“Normal” has become almost as strong a buzzword in the past 11 months as “quarantine.”
But here’s the thing - what does “normal” even mean anymore? And what does the post pandemic world really look like, especially for America’s working adults? A return to brick and mortar offices? The downfall of Zoom? Do I need to start wearing pants again?
As vaccine rollout increases and the light at the end of the long tunnel gets a little brighter; new buzzwords are being introduced - phrases like “hybrid work” “distributed” “remote friendly” and “remote first.”
It’s not that these ideas are necessarily novel - just take a look at large scale tech pre-pandemic – but never was it proven on such a large scale until the fabled 2020. This is perhaps the biggest lesson that employers and employees have learned over the past year: you don’t need to be in an office to get stuff done – nor do we [necessarily] need to abide by the traditions of Monday thru Friday 9-5. Jon Sadow, Co-Founder of TakeScoop and ex-Google Project Manager, writes a newsletter about hybrid work in which he describes this idea:
“As organizations begin to develop their long-term plans for evolved business model post-Covid, variations of hybrid/remote work have surfaced. Different approaches were mapped out and although each has its own distinctions and implications to geographic distribution and talent acquisition, one thing is definite: the 5-day work week is now history.
Done. Gone. Sayonara.”
With large scale companies like Spotify, Salesforce, and Robinhood transitioning to hybrid work and new locations, the opportunity for hiring outside of a company’s traditional talent pool is boundless. But many are still treading cautiously.
Sadow continues in asserting that, despite the change in work practices, “companies continue to tread cautiously around topics on hybrid work policies and expectations. Two sides emerge: Exec team/CEOs have apprehensions regarding productivity and the employees who still want to collaborate in the office but not on a 5-day workweek. In the midst of this is the HR leader bending more towards the employees, and the underlying notion that employee trust is the bedrock of a successful hybrid workforce.”
Years of visibility and in-person collaboration have set the precedent for the importance of physical offices. According to a PwC survey conducted this January, employers see the number one purpose of brick and mortar offices to be employee productivity. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the same survey revealed that employees see the number one purpose of an office to be collaboration – something that has been quickly replaced with the surge of Slack, Zoom, and other virtual teamwork tools. As we start to close in on a complete calendar year of remote work, more and more businesses are starting to see the benefits of remote work as opposed to the downfalls. Salesforce, San Francisco’s largest private employer, recently shifted to a hybrid work plan. This equated to a drastic 17.8% rise in office vacancy in the city.
Whether adjusting to remote work or simply trying to find a better semblance of structure in one’s day to day, it’s abundantly clear that the pandemic has created a paradigm shift in the future of work. The way it “was” will likely never be the way it “is” – but maybe that’s ok. A survey by Prosper Insights and Analytics found that 60% of adults would like to continue working remotely after the pandemic is over, in large part due to a better work life balance.
I once had a manager tell me that “it doesn’t matter where or when, just get your shit done well and on time.” I appreciated his forward-thinking mindset in this sense immensely.
Presently, this is our reality. And while “normal” might mean “different,” it certainly doesn’t mean bad.
