The role of the office in an organization has become an unexpected highly disputed topic of discussion over the past several months. While some business leaders are proclaiming that the office is dead, others are eager to bring their employees back into the workplace.
Even major technology companies, such as Twitter and Facebook, have announced their dedication to adopting remote and flexible work policies for the foreseeable future. On the other hand, Netflix founder Reed Hastings said that working from home is “a pure negative.”
While the initial move to remote working was out of pure necessity due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, it has revealed deep cracks in the purpose of office spaces, such as poor technology infrastructure.
Now, it is clear that several workers can get their work done from virtually anywhere as long as they are equipped with the proper tools and resources.
Prior to the pandemic, only 3% of US workers worked from home. Now, collaborative tools Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet and Cisco Webex have reported over 300 million users.
But will this change remain once a vaccine is available to the public? While the answer is unclear, it is more likely that companies will adopt both in-office and at-home work arrangements. That means employees will have the option to work from home when they want and come into the office only when they need to.
