We’re starting to see the light at the end of the Covid-19 pandemic tunnel and looking forward to going back to life as we knew it. Or are we? Some of the changes we have gotten used to during this time will probably stay with us and change how we live and work. Here are five positive changes in the workplace to look forward to in a post-Covid world.
We are hybrid
Sure, we knew that much work could be done remotely. But the pandemic made us prove it, and now we know for sure: It is possible, and many of us like it. We enjoyed going to meetings without wearing pants, working from bed, grabbing snacks from our fridge, and blasting heavy metal in our home office without headphones. However, we miss our colleagues and the small talk around the coffee machine.
And when offices and other workplaces open again, we may wait to return to our old desks. The famous digital nomad did not need a tropical island or cabin in the woods to do their thing. Any couch or park worked. And soon, every coffee shop or library will too.
We are efficient
These two years of restrictions, social distancing, and a limited number of visitors to shops and restaurants have perhaps not been that fun – but actually, it has taught us a lot. Businesses worldwide have developed new ways of solving the logistical problems of meetings, services, and visits to everything from libraries to supermarkets. It applies not only to companies and organizations but also to people. We have had to plan our everyday lives based on restrictions and limitations. When you are encouraged to work from home, avoid public transport and not visit the grocery store when you are used to it, you have to think anew.
When life gets back to normal, this new normal will probably be a little more clever and neater than it used to be
We save the environment
These past two years have shown that lots of travelling and thus lots of CO2 emissions wasn’t as necessary as we thought. Many professionals worldwide may stick to working from home, and everyday commuting might decrease as we have gotten used to remote meetings and video conferences. Business trips could have been virtual instead of physical, significant steps to minimizing climate gas emissions.
We are flexible
The possibility to work from home can save time that otherwise would be lost to commuting, make it easier to combine work with family life or allow you to live wherever you like regardless of where your office location is. It’s not for everybody. Some people prefer having a place to go, see their colleagues, and adequately separate their job from their personal life. Hopefully, as many as possible will get it the way they want, which may change the design of tomorrow’s workplaces; if an increasing proportion of employees choose to work remotely, employers can start looking for smaller office space.
It will take some effort to make this work, but if done correctly, there is an excellent opportunity to make working life accessible and better adapted to individual needs.
We are digital
In general, a lot of work and large parts of our lives were digital long before the pandemic. But this new situation did not only cause an explosion of online meetings – but it also gave a flying start to lots of other kinds of software services, definitely moving a large chunk of work as we know it into the cloud: Creative work and all sorts of coworking, administration, economy, human resources, planning, scheduling. Just because we adapted quickly to working like this does not mean we will keep doing exactly like this after the pandemic, but things will not go back to what they were before.
As new and clever solutions and applications keep developing, businesses will find ways of combining these new tools to solve problems and find ways to evolve.
