The pandemic has put a lot of things in perspective – the value of savings, the dangers of global viruses that infect millions and have a high mortality rate, and work – whether we need to get ourselves tied down in an office to work or can do just as well from home.
Right, so what has the pandemic changed about the way we experience our work lives? What is new, and what is important? A good way to approach this subject is to make a list.
So, why not apply the same wisdom to understanding
1. The Office vs Your Home
The first thing the pandemic brought around as an interesting attitude shift was how people migrated from the office to their homes. Suddenly, people just knew – you don’t have to spend 2 hours in traffic.
You do not have to eat once every eight hours to ensure you are not seen as a “slacker” at your job, and suddenly, people began to clamor for the right to work from home. To many employees, this was not alright.
The pandemic, though, did not give them much of an option – either to let people work from home or not to let them work at all, suffering the financial costs. The home was praised by all and sundry.
People said that they had more free time and felt better after a long day at work because they had had the chance to work from home. Of course, the argument against remote work has also been made.
Tech moguls like Elon Musk have been straightforward – either get to the office or quit. It is all the same to him. Companies have started drumming up the old familiar refrain that collaborations in the office are far more impactful regarding overall work progress.
While some people have struggled to adjust to these changes, others are finding that the flexibility of remote work gives them the chance to pursue side interests, like enjoying $20 deposit casinos available for Australian players, which offer a fun and low-cost way to end a productive day. An unexpected perk to the changes caused by the pandemic.
2. Trust Is Everything
The next big-ticket item about how the pandemic transformed the “workplace” is that trust is everything. In other words, the individuals worth investing the most can always perform their duties without oversight.
Sure, the office has its fair share of peer pressure - you cannot slack even if you wanted to, or you will get told off. However, one thing became painfully obvious during the pandemic – that just like in a roulette game simulator, transparency is important and matters a great deal of the time.
This is why the pandemic put matters in perspective. Bosses and companies were suddenly aware that they could trust certain employees because those employees were, in fact, able to tend to their tasks, be proactive and initiate change even from a distance.
It made such employees stand out. Others, of course, were not necessarily bad workers per se. They just needed more structure, and many people agreed that it was hard for them to concentrate while at home, so they would take that lengthy commute to be able to focus on the job rather than sit at home and get constantly distracted instead.
3. The Value of Going to the Office
Of course, despite the clear benefits of using your home office, such as:
- Saving up time on traveling
- Saving up on food costs
- Having more personal time
The fact remains that there are some benefits of having a job in an office that are hard to argue against. Elon Musk has outlined several reasons why the office is still the best way to approach building projects, especially when you are trying to send rockets into space.
Why Office Work Matters? | Explanation |
Collaboration | If you are building space shuttles, it makes sense to be in the office and to collaborate directly. Imagine your engineers not seeing their rocket but designing it! |
Creativity | Office work leads to better creativity because people can spar and jump to innovative conclusions and solutions mentally. |
Sense of Belonging | Anyone can snap a high-skilled worker, but a worker who feels connected and integrated into the workplace will be hard to pry away even if they are looking for a better paycheck – they would rather work at the place they love even if it means less money overall. |
All told, there are benefits to working in the office – certainly, but the fact is that the pandemic has changed a lot and people are now more mindful about the time they can spend together with their loved ones, at home preparing healthy meals, or doing the things they love, and the majority of people is firmly opposed to slaving away at an office. Whether this will persist remains to be seen.