Covid’s impact on the work and future of customer-facing employees: How they have been MELDed--Marginalized, Eliminated, Liberated, and Digitized

Keywords: customer-facing employees, Covid, digitalized, marginalized, liberated, Great Resignation

Abstract: Even before Covid-19, we witnessed significant changes to how we interact in everyday life, both within and outside the global business sphere. Traditional mechanisms for buying products and services, working, learning, and even initiating and building intimate relationships have given way to electronic and virtual mechanisms. Covid-19 has undoubtedly accelerated these digitalization trends that have been taking place since before the pandemic and indeed, even employees in traditionally customer-facing jobs—like banking, hospitality, teaching—have experienced a profound transformation of their work processes due to accelerating digitalization trends. Many customer-facing workers felt “liberated” as work-from-home (WFH) became the “new normal” (Gurchiek, 2021) for them. Yet many others—especially essential workers in lower-wage “dirty work” occupations (e.g., nursing home aides, cleaners; Ashforth & Kreiner, 1999)—continued to expose themselves to the virus due to the difficulties associated with digitalizing the fundamental aspects of their work. So we ask: What is the future of customer-facing work? When (if?) Covid is “over,” how will their lives be different? Our panel of seasoned academics, practitioners, and consultants will offer multiple perspectives on the experiences of individuals and organizations affected by Covid across the US, Europe, and beyond. They will share their views on how AI and digitalization’s impact on work has already transformed (or will transform) organizations, individuals, and the fabric that binds them, and then engage all participants in envisioning the future of customer-facing work.