Employment & Work may never be the same again...
Work and just about everything that is part of the work experience is likely going to change, perhaps more so for the information worker previously known as the 'paper pushers', than it will for the folks who need to be on location to make something or or provide a service. But no one will be left out. We have been hearing about the paperless office for probably 30 or 40 years. I wish I had bought Boise Cascade stock every time someone said or wrote an article that it was right around the corner. I am still not sure it is right around the corner yet but certainly our need to work co-located with our precious paper seems to have diminished greatly. COVID has proven the work of the office will get done without the hordes of folks filling cubicles or worse, open office spaces each day. I read that TWITTER sent an email to all its employees now working from home that if they decide not to come back to the office, as in EVER, the company is ok with that and would make it work. There are other companies that have probably made similar proclamations but most had timeframes like "the rest of this year". I think maybe managers are finally learning that they really don't need to be able to walk out of their office and count noses and eyeball folks to make sure the work gets done. COVID-19 and door to door internet will bring about the digital transformation of more companies in a shorter period of time than anyone would have thought possible before hand.
For some folks getting to and from work is 20% of the daily routine. What if I have to travel to work and use public transportation, how comfortable am I going to be with that for some time to come, especially if I am older or have other health issues that make the possibility of contracting COVID all the more worrisome. Even if I have to get in a car and drive across town and loose anywhere from a half hour to an hour or more each way, how attractive is it to just get up from the breakfast table and walk down the hall to a room I have converted to my office. just got 1-2 hours a day of my life back not to mention the savings on transportation and parking. That is going to be hard to give up, and if I am forced to how long before I am looking for a job where I don't have to.
If even 20-30% of the people who work in our cities never return to the office except for the occasional all hands meetings (is it me or did those never seem to bring good news), what will that do to the value of real estate and office space in our country. Think about the trickle down that has on our cities, restaurants, stores, maintenance staff, bus and cab drivers, not to mention happy hour :-(.
On the other side of the work coin, if I am an employer the world is now open to me to recruit new employees without the worries of relocation. Might we actually see job postings that state "must be able to work from home" because the office downtown is no longer there? Security clearances aside, off-shoring has a whole new meaning now and do foreign nationals still need a green card to work with a team located in... well, just where are they located actually, wherever their TEAMS or ZOOM server is?
How will this new normal transform business going forward? I only spent a a little time thinking about this, the possible 'what ifs' could be endless. I tell you COVID-19 has the possibility to change everything.
