The COVID-19 pandemic forced an unprecedented remote work experiment on a global scale. What many thought would be a short-term fix is rapidly proving to have lasting change.
I remember arriving in the US for my new assignment at Qualcomm, and within a week, global lockdowns were announced. Like many others, I thought this would be a 3-4 week phenomenon, and I had even booked tickets to visit my family back in India and move my wife and daughter with me by mid-2020. Things obviously did not go as planned, and I ended up in one of the most prolonged phases of my life, being away from my family.
As we emerge from the pandemic, employers and employees must fully embrace (not resist) the remote work revolution and the flexibility, access, improved work-life balance, and environmental benefits it enables.
Work from Home is Working. Studies have shown that productivity has remained steady and improved in many industries throughout the pandemic's significant remote work shift. Employers realize they can maintain output without expensive downtown office space and long commutes. Employees can finish their work without sitting in traffic or missing family obligations. Many companies have announced permanent work-from-home options.
Clearly, we can't go back to pre-COVID ways of working. Employees are demanding location flexibility and access that remote work has provided. Bosses recognize that casting a virtual net for talent opens hiring beyond just physical geography. Real estate is being seen more as a burden than a necessity. The remote work genie is out of the bottle.
Benefits of Embracing Remote. Embracing these remote work trends offers many upsides beyond saving commute time and office costs. The flexibility it provides improves work-life balance, especially for caregivers and parents. The lack of commute also has environmental benefits, as fewer cars on the road.
With the proper communication norms and strategies to avoid burnout, remote work can foster productive collaboration. Digital tools provide ways to bond with coworkers and nurture company culture without being campus quadrants away. More family time, flexible schedules, expanded hiring pools - many tangible quality-of-life improvements.
Making Remote Work. Of course, transitioning to flexible remote work arrangements requires openness to new practices and some adjustments. Leaders need to design scheduling and communication patterns to keep alignment intentionally. Video calls have become more essential to making remote employees feel engaged.
There also remains to be some uncertainty around the future of roles that require physical presence and assessment, like lab scientists or builders. These hands-on jobs make up a minority, however. They can even benefit from at least partially embracing work-from-home options.
The key is that company leaders can no longer cling to pre-pandemic norms of centralized offices and rigid in-person expectations. Instead, they must evolve management thinking and leverage technology to adapt to employees' desires.
The Remote Revolution is Here. The COVID-forced remote experiment showed we can work from anywhere without enterprise collapse. Employees crave that flexibility. As we move into a post-pandemic future, distributed work will likely stay in some permanent form across many industries. Instead of resisting, avoiding, or ignoring this reality, organizational leaders must grab the reins and actively embrace the remote revolution. Doing so skillfully unlocks access, talent, and improved quality of life for employers and teams. The benefits outweigh the challenges if approached proactively. By learning to adapt, we can ensure a hopeful future.
As for my family, it was indeed a prolonged wait, but I finally managed to move them here with me in October 2020 to begin our new life in the US.
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