One of the biggest questions that has come out of the COVID19 is whether there will be a return to office workers heading back to their traditional desks, or is working from home now the “new normal”.
With the directive in 2020 to work from home unless you can’t, businesses had most office staff thrown in the deep end with all new set up required urgently, where it’s been a ‘sink or swim’ scenario for a lot of businesses and the staff in particular have had to find ways to make it work.
It’s an unusual circumstance – for many being isolated at home isn’t great for their wellbeing or even their home life. Offices may be set up in living areas or there may not be enough room to be able to have a separate area solely for the office. In these instances, it can feel hard to find the motivation to put in the full days work from the office and there is of course the many distractions such as the laundry, housework or family members that may cause interruptions.
At the same time, whilst for these particular individuals the concept of heading back to the office would be a relief, there is the wary possibility of having higher risk of being exposed to the coronavirus in the office or whilst commuting.
And then of course, there’s the ever-growing group of people who have thoroughly thrived in the working from home scenario, where the savings in travel time and costs, limited interruptions compared to larger offices has proven to be worthwhile.
But what do the bosses want? According to realcommercial.com.au, Bosses want their staff back in the office.
Quoting the head of a large travel corporation, the article outlines their strong belief that it is better for staff to work in offices rather than from home, particularly those under 35 years. This is due to the collaboration and problem solving which is much easier to achieve within the office environment. Not only does it help with the sense of community working together, it can be helpful for staff’s mental health where they might be more isolated at home and not seeing people on a daily basis. Further to this, the ability to ensure that the staff are working is certainly a good perk – although most offices have developed sufficient requirements to know that staff are achieving goals and logging in as needed.
The big question is – will there be an added demand from staff to want the right to choose, and will this effect the commercial property industry with less demand on larger office spaces?
