What Will Work Look Like after COVID-19?

We had a group weekly meeting today at work and the question came about what the office environment will look like after COVID-19. A year ago I worked for a company that felt it important to show up at the office every day. My being able to work from home one day per week was considered a very special circumstance. Now that everyone is working from home, people are questioning the old corporate culture. Furthermore a lot of people are much more effective working from home.

Recently we hired a new project manager and while some of us are effectively working from home, on-boarding a new team member is less than ideal. It takes a lot more mentoring and hand holding to get the new person up to speed. So how will this effect work after COVID-19?

 The meeting at work today was held over Microsoft Teams, which is a relatively new video conferencing application. With the large number of people using the service, there is a lot of innovation happening with the tool. Furthermore there are a number of other similar services that are advancing at an equally rapid pace. Some of the new features being offered are making video conferencing a much more viable option as a replacement for in-person meetings. So how will this effect work after COVID-19?

My wife and I went for a walk this evening and the topic of our cancelled vacation came up. This led to the discussion of whether or not I will need to travel as much for work. I had one year where I went to Japan something like 7 times. We don't think it will be necessary to ever fly that much in the future but are not quite sure. Will other people want to be travelling as much as they have in?

Unfortunately I don't have any answers. I could make a prediction but will most likely be wrong. I would like to believe that I will be able to work from home most days of the week. That would really help me rack up the ski days in winter. I would like to believe that I will still get all of those wonderful trips to the exotic country of Japan. Unfortunately that doesn't work with the scenario of working from home more often. Ultimately the current work environment is evolving and we are not done yet. Hopefully we can all look forward to those changes. While many people are filing for unemployment, I sincerely hope there is a place for everyone and think there will be. Of all the things I want to be right about the last one is the most important.

A Good Desk

I have been fighting a cold since last Thursday and so when I went home over the weekend, I didn't do much but rest. Snowbird was still open and so I could have gone skiing, but didn't. I had some friends that wanted to go sailing, but I didn't. About the only useful thing I did do was clean off my desk in my office.

Yesterday I flew back out to the Bay Area feeling slightly better but still under the weather. When I got back to my boat last night, I made dinner and then sat down on the couch in front of the TV. I thought about doing some work on a project my son and I are collaborating on, but decided against it. My boat normally has a great desk to work at. When my family came out to visit San Francisco a couple of weeks ago, we turned the desk into a bed. This involved partially dismantling the boat. Normally the desk should turn into a bed with a minimal amount of work. However, due to a busted screw, the process turned into an hour long process. I have yet to repeat the equally lengthy reverse process. First I would like to fix the broken screw.

Thinking back to my clean desk at home versus the non-desk on the boat, it made me realize how important a good work environment is. If you don't have a clean desk or a proper area to work, it may be hurting your performance. So if you find yourself putting off working on the computer, take a look at your work environment. Perhaps you might want to clean up the area and then it will be easier to do your work.

There is a Home Depot near my office and so I stopped in on the way to to work. Now I have the tools to fix the desk on my boat. Afterwards maybe I can work on my son's project. All that is on TV are reruns anyways.