And as we return to work in the US from the long holiday weekend, I’m revisiting the recurring theme of reopening… with the New York Times’ headline “Why You Might Not Be Returning to the Office Until Next Year”. Uber is the latest company to delay reopening into January. The factors at play for leaders to consider – the uncertainty about variants, vaccine mandates, increasingly vocal employee demands, and potential labor shortages.
If you want to dig into this topic, Wired has a similar piece with a UK slant to it as well. This piece also highlights the concern that the longer the work-from-home model sticks around, the less and less likely people will want to return.
Security is a concern too – only 21% of a recent Sungard survey say they “are fully confident their infrastructure security can support long-term remote work”
The network security angle is a bit obvious … and important, so I included it. Do that, and let’s focus on the additionally higher value stuff.
I believe that the shift to a dispersed workforce is done, and isn’t going back. The real value is in helping customers be effective. In these two pieces, much of the conversation is with HR, not with IT. This is business process consulting, and THAT work is far more valuable than simply setting up remote workers. On top of that is skills training for managers – how to manage employees and workloads remotely.
At this point, I’m writing off most plans for “returning to the office” in 2021 entirely. Rather than chase a moving target… I’m focusing more on ways to embrace the different rather than cling to what was in hope it may go back. All the signs point to that not happening.