Excerpt from Business Insider

Suzy Leanos worked hard through the pandemic in her digital-marketing job, and by March of this year she was burned out. She quit without anything lined up.

A self-described "microinfluencer," Leanos earns some income with influencer work, and she wrote an article for AdWeek on burning out.

She recently told Insider that she wants something more from her next job: flexibility.

In the past month, she applied for two jobs. She began interviewing for a position that said it was close to her house.

Then came the reveal: It would actually be a commute of more than an hour (she might have been able to work out of the office's closer location once a week). After the call, she let the company know she wasn't interested.

"It made me feel empowered as an employee looking for a job or as a person looking for a job, that there are options out there," Leanos said. "Especially through the COVID situation, the lockdown we went through, we know employers can be flexible."

She added: "People are reevaluating their time, like how they spend their time, how they work, because we have options and choices. And we know it can be done, because we just did it."

As workers tentatively peek out from the pandemic, they're bringing a whole new work experience with them, from an abrupt lay-off, a newfound love of work from home, or an unexpected revelation about where they want to live. Just as the pandemic led to the rise of the homebody economy, it's reshaping how people work and socialize.

The desire for flexibility at work is spilling over into every other aspect of the economy, from where people live to what they do with their free time to how they dress. The need for it is underscored by each uncertain twist of the pandemic, including the Delta variant.

The roaring '20s are the beginning of the next chapter for work and the economy. Welcome to the hi-flex economy, where flexibility for what workers want is the name of the game.

The 2020s: An era of flexibility

The big question that remains is will the shift to flexibility be temporary or permanent? With variants of the virus still circulating, it's hard to predict what the economy will look like in a truly post-pandemic world.

"How much is it just in response to the pandemic, and how much of this will be here to stay?" Sinclair, the Indeed economist, said. "You can imagine that some of it is temporary, but I think a lot of it is just bringing it forward."

In particular, the highly contagious Delta variant, which now makes up the majority of US Covid cases, adds an extra layer of unpredictability. While it's too soon to say what its effects will be, it could make demands for flexibility greater than ever, since the continued uncertainty of the pandemic requires it. The CDC even said in internal documents — reported on by The Washington Post — that "the war has changed" when it comes to the Delta variant.

Of course, the economy won't solely be shaped by flexibility. The next chapter of the economy, Sinclair said, all comes down to whether we can make it more productive going forward.

Sinclair said the next decade of the economy will also be influenced by how America ends up paying for the government stimulus during the pandemic, as well as what happens with high inflation that may be temporary or more permanent.

Considering that working from home has boosted worker productivity, greater flexibility should be part of the answer. The pandemic has ultimately shifted Americans' mindset on how they want to live, work, and play: all things that will reshape the economy.

Leanos, a mother, points out that kids have shifted to doing everything online; even school, children's number one in-person obligation, was forced to go remote. The next generation of workers might accept a flexible environment as a norm, not an anomaly.

In 10 years, she said, workers are going to be wherever they want to be.

"Everyone's just going to carry their phone and their laptop everywhere, and do a little work here, take a break, do a little work there, take a break," she said. "It's going to be high-tech and remote and can be done anywhere."

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