5
work trends in the wake of the pandemic
By Karin van Laeren
There's nothing like a good crisis to jumpstart innovation. The sudden shift to remote working in 2020 brought about frantic pivots in many companies, and forced everyone to embrace new (and sometimes better) ways of working. Here's what you can expect to see as you dip your toes into the working world.
New ways of connecting with colleagues Remote working will never completely replace physical work spaces. But they could well enhance opportunities for connecting with colleagues. With new virtual office platforms popping up every other day, employees can connect and collaborate with their teammates in real time and not be constrained by physical distance. 18 | YO U R CA R E E R G U I D E 2022
On one such platform, Pesto, each virtual employee has an "office" with a door that can either be set to open or closed. There are various available chat rooms by default, like "Watercooler" and "Trivia", aimed at giving employees a place to get together and chat about non-work things. The idea is that all meetings (video, screen shares or just voice calls) take place via the platform, with the option that anyone else on the team can join or be pulled into a meeting as needed. Your status tells the team when you are off to walk the dog or buy ice cream, skipping the Whatsapp message that would normally be needed to signal this.
Employee monitoring
(and potential privacy issues) Trust is earned, and for many managers, it is difficult to trust employees without keeping an eye on them. Enter employee monitoring software, a controversial byproduct of remote and hybrid working. If you are a virtual employee, you might be expected
