It’s been a while since I posted, almost 5 months! It’s been a busy first half, even though I remained working from home. Like many of you, my office sent us home last year in mid-March. Over this past year a number of offices have re-opened. My office re-opened within three months. But I was lucky, I had a Doctor’s note to work from home due to a medical condition. But now that I’ve got the vaccine and am protected, it’s back to the office on Monday.

• I won’t get as much work done for all the interruptions. We work in an open “collaborative” environment. I’m all for collaboration. But too often, collaboration is an excuse for “I don’t want to figure it out on my own. It’s easier to interrupt you for the answer.” Working from home, I can honor my focus time and monitor if the issue is really priority to address.
• I don’t need to wear a noise cancelling headset all day to block out the noise of conversations and music. It’s like working in a bar and one that does not play music I like!
• My office does not follow CDC guidlines. CDC states even after being vaccinated that we should wear a mask and socially distance in public places. The office is a public place. They do not wear masks at their desks and the desks are at maximum 6 feet apart.

Remote or not remote

There is always an opposite side of the story. Leadership would say “we are all in sales” and we need a full office when we have tours come through to see the product. Team mates may say it is easier to simply walk up and have a conversation, talk face-to-face, instead of planning the conversation for a video conference. They want it to be like it was before Covid.

But not every one. As people were told they had to come back in, we lost at close to 50% of our workforce to remote positions. Think about it — 50% in less than an year! Everyone got a remote position. You might be asking, why I didn’t simply get a remote position? Easy, I’m in my 60’s. I’m too young to retire and too old to get a new job. No one wants to hire someone in their 60s.

We should not go back to pre-Covid lifestyle

What my office wants to do is go back to the pre-Covid lifestyle. However, we should not do that! We learned some very valuable lessons with the lock down. Going back to pre-Covid is only asking for the same trouble and issues.

According to an article publised November 2020 in Science Direct, we saw reduction of sewage and industrial waste poluting the rivers resulting in improved quality of drinking water. There was a reduction of polutants in the air reducing health issues such as respiratory, hypertension, and cognitive issues. Noise polituion levels decreased. Noise polution contributes to stress, irritation, and mental disorders. Wildlife took notice and came out of hiding.

In many ways the lockdown had positive affects. However, there is always two sides to every coin. Not all people faired as well as I did during the lockdown, such as those who live in poor socio-economic conditions, the homeless, migrant workers, patients with existing mental health disorders. Job loss, unemployment, and financial crisis increased stress and to some extent affected crime rates.

I bring up the negative side effects of the lockdown as a reason why we should not go back to pre-Covid lifestyle for a reason. The lockdown emphasized areas in our culture that were hidden by our pre-Covid lifestyle. It was not the lockdown that created these problems. But the lockdown showed us how poorly we have been managing these aspects of our society. I’ll post more on this topic later. Side note — I started a lot of posts and did not complete them because I did not want to post on controversial subjects. I’ll be changing that policy with my blog.

Post Covid Work Life

Instead of going backwards, we need to learn the lessons from the lockdown and change to a post-Covid improved society. As mentioned above, not everyone had it easy with Covid lockdown and I don’t want to dismiss those who lost their jobs and are still on unemployment. There is no doubt the lockdown caused financial hardships.

Benefits of work from home include reduced polution, increased work life balance, reduced stress and increased productivity. Office space can be smaller and more spread out to make a healthier environment for the people in the office.

The picture above shows the type of office environment that I’ve been working in for the past decade. It is promoted as a collaborative environment. Let me tell you the truth — it is not collaborative nor is it healthy.

In this environment, workers are packed together like sardines in a can. We bump into each other, can not have a private conversation or take a phone call at our desk. Everyone knows everything about you in the office. One person gets sick, they all get sick. To actually collaborate with a co-worker, you have to leave the office bull pen to have a conversation.

The collaborative bull pen set up needs to become the design of the past. It is unhealthy both mentally and physically. Leadership who looks out over their bull pens and see them empty are the ones who are having a hard time letting people work from home. That leadership style needs to become the style of the past — much like the sweat shops of the 19th century at the beginning of the industrial revolution.

From an employers perspective there are benefits to work from home also:

1. Lowering the number of people in the office means you do not need to rent large office space or purchase a lot of office furniture.
2. Smaller office space means lower utility bills. Lower expenses mean increased profits.
3. Employees are more open to a flexible schedule, starting earlier in the day and working later in the day. Instead of punching a time clock, they are empowered to produce and get the job done when it works best for them.
4. Happier employees equates to less turn over. Providing employees with the environment that works best for them gets you the productivity to encrease profits.

Many employers have already learned this lesson. There are a lot more remote positions available. It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee — unless the job can’t be done remotely and requires face-to-face, remote is becoming the new post-covid work life.

Articles Referenced

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S004896972034095X

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972034095X