even more likely to keep using them, as it was harder for them to make the switch and will be tough to change yet again. However, all isn’t rosy in the world of e-shopping. What happens when those pants aren’t a perfect fit is e–commerce’s most significant weak spot. “Buying online lacks the excitement and touch and feel consumers get from in-store buying, which can lead to a high rate of return,” and something stores certainly saw over the holidays, Kalyanam says. “That’s why, in some categories like apparel and soft goods, e-commerce gains may not be here to stay.” So, groceries from the couch—yes! Sweaters, maybe not so much.

Thanks to stay-at-home orders, our former officemates know more about us than ever. With computers perched on kitchen tables, they’ve peered into our living rooms, bedrooms, and parenting styles during an endless parade of video meetings. “The experience of this year will certainly shift cultural dynamics once we get back to the office,” says Jo-Ellen Pozner, assistant professor of management at the Leavey School of Business. “Hopefully, we can navigate those changes by working to ensure that we use our new knowledge of the whole person to deepen connections and increase empathy.” As workers learned more about one another, they’ve also shared the difficult experiences of 2020 and 2021, a combo that can deepen bonding. “That increased cohesion can have all sorts of positive organizational benefits, like improved team functioning and faster speed to consensus,” she says. Working from home also removes some of the trappings of hierarchy—there is no corner office, and there are less likely to be considerable differences in dress. “It is easier to see colleagues as equals, rather than subordinates or superiors,” Pozner says. In these ways, the pandemic has the potential to make workers better people to one another. If, that is, bias doesn’t creep in. “Problematically, exposing all of the details of our lives may increase rather than diminish unconscious bias,” she says. “Watching a parent try to focus on a meeting when their children keep interrupting might lead one to question—unfairly—their commitment and their competence. The introduction of bias is even more likely when those with different personal arrangements, like no children or a stay-at-home spouse, appear to carry on as if nothing had changed.” Also, there are times when it is just nice to be rather than to be a worker. When work comes home, that line becomes trickier. “Some people enjoy sharing their lives with their colleagues, but some are happier keeping aspects of their lives compartmentalized.”

Those with a spiritual practice may find that time away from their physical places of worship has deepened the faith they have, says Dennis Smolarski, S.J., math and computer science professor. “Religious faith usually has a communal dimension as well as a personal dimension,” he says. That communal dimension is expressed by gathering in worship or reaching out to those in need. The personal is found in reflection, meditation, or prayer—or during the pandemic’s early months, in baking bread as home cooks seized on the trend of making sourdough as a sort of Zen, mindfulness practice. Pandemic restrictions will have little lasting impact on the faith of some. Others, those who are the most vulnerable, may feel the absence of communal worship more profoundly, says Fr. Smolarski. “As a result, some may come to a deeper realization of how important their religious faith is to them.” Those who find their faith best nurtured in that private practice may find themselves emerging from the pandemic with deepened purpose and meaning. “Sheltering in place and the related closures have provided some with more personal time. People may have used the opportunity to reflect on the blessings they enjoy, to spend more time in prayer, and to reconnect, albeit virtually, with family and friends in new and different ways,” Smolarski says. Discovering gratitude through space, hardship, and perseverance could put things in a different light when we can gather and break bread together again.