What current remote work trends will NOT exist post COVID?
Dhruv Bhatia
13 replies
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?
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![Richard Shepherd](https://ph-avatars.imgix.net/2187077/12f1298c-9b0e-47b5-8ff9-7e5e4e9b3dce.jpeg?auto=compress&codec=mozjpeg&cs=strip&auto=format&w=36&h=36&fit=crop)
Richard Shepherd@richardesigns
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.
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@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?
@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.
@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!
@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.
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
@dragos_bulugean LOL. That would be interesting.
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.
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
@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?
@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.