COVID-19 has dramatically changed how we work… and where! Some of the changes are obvious, and many of us are still working from home or at least somewhat differently than we were before. What about the future though? What aspects of our workplace are we missing and what may be forever changed?
The “Water Cooler” Chats
There’s advantages to being able to work remotely. However, what about those few moments in our hectic day when we had opportunities to connect with fellow employees on a personal level? While some may think that non work-related conversation is unproductive, it’s been shown that this enjoyable informality can positively impact a company and increase productivity and improve morale.
Sick Days
I’m sure most of us will admit to dragging ourselves into work when we’ve been a little ‘under the weather.’ However, this is going to change. Perhaps sick employees felt the pressure to drag themselves into work for compensation or deadlines reasons, etc., but visibly sneezing or coughing in the workplace will no longer be tolerated. Now that employees have proven their productivity while working at home, it will be more acceptable to work from home when we’re able to – including when we have a minor illness. Is this considered a sick day? Not if we are able to work and be productive at home. Working from home with a common cold for example will be a more common practice.
Meetings for Morale
Once we experience breakthroughs medically such as vaccines, our offices may become less focused on isolating ourselves in our offices/workspaces, and more about community engagement and interaction. We will appreciate these opportunities to come together and develop our creativity even more than before in light of our recent isolated & restrictive environments.
More specifically, it’s being discussed that we are going to take more advantage of our future office work meetings to come together in person and have a new and reinvented platform to take advantage of our talents. It’s proven to be important (socially and professionally) to have that in-person time that we are missing out on when working from home. (Learn more about Why Meetings Matter).
Suits to Slippers
Without too much detail, I think we can all confess to ‘dressing down’ in the past few months while working remotely! We may have thrown on a more formal shirt for our virtual group meetings, but for the most part we have ditched the formal wear and have gotten more comfortable. Office policies may change (if they haven’t already) that adapt to such comforts, such as ‘dressing for your day’ that permits a more casual day when there’s no business visitors scheduled.
One thing is certain, we will all need to adapt to a more flexible, ever-changing environment like never before. Never again will it be tolerated to show up for work not feeling well and more than ever we will appreciate when we as employees can get together in person in real time and discuss our creative and innovative masterpieces collectively.
https://careerbuzz.prosky.co/articles/the-importance-of-water-cooler-talk
