The Next Workspace May Not Be Remote After All
Talks about how COVID-19 has changed the workspace forever have been with us for almost two years, and for few of us the acceptance that remote work will be way of the future is not something far off — we have a friend or a family member who has been working at home.
In all fairness, who does not like the idea of working for home and having to control your own space in your own pace without worrying about a supervisor right next to you to potentially yell at you; or criticize the task. But then again, there appear to be something that I overhead this past Wednesday, that people working from home may be into a ‘Cave Syndrome’ — As big a word that it sounds, I inquired at the colleague explaining to us if we knew it at all. She elaborated,
“Well, you have people that have been working at home for so long now that nobody want to go out and work in the office anymore — people are more comfortable working at home and they prefer to be at home too — You know a cave person liking the cave?!”
The interesting thing about all this is that, as much as I like the idea of work from home but it is worth knowing that the concept is not new. Most CEOs, Companies’ Presidents, and entrepreneurs that work in the IT industries have had home offices. But then there is something called the labor force. COVID-19 has devasted jobs in all industries, and one only needs to wander around their cities to see it. If it was up to me, I want to see people be trained for those future jobs that are being created, and this type of jobs if to be competitive with all other nations it will require us seeing offices or manufacturing shops as grounds for training people. To train someone better you have to do it at the premise and face to face. And this is not to say that an experienced person cannot train online, the word experience is that they were better or good at their job to start with.
As the conversation on the future of workspace will progress, the future of workspace will not be remote for over a decade, specialities in what one’s line of work will create space of some people working remotely for a longer period that is for sure. And a bump is expected until we come out of the pandemic. A colleague in the conversation, agreeing with the idea that working from home is present but will change was quick to remind all of us at the table that:
“Think about it, we are talking about training people, and the expectations that you can see from them”.
I agree with some of the points that were made, but I also know that the American Rescue Plan that is expected to pump more money to cities, counties, and States will have something to do with it. As jobs become readily availble in the field of our careers paths, I think we will be seeing people going back to those offices. Until then, let us carry the conversation on the future of workspace as Artificial Intelligent is the next game changer after COVID-19.
Credits:
In writing this piece, ideas were formulated by the conversation at Tucson Young Professionals Connect Event.
