What is the future of work after coronavirus?

Have you just finished the first day at home with the kids? If you answered yes, then you are either now drinking heavily or contemplating drinking heavily! But when the world returns to normal lets ask “What is the future of work after coronavirus?”

Keeping the kids entertained while I worked has been one of my greatest challenges.

I am one of the “lucky” ones. For the past twenty years I have worked remotely. I have never needed to be in an office and wherever possible I steer clear of one.

The team and I meet on client site every week. We meet for lunch every fortnight. Everything else is done remotely. Client meetings, project meetings, sales meetings, training and even chasing invoices is done remotely.

I could never consider going back to an office environment.

Is it easy to work from home?

No. There are many distractions. Disney+ launched this week which is another distraction on top of Netflix, Prime and a host of other digital distractions. Then there is YouTube. Whether you like pimple popping, cute cats or conspiracy theory videos, you can lose half a day on YouTube if you are not careful.

Imagine you can tame your demons and stay focussed through the day, are there any benefits to working from home?

The benefits of working from home.

There are few work distractions compared to being in an office. No-one nudging you with salacious gossip. No-one asking you to jump into an ad hoc meeting. No-one asking if you have 5 minutes only to still be rattling on an hour later.

There is no daily commute giving you at least two hours a day back. You can also eat properly. You may even be able to get an hour in the gym.

Employers don’t see the benefits

Employers too should see these benefits. The immediate financial benefit is they can decrease their total office footprint by almost two thirds. Property is one of the largest costs on the balance sheet so this should be a no brainer.

Productivity gains should be apparent after the first three months. When employees are coping with distractions, they will find a routine that delivers more output in 4 hours than they will accomplish during 7 hours at work.

Finally, employee’s health should improve. More sleep, better diet, even some exercise resulting in less sick days.

So, for everyone this should be a win win.