Description:
It’s already clear that the concept of “work” is among the many things that will never return to normal even after the COVID-19 pandemic fully subsides. While many employers within the information economy scrambled to formalize their work from home policies in order to adhere to social distancing measures at the outset, sectors even less familiar with remote work, such as retail, are also increasingly experimenting with online-only operations. As more organizations become accustomed to these arrangements and seek to reduce costs over the long-term, telework is likely to enjoy increased adoption across the economy. As with all large-scale societal shifts, this new arrangement will generate new classes of winners and losers. While white-collar workers will enjoy greater flexibility and freedom with their work arrangements, others may suffer. The migration of retail and other service sector operations online could hurt workers already vulnerable to economic hardship, including those with less digital skills or educational attainment. Work from home arrangements also raise questions about how employers will measure employee productivity and whether those efforts may entail harmful extensions of workplace surveillance. More work conducted over the internet also enhances the opportunity for cyberattacks and can create new privacy risks. This panel will discuss the evolution of work in the digital economy, how the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated some of these trends, and the discrete ways in which internet governance will need to evolve to keep pace with these new norms. The panel will also assess potential solutions to the equity, privacy, and security concerns raised above.
