We live in a new jobs age. The factory based model (husband goes off to work in a factory, assured good wages and healthcare, while his wife stays home with the children) is fast passing. Manufacturing jobs still exist, but they tend to be more specialized, requiring more training. Machines perform more and more of the old labor intensive, repetitive work.

Office work also is changing. Back in the twentieth century, as office workers grew in number, they adapted to the old manufacturing model. Companies created worker bee hives in office towers. Wives and mothers stayed in newly created suburban enclaves.

Then women began returning to the more ancient model: contributing to economic activity as they had always done. As women joined the work force in increasing numbers, the job/home separation became harder to maintain. Long commutes, automobile expenses, and child care problems illustrated the shortcomings of job/home separation.

The pandemic allowed us to try new models, including “office” work done at home, often on a schedule not tied to set hours at a set time. Some loved the new arrangement; some hated it. Many probably would like a combination.

The new model is more like the ancient model. For most of recorded history, work was tied to the home. Everybody worked in one form or another. Neighborhoods offered more than mere lodging.

That is not to see this period as idealistic. It included abuse and class privilege. Those who were different sometimes were shunned and bullied.

Nevertheless, the extreme separation of work from home caused by the industrial revolution is an aberration. The pandemic has allowed us the beginning of newer, more adjustable models.