The office as we once knew it is gone, and despite the path it took to get there, this means good things for the future of the workplace.
The amount of remote workers skyrocketed from 3.4% last February to 42% in April. Studies also found that 65% of workers who made the transition to remote working don’t want to return to the office.
It’s understandable why: no commutes, asynchronous communication, better work-life balance and increased productivity.
Unfortunately, it took a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic for companies to accept that remote working policies would not totally hinder productivity levels thanks to modern communication and collaboration tools.
So how will this new way of working impact the workplace?
For starters, the workforce will be on a level playing field as all employees navigate new technologies and resources for the first time.
“It should make it more equitable for people to get praised and promoted for the right things—that is, the results that they drive—not the wrong things, like the kinds of clothes that you wear, or the way you verbalize in a meeting, or just because you happened to get an office next to someone you can rub shoulders with,” said Darren Murph, the head of remote for GitLab.
Additionally, workers will no longer be physically tied down to a specific location. This means professionals could slowly start to leave behind expensive urban areas and seek out more affordable suburban cities.
