Thinking About The Future Of Work

At this time last year, most of our days were filled with back to school activities. As America started to welcome teachers and students back to school, parents started looking forward to back-to-work mode.  This year won’t be quite the same. That’s because, for many families across America there will not be much of a transition at all. In fact, the months ahead won’t look much different from what the prior months have looked like for many families; the days will consist of working from home, while overseeing at-home learning and attempting to stagger work and school schedules. Wherever you are in our country right now, families are dealing with the reality of a new normal in 2020. 

As a business leader, I find myself and my peers asking: What does this mean for work in the long run? 

Over the next few days, I’ll be sharing some thoughts to help answer this question -- touching on how our current standards of productivity are contributing to remote work fatigue in “To Zoom Or Not To Zoom,” the potential to change who and how we hire in “Working From Home Means A More Diversified Workforce,” and the benefits and challenges of remote work in “Working From Home Is Working, Kind Of.” 

While the future of work may seem far from clear right now, the truth is that many of these changes have been in place for quite some time -- the pandemic was simply a catalyst for it. With a combination of rising rents, the digital revolution, and increased demand for flexible working hours, the dominoes for a shift toward remote work were all lined up. COVID just gave it the final push.