“Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?”
Everyone right now is wondering what the “new normal” will be. Will we be back exactly to what we were just before Covid hit us? I’m not sure about you but I hope not.
I think we should all take some introspective and reflect on the good things we’ve learned in the past 1 year ish. So this is my take on the things that are likely to change as well as what I believe it should change.
Increased flexibility
I’m yet to meet people that are working less hours from home, even with the kid madness and all the homeschooling. I know a lot of people who disliked the work from home with all their heart and it was purely based on a lack of trust. They believe that if you don’t see your team, they won’t communicate effictively or will be lazy. As I’ve written here many times, if that’s the case maybe you should access if you have the right team. If people are given flexibility on how they are to meet their goal (more hours, less hours, from the beach, from the office) they end up giving way more back. I think for a lot of people who had never been allowed their teams to work from home they’ve seen it’s not only possible but they are also getting more (as a balance) out of it.
Yes we miss the interaction with our colleagues and the 5 minutes discussions over the coffee machine that would avoid a meeting. There was also the buzz of having a clear separation between office life and home life.
So I do believe most of us will want some balanced returned to the offices 2 to 3 days from home for example. Let’s face it, do we really think we can return 5 days a week after more than 1 year without falling asleep at the desk? Not to mention we might not fit in the clothing we had and we can’t just buy everything in one go!
The bloom of local shops
The city right now it’s deserted, people are working from home therefore shopping and staying local. Even when returning back to the office, the new form “friendships” will not just go away. I do believe people will keep on coming back.
Downsizing spaces
If people are not working 5 days in the office, then companies can rethink their office spaces and try to reduce them and operate in an open desk policy. This has already been the practice in big consultancy firms given employees are mainly working away from the main office anyway. That can be a huge cost saving! The challenge will be to ensure people are rotating and not everyone tries to be there tuesday to thursday and nobody Mondays & Fridays.
Coworking
Again, with both of the points above, I do believe the “new office” will be focusing around collaboration more like those startup coworking spaces to foster collaboration among people as going to the office will need to provide a different experience as working from home. If you need to be by your desk doing phone calls or doing a piece by yourself you could well just work from home.
The bloom of the dress for your day (and maybe some fancy coffee machines)
My company had actually started this 1 year before the pandemic and I was in love. For some reason there is this feeling that everyone needs to work in a suit even if we don’t interact with clients and are just working with our internal teams. I’m a firm believes that the level of formality in dressing also cascades down to the way we communicate. Given people have been working from home comfortably (and some of those like myself on Pjs) I would really see this becoming the practice and operating more like those fancy startups where it’s no sin to go in jeans. Ok I’m not saying shorts and flip flops, let’s keep the levels professional, but something more casual for sure. Speaking of startups I once visited the digital offices that had this gorgeous and amazing coffee machine…. I would love to see this becoming a trend as well, especially a lot of us have been either baking bread at home or becoming our own baristas, so surely that coffee that looks like shampoo from the office machines won’t cut it anymore.
And my final point will be (des)centralization
I mean for years there was always talk that all the companies were concentrated in the city centers. With more flexibility of where people can work from, I would love to see small company campus being form outside of big cities and allowing smaller communities to bloom. The community spirit will be more important than ever and I just can’t phantom us taking the long commutes and the “no eye contact” with a light heart anymore.
What do you believe new normal will be?
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