Omicron has had more than a mild impact on workforces

My local pharmacy in Switzerland recently sent me an email that nicely distilled the Omicron era. Your booster is cancelled, it read, because an employee “affected by COVID-19” has left us short-staffed.

So much for one option to protect myself and remain fully able to work – because someone tasked with helping me do that couldn’t, and isn’t.

Omicron, the highly-transmittable variant that quickly became a dominant strain of the coronavirus as it sent case counts soaring, can result in relatively mild symptoms. But its impact on the labour pool has been anything but.

In many parts of the world, it’s been a struggle to keep enough people on hand to administer booster shots, drive buses, or teach third-graders.

The number of respondents in a recent US Census Bureau survey not working either because of coronavirus symptoms or caring for someone with symptoms was nearly triple what it had been in the period roughly a month earlier – and 32% higher than in the period a year earlier, when the country was starting to familiarize itself with the concept of variants.

Omicron has left a similar mark elsewhere. Canadians have faced mail delays due to depleted post office staff, France has had to let infected but much-needed healthcare workers continue treating patients, and the governor of Tokyo asked businesses to draw up continuity plans for losing at least one in ten workers.

In some places, Omicron may have peaked. But workforces are still absorbing its wallop.

Stories about heroic parents (or even National Guard troops) taking over classroom instruction when teachers call in sick have somehow started to seem routine. At one point the top executive in San Francisco’s school district spoke with a reporter about teacher shortages as he filled in for a 6^th-grade science class full of students Googling him and his salary.

Nurses have also been in short supply. One Swiss canton summoned any locals who have a nursing degree but aren’t currently working to register for service immediately.

In Switzerland and elsewhere, another reaction to Omicron-induced workforce disruption has been to shorten the time people must sit idle in quarantine after a positive COVID-19 test.

That’s been criticized as reckless.

Omicron may result in mild cases for the vaccinated, but experts urge people to take it seriously. They’ve also issued warnings about its inevitable successor. “The big question is whether or not future variants will be more or less severe,” a WHO official said earlier this week.

That could mean even more dramatic worker shortages. Still, it may not get the attention of the many people who seem to be dismissive of the dangers posed by the virus. The same US Census Bureau survey results showing more people not working due to COVID-19 symptoms also indicated that steadily fewer have been opting out because they’re concerned about either getting or spreading it.

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