Practically overnight the vast majority of office workers became remote workers when social distancing measures put in place in March to slow the spread of the Covid-19 virus dramatically changed the way we go about our days. If that was you, over the last several months you have had a taste of the long-touted benefits of remote work—no commute (a savings of nearly an hour a day for the average American plus the cost of commuting) and flexibility. You may also be wrestling with the challenges of blurred lines between company time and personal time, and how to effectively collaborate with colleagues who are no longer down the hall.
Early on, these office-turned-remote workers may have put in longer hours and worked hard to show they were being productive in the changing environment. It’s temporary, they may have told themselves. If layoffs might be coming, I need to prove myself now. Leaders who may have previously resisted extending the option of remote work to employees out of a concern that it will negatively impact productivity were relieved to see the opposite. Maybe having a largely remote workforce is not so bad… Running at that pace, though, is not sustainable and can lead to burnout.
Even as restrictions begin to ease and it becomes possible to return to the office, we are seeing more organizations announce that working from outside a shared workplace will continue. The open question is whether this change will pay off for individuals and for organizations. What do we need to watch out for to preserve the health and viability of all parties?
Productivity is clearly a concern. Related to that is collaboration and innovation. A shared physical workplace allows for opportunities to gather around a whiteboard or someone’ ..
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