One of the biggest transformations to our lives as a result of the pandemic has been the wide scale adoption of remote working. While in the past remote working might have been something you would have to get a line manager’s permission for and seldom got, it’s now a daily reality for many. Whole offices emptied and switched to remote working practices and this is now transforming the way we work and interact with each other, mainly for the better.
Gone are the long commutes from home to work and back again, poor quality sandwiches eaten at desks, the days spent waiting until the clock to mark the end of the working day. Millions were given time back, which they could use how they wanted. Remote working has also let people work from wherever they want. Although lockdown might have meant we have not all been able to fly out to tropical beaches and set our laptops up.
It’s not like people are just at home doing their own job; they do so with others. All this works, as long as people collaborate and cooperate remotely. That often depends upon prior social connections that allow for adaptation and integration of common projects in remote settings.
Professor Gordon Clark, Professorial Fellow at Oxford University.
The pandemic has let millions of workers experience remote working, many for the first time, and after this taste of flexible working, will things ever go back to the way they were after the pandemic has ended? It feels like the genie is out of the bottle when it comes to remote working. Younes added: “There is a sense of hope, and optimism that attitudes are changing. We do not know, if they have changed in a way that will stick, we are still in the pandemic.” Both employers and workers will be adapting to new ways of working when the pandemic is over and wellbeing is going to be more important than ever.
One thing we will never forget about remote working in our homes during the pandemic is just how much we appreciate those everyday contacts with other people. If we all keep that in mind when we return to our workplaces, we could be in for a significantly brighter future.
