Office changes
It might have been a watercooler topic, if people were still gathering around actual watercoolers.
But these days, those office watercoolers are gathering dust. The desks in that office are unoccupied and the sweetest spots in the parking lot surrounding the building are empty and available.
That’s because millions of office workers are earning their daily bread from home while the COVID19 pandemic runs its course.
But when the virus all-clear is sounded, it’s by no means clear that all of those desks will be re-occupied. And that’s not necessarily because the jobs will disappear.
Consider the announcement last week from OpenText, a Waterloo, Ont., software developer. Like many companies, they directed most of their employees to work from home to comply with government directives on containing the virus.
Over the next few weeks, they found that worker productivity barely budged. Naturally, they began to wonder why they kept so many offices open all over the world. In the end, they figured they can save more than $65 million by moving 2,000 of their 15,000 workers to permanently working from home.
OpenText can’t be the only company making these calculations, but they do plan to keep their big home offices in Toronto and Waterloo open. In the coming weeks, as economies gradually open up, many other offices will welcome workers back.
Those workers will see changes, at least temporarily. Seating plans will be re-arranged to afford more open space, dividers between desks will be more prevalent and common areas like coffee rooms and cafeterias will have new protocols. Some offices may go to a split-shift, with half working early in the morning and the other half working an evening shift.
Masks will be common; some workplaces will require temperature checks as you enter the building.
How do we all feel about a crowded elevator now? Lineups at the coffee shop? Small, stuffy meeting rooms? Reporting to work with a sniffle won’t be tolerated for some time to come.
Some people may prefer to continue working at home, given the choice. There are benefits: there’s no traffic, there’s minimal risk of contracting the virus (no office can be rendered risk-free), and there’s little need to dress up. Many companies will accommodate them as much as possible.
But many of us miss the social aspects of working in an office, seeing old friends every day, swapping stories and ideas. Some people just work better among bustle, ringing phones and overheard conversations.
One thing is for sure. Office work, like just about every aspect of life post-pandemic, will never be the same.