Remote working - the future?

I’m data and tech so probably a different mindset. Literally no one is showing their face. The teams are also multinational so everyone is on zooms every day anyway even when in the office. Had our first serious conversation with management in UK today about closing done the office completely and going full remote. It was considered that there would be no impact on productivity.

That’s where some humans best interact not all. I’d suggest not even most. Some, like me, work as efficiently as possibly so can close the laptop and go to the sports club and hang out with family and friends, none of which are from work. Much prefer it that way and always have.

this thread clearly has both ends of that scale

You’re right if you believe that work will remain the same over coming years. I don’t believe it will. I believe that this is the beginning of the end for the office, and that young people, currently in school and college, and more familiar with technology than we will ever be, will be utterly resistant to the idea of going into an office regularly, when they can interact just as effectively from anywhere. And likely equally resistant to the idea of a 9-5 five day week.

IMO, within a decade or so, we’ll be remote working a four day week (for those that can obviously, but with driverless transport and automated shops and warehouses etc I think there’ll be far fewer people who have to be somewhere at a given place and time).

And we’ll be better for it

just taking my GP as an example of a person who has been largely working remotely from his home during the pandemic, no comparison in the service provided. Also others I have been dealing with in various companies have been all at sea with communications during this period and various services have fallen through due to poor communication by people who have no immediate direct access to each other. People will have to up their game greatly for this to all work.

I think you are looking at it through your own experience. The 15 year olds currently going through school will be so grounded in technology that a ‘bricks and mortar’ office life will be completely against their way of thinking. Add in AI which is expanding every year at a staggering rate, at least in my world, and you are looking at a very different working environment. What exactly that looks like, who knows, but I’d be 100% confident that white boards and pens and water coolers will not be part of it.

you are right that the nature of interpersonal skills and the way that people interact with each other will change.

There are also of course bigger issues at stake here, like universal basic income, as AI takes over many jobs and the basic requirement for many more is a technology and data background