What’s Next for Work from Home Employees After Covid-19?
If you run back time to 2019, a Friday afternoon at NYC’s Times Square during July had every reason to be avoided: Tourists gathering, traffic at its worst, and the hottest subway rush hour of the year.
Yet, here is what Time Square looks like during the first months of 2021, almost a year after the first COVID-19 cases changed the city of New York and the world:
As a major commercial, retail, and entertainment center, Times Square used to employ almost 200,000 people in its many packed flagship stores and corner offices.
But not anymore. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only affected the touristy scene that has always been so present in NYC, but it has also changed the normal office as we were used to, perhaps forever.
While NYC's downtown streets resemble those of an old far west movie town, there are some benefits to its offices not being at capacity.
Millions worldwide have realized that commuting stress is not as mandatory as it seemed to be. Within a few months of work-from-home (WFH), we’ve found ourselves in a sort of “open relationship” with the office.
Some desire it; some now hate it. Either way, it’s undeniable that a mixed approach to an office comeback would make sense, but it’s still unclear what will really happen in a few months. After all, when vaccination is widespread, and COVID-19 cases are no longer counted by the daily thousands, will managers be too comfortable at home?
Flexibility is the name of the game
Digital nomads, rejoice! Work from anywhere had already been catching on for a few years. We saw remote work surge in Google trends a long time before the pandemic had started.
But with it stretching long and WFH becoming a reality for virtually every corporate employee, we could soon find the words “flexible work” more often at our own virtual town halls than you would in startup PowerPoint decks.
But the question remains: What does becoming flexible mean for the office environment as we know?
Let me, another remote worker from before and during the pandemic, try to answer it for you.
First, let’s push aside the 9–5
One of the many benefits of Google employees in the past years (and an enviable one) was that they got to enjoy amenities one wouldn’t be able to anywhere else but in their own homes (if you could afford all of them).
Essentially, with the Google movement, tech companies started to prioritize their employee’s stay in the company offices almost as much as hotels pay for gym improvements and business center futons.
That move started the now stereotypical startup office, but overall it improved the idea of spending those eight hours in the office. Sure, many of those employees worked beyond that timeframe, but the freedom and flexibility ideas were there to be grasped.
Looking at ‘the new normal’
Today (and after the pandemic, for that matter), shouldn't work differently. Flexibility at home works as a similar push for increased productivity. What a futon can do at the office, it can do at home too, am I right?
Besides the furniture-picking power, it gives us, being able to WFH promotes the feeling of free work, all without necessarily pushing employees away from their cities.
Either way, changes are coming. After all, a 3-month pandemic pushes for little change and possibly a wireless mouse. A 12–15 month pandemic, on the other hand, asks for real change, and hopefully a standing desk and a wider monitor.
Nonetheless, for most employees, the gained commute hours and the freedom to give the same input from their kitchen table may beat the free office coffee.
“The ability to work remotely will not drive most people away from cities and offices, but it will enable many to live and work in new ways and places — while causing its fair share of disruption.” — Dror Poleg
we need a solution
Fine, we have established that flexibility is good. But are there options for flexibility?
Coworking spaces, previously seen as trivial and maybe more common in the startup world, can now turn into the future of flexible work. And talking about coworking (as much as we would like to hold it in), makes us ask the question: Is it time to look at WeWork again?
Somewhat hunted by a now-famous WeCrashed podcast and an upcoming TV show, WeWork’s image is not as glamorous as it used to be. But let’s not forget that the likes of Exec. Chairman Marcelo Claure and the people at Softbank can easily turn around a once-failing machine.
And they might have done just that. Now seeking a valuation of almost US$10 billion, WeWork will almost certainly be making its return to the spotlight soon. Plus, the timing REALLY helps it.
Here is what their Australia GM had to say about the current demand in a country that has contained the pandemic exemplarily:
“We’re finding organizations are putting more of a focus on providing a place for their people to meet, a place where they don’t have to be but want to be.” — Balder Tol.
So, now what?
Digital acceleration increased productivity, and task automation galore. These are a few of the most common terms and effects of COVID-19. For some, it was just that: A needed miracle that sped things up.
With its impact on working habits now clearer than ever, the pandemic’s effects on our working environment remain unclear but certainly everchanging. So let’s try to make it clear.
With many perspectives on WFH compiling the first google search pages, one stands out. A McKinsey survey with over 800 executives worldwide makes us think that completely remote work is not here to stay:
“Before the pandemic, remote work had struggled to establish much of a beachhead, as companies worried about its impact on productivity and corporate culture. With the advent of COVID-19, however, tens of millions of employees were sent home, armed with laptops and other digital technologies, to start work. Now, some employers intend to increase the number of their employees working remotely at least some of the time, although at far lower levels than seen during lockdowns and quarantines.” –McKinsey Global Institute
What McKinsey’s research highlights is the view of managers. Yet, now more than ever, employees are the ones who need a choice.
If companies can boast about the benefits this pandemic has brought, it seems right to also think about their employees. By letting them (at least partially) individually decide where and how they’d want to work, these organizations could see more than digital acceleration rewards.
Sure, a decision won’t be unanimous or a fit-for-all, but it would be a start to personalize a company culture that has been years in the making, even before we were rushed to WFH.
And would I really be writing a what’s next article if there weren’t predictions involved? Here are two that could become true very soon:
- Technology companies (i.e., Twitter, Google, Salesforce) will likely make physical work optional for most of their workforce. Prone to the internet and more remote functions, these companies have transitioned to WFH in a heartbeat. A division of financial companies may follow or look at other centers — see Goldman Sachs.
- Every company will look at their physical costs and try to replace them with tools or measures that will attract better-qualified employees or increase their own’s productivity. If that measure is selling their entire office space and renting WeWork spaces, we will soon find out. Either way, there is optimizing to be done in the office space.
Do you find these feasible enough within the first half of 2021?
It may not be the end of the office, but the world will see a shift in the so-called office environment dynamics. Besides, when workers have a choice, things tend to move differently.
“This conversation is no longer about if the office will be flexible, but how flexible it will be.”–Bloomberg Quicktake
