In the short term, many people are still deeply anxious about the health implications of going back to certain types of work. This extends to low-wage workers, who say their concerns about their mental and physical health are nearly as high as their concerns about covering monthly expenses.

It seems to be as hard to predict the future today as it has been since the start of the pandemic. Still, there are three points that every executive should be considering now, as they think about recruiting and retaining employees:

Companies and leaders must soon realize that when people want more autonomy to live a multistage life, the organizational variable they most treasure is flexibility— flexibility about both where they work and when they work, flexibility to take time off to explore, flexibility to launch a small company or work for a not-for-profit.

By bad jobs are the jobs with long hours, low pay, no training, tough bosses, and poor prospects. When unemployment is high, many people have to take such jobs.

But as the labor market tightens, people pay more attention to their ideas about what could be, alternative ways of working, and better jobs they could seek out.

Right now, there is a huge swell of experimentation going on.

Companies are designing talent practices that, for example, enable people to work from anywhere three months a year, or to seldom come into the office, or to bundle their working hours into just three days or string them out over seven.