ARTHROTÓ MAGAZINE
TRANSFORMATION
THINGS WILL
NEVER BE THE SAME A seismic shift in the way we work has taken place. For over two years, the world grappled with lockdowns, quarantines, and social distancing, fundamentally altering our relationship with office spaces. While dealing with the fallout from the pandemic, we realize it has amplified even more problems, key among those a housing crisis and a collapse in the commercial office market. The necessity of remote work during this global crisis has opened Pandora’s box of possibilities, changing the traditional office landscape and revolutionizing our work culture. As businesses adapt and embrace the digital age, we explore how the working-fromhome trend ignited by COVID-19 has effectively killed the need for office buildings, making remote work from anywhere on the planet the new normal. THE COVID-19 CATALYST The world as we knew it changed overnight when the COVID-19 pandemic began its global onslaught. Governments imposed lockdowns and social distancing measures to curb the spread of the virus, forcing many businesses to close their physical offices temporarily. Employees suddenly found themselves working from home, juggling their professional and personal lives within the confines of their living spaces. REMOTE WORK: THE NEW NORMAL Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, emphasized the transformation of work during the pandemic: “COVID-19 has shown us that remote work is not just a temporary solution but a glimpse into the future of work. It has changed how we think about office spaces and value flexibility.” The sentiment Gates echoes is shared by many experts who see remote work as a lasting change. A recent article in Fortune Magazine noted: When people are allowed to experience flexible work, 87% of them take it. Those findings were also highlighted in McKinsey’s American Opportunity Survey. In another report from Future Forum, 95% of people surveyed
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want flexible hours, compared with 78% of workers who desire location flexibility. The survey also found that 72% of employees who wanted more than their level of flexibility would most likely look for a new job in the next 12 months. Over time, remote work has gone beyond a mere response to a crisis. It has evolved into a sustainable model for a variety of reasons: 1. Productivity: Contrary to initial skepticism, studies have shown that remote workers can be as productive, if not more, than their in-office counterparts. This has shattered the myth that employees must be constantly supervised to perform well.
