Virtual Workplace still effective? Quality of Life?

Mar 11

Written By Gary Bronson, Fortium Partners

Updated Feb 3, 2021: July, 2020 I wrote this initial article on the Virtual Work Place as we were early in the COVID experience. None of us could have imagined that it would take this long to get back into our offices and/or work place. So, is it still effective to work virtually and what have we learned? This first update is focusing on:

Assumption #1: "Quality of life" improves for those that have traditionally worked in an office as they now 'get to' work from home, hence, making them more productive in the work place.

Although the definition of quality of life varies for each individual, generally we equate it to a good balance of work, personal or family time, and the opportunity to pursuit personal interests while you are progressing in your career.

The differentiator between individuals tends to be what motivates or is at the center of priorities for an individual. The obstacles in peoples' lives are real due to COVID. However, the outlook, focus and perspective that drives an individuals motivation have much to do with people's experiencing 'Quality of Life'. And during this past year, it wasn't just working from home, but additional impacts of being limited to staying home instead of going out to favorite places for leisure.

For those that commute, having back 1-2 hours of driving, parking etc has been a real benefit and well appreciated. That time is banked as an opportunity to get the same amount of work completed earlier in the day and provide more personal time. While, some have been using those additional hours to do more work which some find more invigorating rather than driving in traffic.

The convenience of walking to your 'office' after dinner or during commercials has actually led to some working longer hours. You spend more time working because it is easier to just do the work that you're thinking about rather than waiting until tomorrow's work hours. Which then leads to more work being done during traditional 'off-hours'.

Also, for those with children at home, that weren't able to take the kids to school or the sitter, experienced many challenges. Such as the ability to focus for 2-4 hour stretches of time on work when you know your children are waiting on you do to something or go somewhere. And for times when the kids were normally in school, the kids can require more attention than normal. This did add some stress or frustration to the situation and did have an impact on some workers.

Restrictions on being able to go out and socialize and relax. By having civic restrictions, the traditional 'go out to eat' to relax or get away from home also had a negative impact on people's attitude or outlook. This often was brought into the work time as employees were doing their best to adapt and cope, yet were frustrated that they were being restricted on what they could do for time off, vacations etc. This becomes added dialogue in the virtual work place.

Sifting thru the impacts of COVID and attempting to get an accurate view of the benefits of working virtually may have to wait for another year.

Please fill out this brief survey: Quality of Life Improved from Working from Home?

Original Comments from July 2020 posting:

"Hybrid" is going to get expanded use during the next few months as we all piece together an approach of how best to return to the work place. It will no longer be primarily a binary decision whether some companies or departments are either designed to work 'remotely' or against working 'remotely'. Hence, "Hybrid" approaches will be more prevalent.

Pre-Covid

Many companies consider themselves effective in running decentralized companies because they are able to support satellite offices, remote locations or field offices. However, that doesn't necessarily translate into an effective virtual environment.
For "non-virtual companies", general management perspective was/is most work is not as effective when done in a virtual environment. And that many roles need to be on-site.

What we’ve learned….

Much more work can be done from a virtual perspective than imagined.
Virtual work can be as effective when relationships are already established and work is somewhat defined.
Face to face is more effective for establishing relationships, ensuring alignment and strategy related discussions in a shorter time frame-but still able to be accomplished virtually.
Virtually, we can lean into established relationships during a crisis and be successful. However, it is more challenging to be as effective if the relationship hasn’t been established previously.
Our virtual technologies are generally lacking. Most are scrambling to stabilize and figure out the best way to learn what are the best technologies and how to take advantage of those best capabilities in a cost effective manner.
Suppliers can interact with us remotely and don’t need to be in our offices as much when not delivering specific services that require on-site presence.
Business continuity plans weren’t generally executable for this type of situation. However, quick learning on what aspects needed to be adjusted and accommodated for which improved prioritization for future.

Post-Covid… whenever that is...

We will seek ways to take advantage of what we’ve learned.
Evaluate making the virtual environment part of our core strategy and reduce physical footprints where not required.
Work to implement guidelines to differentiate when face to face is required, preferred or not needed.

This is an initial documentation of my thoughts. These thoughts will continue to iterate many times in the near future as additional observations occur and as input from colleagues is received... If interested in staying connected with this topic, let me know.