The "here-and-now" effect in workers’ professional attitudes in the post-pandemic period

Abstract

The article describes approaches to understanding the essence of the professional development of workers in the post-pandemic period. The behavioral practices of personnel in the conditions of labor market uncertainty are described within the framework of the human potential model. The actors of life fulfillment and predictors of life satisfaction of employees are empirically studied. The aim of this study is to identify subjective indicators of the quality of life of working urban residents in the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic, as well as to determine their predictors. The general empirical hypothesis is an assumption that, in a situation of a sharp change in lifestyle in general and the characteristics of work activity in particular, in a situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be a decrease in the level of life satisfaction, which is predicted by the structure of temporal orientations and the degree of satisfaction of basic psychological needs. As methods of empirical research, we used the Satisfaction With Life Scale (E. Diener; adapted by D.A. Leontiev and E.N. Osina), the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction at Work Scale (E. Deci and R. Ryan, adapted by E.N. Osin et al.), semantic differential for the subjective assessment of the level of anxiety. The study was conducted using an online survey in May– September 2022. A total of 469 respondents (the average age is 34.53 years; 73% are women; selected via a random sampling method) were interviewed. The attitudes of the personnel to their own past, present and future were determined, taking into account the level of satisfaction of basic psychological needs. As a result of the regression analysis, the authors found that the predictors of life satisfaction are the basic psychological needs of autonomy and connectedness, as well as temporary attitudes towards the past, present and future. At the same time, the attitude towards the present has the greatest significance (0.54), and the attitude towards one’s own future has a negative coefficient (-0.17). The authors identified and described the “here-and-now” effect as a principle of professional activity. They empirically substantiated the transition from the model of achieving success in a career to the model of life fulfillment, when the principle of harmonious complementarity of all aspects of life becomes the main one. This means the flexibility of professional trajectories, focus on the short term and “here-and-now” achievements, on the interests of the micro-society when modern employees make vital decisions.