This is the largest home working experiment ever conducted. Perhaps we didn’t expect it to arrive like this, but here it is. We are facing difficult times, and are rightly concerned for ourselves, our loved ones and our communities.
Although no one anticipated these circumstances and the rapid, whole scale changes in working practices we’ve seen in the space of a mere week or two, some companies will be better prepared to handle the crisis than others. Businesses with established remote working practices and continuity measures will find the transition easier than those without.
What’s been holding us back
Despite all the talk about the future of work, what exactly has been holding us back from embracing remote work more widely and holistically? As companies and as individuals, some of us will learn to thrive in the face of this challenge, whilst others will struggle. How will we adapt now, and how will we change when it’s time to return to the office?
One huge positive that could come out of all of this is that companies and individuals across the world will finally come to embrace a home working style. In many organisations, the culture of presenteeism persists even after flexible working arrangements are introduced. Flexible working cannot work if it is deemed lazy or ineffective. Company culture has to support it, and key members of staff must lead by example. Covid-19 leaves us no other option but to learn to trust each other.
Flexible workforce, smaller office space
A large-scale shift towards flexible working is not good news for landlords, though. Many companies will discover real benefits to having a flexible workforce, and recognise the opportunity to downsize their dwellings. Tenants will take smaller spaces in recognition of this change and encourage more home working going forward.
Of course the office will remain. The need for face to face interaction, not just via a screen but in person, will still be desired and required by many. But the shape of things to come will be different - smaller, more compact and agile.
Home working revelations, teething problems and limitations
By the time this is over, some will have embraced working from home, even gone as far as enjoyed it. Others will struggle with basics like poor IT set-up and find the whole experience frustrating. Many will grapple with the social and emotional aspects of remote work and the lack of physical face-to-face interaction, noticing an effect on their mental wellbeing. And… dare I say it, some may even miss the routine, the commute to and from work.
In working from home, something I’ve been personally doing for over 10 years, I’ve learnt a lot. But now that I’m doing it five days a week, I find myself looking at what’s on the other side of the coin. Take the days I worked in London during a typical week. What previously seemed like minor interactions and events - greeting the staff at Leon during lunchtime, or the change of scenery as the train got closer to London - were the little things that added variety to my week.
I also ask about my purpose now, as I’ve seen others do on social media. How does one ensure they are getting up in the morning to start work and self motivated to do so? Are you still in your pyjamas reading this!?
Some are dealing with practical challenges, having to work remotely for the first time from homes that are not exactly suitable or set up for remote work. I know of people who, as I type, are trying to fashion a desk out of what they can find lying around, or leaning out of their balcony in order to get any mobile phone signal.
People respond differently
When I’m working from home, I usually head to my local woods for a lunchtime bike ride. Having just returned from one of these rides, I was initially shocked and then rather pleased to see more people than usual using the woods (although not necessarily following government guidelines, which is not pleasing to witness).
It got me thinking about personality types. The greens, blues, yellows and reds. Now that we’re not ‘Surrounded by idiots’, will we be less or more productive?
Depending on the level of our extraversion or introversion, and our preferred communication and working styles, we all have different ways of responding to the same situation. Some of us will take to home working naturally and with ease, whilst others will find it challenging.
Careful not to stereotype here, but… the greens and the blues may well be embracing this moment in time, they can now build the walls around them. As for the yellows and reds out there… will they be going slowly mad trying to connect to others virtually while distancing themselves physically?
BACK TO THE OFFICE, AND BEYOND
And finally, what happens when it’s time to return to the office? What will we learn from this? What will we bring back with us? When all of this is over, the office will be a place that is both familiar and also fundamentally changed. Familiar, because we will find it as we left it. Changed, because we have, because we had to.
We will return with new attitudes, new ways of working and connecting. Will it be back to business as usual in the months to come, or will we embrace radical change? Somewhere in between? It’s up to companies to decide what to keep and what to discard. But once we do return to the office, it will be a good moment to rewrite the script. It would be foolish not to, because workplaces that don’t learn from this and adopt flexible practices will leave themselves vulnerable to another crisis.