Apr 28, 2020
Why you may never return to your office post Corona
What will work look like after the Corona Virus shut down ends?
We’ve been flirting with working from home for years. It’s been this thing that people have romanticised because it’s seen as a way to beat the 9–5 grind. But it’s been relegated to startups, online contractors and mum/dad’s with a side hustle
Now we’re seeing an almost mandatory transition to work from home and people have had to learn to use time tracking, project management software, and video conferencing programs.
Employers who haven’t trusted employees to work from home now don’t have a choice. And most are finding that it’s not as scary as they thought it would be. On the flip-side, employees are finding it’s not working from your PJ’s and sleeping in. You have to show up and work, even if it is from your kitchen table.
And through all of this, offices sit empty.
Two of businesses largest expenses are staff and rent. So what does this mean for what we can expect when this shut down is lifted? Will businesses want to take on large rents again if they can continue to manage their staff remotely?
And will staff want to commute every day if they have demonstrated they can work competently from home? Will they want to take back on the time cost and financial cost of commuting to an office when they’ve shown it’s not necessary?
In 2010 theAustralian gov set a target to have 10% of the workforce working from home with savings of $1.4B per year — we hit that target in 2013*
There are downsides, like reduced interaction with other employees, feelings fo isolation and the importance of setting defined boundaries between work and home time. But the corona virus shut down has forced us to quickly face and overcome a lot of these, all at the same time and learn that it’s not that scary.
Of course, here at Patch, we’re an online real estate business that benefits greatly from a move to remote and online life. Our team all work remotely and we use a variety of softwares to help us communicate and be productive. And as we see more users being added, more homes claimed and more offfers made on properties remotely, we are encouraged that despite the hardships placed in front of us as a group, we’ll find ways to carry on and thrive as
