The pandemic has changed the face of the entire world, dividing it into two parts that are pre-COVID and post-COVID. Everything turned online from small-scale businesses to the biggest multinational companies. The pace of digitization got extra fuel, and it skyrocketed. The remote work was initiated by the technology companies to ensure the smooth working of the company working and it was all good during the pandemic.
The new problem that the companies are facing now is getting back on track and resuming the activities as before the pandemic. Now, Silicon Valley finds remote work is easier to begin than end.
Employer’s take on the revival of office work
The initial plan of many tech companies was to get back to the pre-pandemic levels was around the Labour Day weekend, but it got complicated with the arrival of the delta variant. While Microsoft has pushed the opening dates to the end of October, other tech giants have decided to watch the condition until the end of this year.
The return to office policies of tech companies is likely to produce some ripple effects on various industries. It depends a lot on the employer now on how and where the people will work. The conception that remote work is a temporary thing is no longer valid. As the pandemic keeps stretching for longer periods, it is becoming harder by the day to tell the employees how and when they can resume full-time work. As the tech companies’ work revolves around online and digital products, the jobs are cut out for remote work, yet the employers demand to resume the physical method work immediately after the pandemic is over.
The primary reason
The main reason for the insistence to resume the physical work is because companies have believed for long that employees crowded at one place give rise to innovations and new ideas which is not possible in isolation. This is also the reason why the tech titans have invested billions of dollars in developing corporate campuses with common areas to lure the employees outside from their enclosed cubicles and interact with others by brainstorming sessions.
Whatever the tech titans say, there is no concrete proof suggesting this. Work from home is something that people have grown to be fond of and are not really willing to do otherwise. You can’t cage the genie back into the bottle and then go telling people that innovation and creative projects won’t be done unless they are in the offices.
The solution: a hybrid approach
There has been the adoption of the hybrid approach in many companies, where the employer wants their workers to come to the office at least a few days of the week. Zoom, videoconferencing service became immensely popular during the pandemic and its stock prices also soared sky-high. The service preferred its employees come to the office even for a small part of the time. After all, there is not any one size fits all approach possible when it comes to returning to the offices.
The biggest tech companies have made it clear on their part to resume the office work even it is for a few days a week, to maintain the culture of innovation.