What current remote work trends will NOT exist post COVID?

Question

Everyone seems to have views about what remote work trends will exist post COVID. Let's take a contrarian view here 😜

What trends do you think will not exist or will see a drop post COVID?

Anyfactor · Accepted Answer

Stonks really.

EV stocks and tech stocks are showing what is virtually an "antifragile" behaviour but I would say this is the opposite of that. Tech and EV stocks are negatively correlated to the overall sentiment of the stock market.

Dhruv Bhatia · Answer

@richardesigns @exopaul @dhruv_bhatia great point, I've been thinking about that also. Humans are social animals and there's only so much distancing we can tolerate. The short-term trends are easier to point out here but the long term trend is the one I'm truly interested in. If we define what's currently happening as the trend of "distancing" and what happened prior to COVID as "normal" will the long-term situation be somewhere in the middle or skewed in a certain direction? In which direction and by how much?

Paul Woodthorpe · Answer

@richardesigns I think Zoom will continue to be honest.In some instances it may reduce so that its a mix of remote work and maybe 1 day in the office a week for face-to-face training or meetings, but generally I am seeing a lot of workplaces realising the money they are spending on empty buildings the last 9 months, and how the work productivity is as high as it ever was. In fact, some are reporting that the absence of office distractions has increased the productivity and made office blocks irrelevant. 
You only have to look at Twitter for example, and see they have decided to make all their work positions remote forever. As more companies see the cost savings on having small headquarters and remote workers, as opposed to huge developments full of workers, while also reducing the need for Health & Safety requirements in the workplace, reducing cleaning contracts, reducing stationary, lighting, heating, air conditioning, taxes on property, etc. It is a no brainer that any future remote work/zoom work post-pandemic will be in the hands of the companies who need to cut large costs to boost profits, and COVID has forced them to trial a risky venture of remote workers and have discovered that while not always perfect, it is extremely workable, and as such will only get better the more tech companies throw money at making it even more workable and practical.

Dragos Bulugean · Answer

Let's hope post-COVID happens sooner rather than later. I think people will be so eager to go out and be in different places that work from home will not exist for a while. You will see a bunch of remote workers sitting in line at Starbucks at 8 AM to get the best spot

Paul Woodthorpe · Answer

@richardesigns @exopaul @dhruv_bhatia That is a good thought about shared offices. They could almost work in the same way that a Hotel works, in that rooms and facilities could be booked by the day. It might offset a lot of the expenses of the building if several companies split the costs and could make use of them at their own times of need rather than full time. Just book time slots when you need the boardroom for presentations, interviews or meetings with customers, or a training room for staff training days, and have one reception desk for multiple companies that can answer general "at the door" enquiries or accept deliveries.

Dhruv Bhatia · Answer

@richardesigns true...video calls are exhausting. Wonder if people would choose to commute to an office over working remotely for the long term though. A hybrid approach seems to be a possible outcome in the long term.

Richard Shepherd · Answer

Rapid vaccination production / zoom calls.  In the same way holidays abroad will be in in huge demand once they're safe to take, your colleagues will be begging to return to the office to work face to face.  Video calls are a poor substitute for the human interaction we actually need.

Abe Winter · Answer

there was a moment at the beginning of lockdown when you could get a virtual meeting with almost anyone because nobody was moving forward on deals and people's schedules were open

the 'returnee' workplace could be the opposite of that -- people will have rigid calendars and will be hard to sit down with

it will be especially hard for hybrid workers = people who are the 'remote half' of a returnee office

Dhruv Bhatia · Answer

@abewinter so too many meetings caused due to remote work which will make it hard to book meetings? Will critical org functions like Sales stay somewhat remote too?

Richard Shepherd · Answer

@richardesigns @exopaul @dhruv_bhatia ok here is a theory.  1 day on, 4 days off.  That is to say, 1 day in person to get all the meetings done and 4 days head down, delivering takes you to the end of the week.

Probably suited to jobs where work needs to get delivered against a brief.  This is my experience so couldn't theorise on other office roles such as support where I imagine synchronous communication is more relevant more of the time.

If you had a shared office between five companies, they could each have a day each!

Dhruv Bhatia · Answer

@dragos_bulugean LOL. That would be interesting.

Abe Winter · Answer

@abewinter @dhruv_bhatia anecdotally, the sales-focused people I talk to *love* remote work. They're psyched to travel again and see clients but they see zero reason to be in the office every day. They love video because it allows them to talk to more people more cheaply, but also recognize what alex danco calls 'positional scarcity' i.e. you can get more attention by being physically present. Sales will have a hybrid of remote meetings + client-site meeting, but won't be in a rush to return to their own office.

Richard Shepherd · Answer

@richardesigns @exopaul @dhruv_bhatia   - this is all genuinely fascinating. You're completely right I think about there being a hybrid situation.

Just for fun, let's take the argument to the extreme.  Heck, why bother with a home to live in at all?  Why not a modestly sized box in which every person lives with access to a virtual headset.  Processing power will be such that we can render your perfect home and bring all your friends to you and you to them.  Think of the savings!

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been on the radio this morning talking about the UK's economy shrinking more this year than it has in over 300 years. Something like 11%.

We are privilidged to have good jobs in software and we are able to work from home.  So sure, let's save a bomb on the office.  Who needs cleaners anyway?  Makes good sense but are we not creating a lopsided economy?

All those people that work in sandwich shops and, indeed, as cleaners.  They can't just go get a fancy job using their home office.  Well, not overnight anyway.  What will Twitter do with all these savings I wonder?  Give all it's devs a payrise maybe.

The original question was about trends.  I think you're completely right about the trend, it will surely go the way you describe.

I suppose the next question is, how do people get meaningful face to face interactions with their colleagues over time?  (i'm on the opinion that whether we need them or not is not in question, we definitely do)

Again, we're ok because we have a legacy of in-person working to lean back on and feed off of.  For a new-comer to the world of work, imagine going to university on zoom and then spending the next 20 years working on zoom.

Is it important that we have good social skills for, dare I say it 'the real world'.  Is a bright future one in which we never see each other in person?

So, in terms of a trend I wonder about is whether the 'away day' will blossom in popularity?  Is there an opportunity for people with empty offices to create experiences that employees can gather to have to get real on creative processes or to thrash out problem solving exercises or maybe just to do team building.

I'm thinking ball pits, slides, bean bags, walls made of chalk boards - the works.

What current remote work trends will NOT exist post COVID?

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