三和一善 | Now that the post-pandemic world is opening

offices large and small are trying to determine when—and whether—they will open their doors. Many of them ended up in the middle position. The term "hybrid", once used to talk about cars or biology, is now the focus of discussion about ways to balance work in the home and office.

But is hybrid power really the most important issue? In the past year, many offices around the world have moved their business online. After a year of success, this begs the question: "What is the real purpose of the office anyway?" Millions of people have proven that they can work away from the traditional office atmosphere-sometimes Their best job. If great work can be done anywhere, what is the point of having physical office space?

When discussing the future of mixed labor and work, the conversation needs to move from the workplace to the workplace.

The office is ready

In February 2021, Daniel Pinto, chief operating officer of JPMorgan Chase, told CNBC that he believes that 100% of people have zero chance of returning to the office, 100% of the time. I agree with this sentiment.

The traditional office where everyone took a coffee cup to go to get off work every day and worked 8 hours a day had disappeared even before the pandemic. And now, I think it will never come back again. Putting this in context, I remember talking to people in my organization, and they said, "I need to work from home today because I need to get the job done" so they can get rid of the office distractions.

Although realizing that the office is not a low-priority issue of productivity, there are still frictions when changing the status quo and choosing something other than working in the office for 8 hours. Now that we have tried to work completely remotely and have seen the results, working from home is a legal way of doing things.

However, this is not to say that moving to full-range or hybrid mode will not bring a unique set of challenges.

Mixed challenge

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings recently told the Wall Street Journal, "I don't see any positive side. Not being able to get together in person, especially internationally, is a purely negative impact." He is not alone.

By working remotely, you do miss some things, especially those occasional moments that suddenly appear around the office. When you are not together every day, you will miss those casual "water dispenser" conversations while waiting for the elevator or starting a meeting with colleagues to establish interpersonal relationships.

Some companies try to reproduce those moments online, but what they lack is the opportunity to meet people at the time. In daily life, when you pass them in the corridor or drink coffee, you don't have to spend time to meet them, it will happen.

Advantages of hybrid vehicles

Moving to a distributed or hybrid model can bring huge advantages, including allowing companies to expand their hiring locations. You can be a San Francisco company, but have employees in places where the cost of living and general employee salary requirements are significantly lower. With the reduction of personnel costs, companies can achieve better growth.

Moving to full remote employees also provides the added benefit of putting all employees in a level playing field. In the past, when most of the company's employees were working at the headquarters and a few were remote, you might encounter some friction, but when everyone was remote, this disconnection was no longer a problem. The focus of remote work is the output of the work, not how long you spend in the office.

I remember some time before the pandemic, when the assumption was that working outside the office would hurt productivity. Now, leaders and employees agree that working remotely can increase efficiency. Greater flexibility allows remote workers to take care of children and other commitments without having to deal with things such as long, stressful commutes.