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Notwithstanding the scale, volume, and intensity of the COVID-19 global crisis, several work activities will attempt to return to the way they were – perhaps for a time. However, permanent transformations will exist and will forever modify how we think and behave at work.
Workplace. Your company office will not feel and look the same. As most workplace transformations, it won’t be a complete makeover, but the changes are visible. When employees go back to work, there will be social distancing and temperature checks implemented, which will possibly persist until the end of the year or more, depending on how this crisis will go. Once vaccines and treatments are discovered, things will be a little more relaxed. Productivity and community interaction will be emphasized.
On the other hand, conference rooms will be designed to be bigger and more social. The distance from the seats will be visibly much further apart to keep the guidelines at bay while trying to achieve work goals in the midst of the pandemic.
Flexibility In Working Conditions. A month after the coronavirus hit, people were able to figure out some strategies on how to continue earning without leaving their homes. Soon after this crisis ends, working from home will persist among professionals, pushing companies to be more versatile in their working conditions. As people have had realizations that they can be productive at home, it will somehow be difficult for companies to take away the skills that these people have learned while they were in quarantine. Encouraging people to work from home has proven to be profitable for everyone concerned.
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We will not see an extensive shift to remote work, but there will be more flexibility, where people have more liberty to choose office work or work from home. It appears from surveys that some professionals do miss going out and commuting to their workplace.
Work-equipped Homes. For months, professionals found that working from home became challenging first because of self-seclusion but also because their homes were not equipped with things needed for them to work efficiently. A workspace was necessary for the Zoom meetings and personal video chats with their teammates, among others. These things were among the reasons for reduced productivity.
Internet performance was also another challenge for professionals working at home. Weak Internet affected 35% of people working remotely at some point during the COVID-19 crisis, and some would be forced to use their mobile hotspot to be able to continue working. As the Internet will improve, so will work productivity. Home offices will become an important issue that will be given priority.
Professional Attire Has Gone Obsolete. We have gotten comfortable with our dress downs, tank tops, and even boxers. You may have been used to dressing up for work before the pandemic, and even if you’ve tried dressing up while you were quarantined just because it would have been weird if you chose to wear heels or a suit. Perhaps the new normal would include a ‘dress yourself’ day, where you won’t be having formal meetings with consultants and clients. Even before, people who worked in call and tech companies wore shorts, shirts, and flip-flops.
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Digital Learning. Learning has always been vital to all families and communities, and many organizations have realized that offering the right skills is essential for improvement and modernization. A lot of corporate learning programs were about interpersonal workshops and conferences. After the pandemic, digital learning will play a significant role in ongoing learning. The interpersonal workshops will persist, but they’ll only be necessary for specific functions for specific groups of individuals within the business. Companies will exert their efforts in advancing their e-learning programs to make sure that their employees are staying ahead of the rest of the world.
As executives and employees have been accustomed to seeing each other in their normal environments, the boundary that divides their work from their personal lives has disappeared. Paradoxically, modern technology has paved the way to make this possible. This new normal in the corporate world has encouraged us to value our natural and non-automatic humanity now more than ever.