COVID brings uneven changes to Silicon Valley workplaces

Stanford nurses make calls for a fair contract during a rally in March 2022. Courtesy Nancy Fitzgerald/Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement.

When COVID-19 jolted Silicon Valley's famously disruptive work culture in March 2020, the shakeup was swift, dramatic and grossly uneven.

While tech workers bunkered down in their apartments for Zoom meetings, the benefits of remote work were not available to most of their counterpart in the "essential" categories.

Consider child care. In the early days of the pandemic, executives and board members at nonprofit Palo Alto Community Child Care scrambled to figure out how to safely and effectively provide child care services to the hundreds of families who depend on their services. The nonprofit employs about 100 care providers at 15 sites throughout the city and serves children who range in age from infancy to fifth grade.

"We've had to pivot so many times that it's hard for me to think of what we were before and what we are now," said Melissa Roth, the nonprofit's senior program coordinator.

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