Has the future of work changed?

By | June 8, 2020

Since the stay-at-home orders and curfews around the world took effect to fight the pandemic, a lot of articles have surfaced delivering death kneel to ‘work-at-work’ model. The market has happily responded by accelerated stock price growth and valuations of the companies that support remote working. So, will this lead to a crash in commercial real-estate market or is it just a fad that will see an end in the near future?

Chris Keene, CEO of Gigster shares his views on this topic. While I agree to most of what he says, I will supplement it with my own vision of evolution of work:

  • Work can be done through gigs but careers can only be built through personal connections and networking, which will remain limited without in-person interaction
  • Most, if not majority, of workers would still want the flexibility to come and work in office on a regular basis
  • We’ll see a bump in entrepreneurship and ‘side-businesses’ leading to higher small-scale enterprise over the years
  • More women will join the workforce, as long as the hiring company embraces the ethos of WFH

In my view, it’s not going to be an either/or situation. Old habits die hard and new ones take time to develop. Either way, there will be many new challenges that will surface with the newer working models, mental health is just one of them.

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