Work-life five years after COVID

Richard Gadd at Commvault argues that, five years on from the pandemic, working habits have changed irreversibly

 

Five years ago, life as we knew it changed across the world. The COVID pandemic was spreading relentlessly, and in the UK, the government made the decision to lock down the country in March 2020.

 

Prior to this, remote working was slowly gaining interest, as some businesses were introducing this flexibility. But the “Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives” message meant that of the 46.6% of people doing some work from home in April 2020, a staggering 86% were only doing so due to the pandemic. 

 

Months later, as we emerged from lockdown, the way we thought about working had been irreversibly altered. And in the years that have passed since, businesses have taken very different stances on continuing work from home versus enforcing return to office (RTO) mandates, with many falling into a hybrid model in between. 

 

But what are the consequences of these decisions and of the changes to work on a global scale that were required during this once-in-a-lifetime event? 

 

 

Remote working: the pros and cons 

For anyone working for employers who have not issued an RTO mandate, working from home either some or all of the time has led to increased flexibility that wasn’t possible for many jobs five years ago. Employees – for the most part – have a better work-life balance, and research across 35 countries has found that this is now more of a priority than salary.  

 

During the lockdowns, many people weren’t necessarily working 9-5 as they would in the office, with more flexibility around caring for sick family members or helping children with their schooling. As long as the work was getting done, many employers were happy to let their staff do what they needed to do. 

 

Flexibility is important across all ages and life stages, therefore many businesses have jumped on this and now offer a hybrid working model – where time is split between home and the office – to appeal to the widest range of current and potential employees.

 

Because of this, many businesses are saving money: some have closed their offices altogether, while others have downsized to account for fewer employees regularly being in the office at the same time. Both options free up budget that was previously spent on larger offices, which can be invested in other opportunities for the business. 

 

However, remote working doesn’t come without some drawbacks, especially when it becomes the norm over going into the office. Face-to-face interaction is much lower, with the majority of communication occurring virtually. Innovation happens best when people come together, while true leadership is built from spending time with each other. Sitting on a Zoom call on mute simply doesn’t promote the same connections or ideas. 

 

For newer employees especially, permanent remote working hinders the relationships that solid teamwork relies on and restricts coaching and mentoring that would normally take place naturally in an office environment. 

 

We must also keep in mind that not everyone has a good set up at home for working, either. Whether space is limited, or other members of the household can be disruptive, there are some workers who would prefer to be in the office more often, so it’s important that this remains an option as much as possible. 

 

 

Greater flexibility means greater diversity 

One of the most important changes that has come about thanks to increased remote working, though, is the greater opportunity for employees who previously may have struggled with a 9-5 office-based job.

 

From staff who don’t have a car and needed to take long journeys on public transport every day, to neurodivergent workers who may find working in a busy office environment challenging, the ability to cut the commute and work from home provides more people with a broader range of career options. 

 

In particular, many mothers now find it easier to get back into work after taking maternity leave to have children. Previously there were greater challenges with fitting childcare around a 9-5 office job, whereas the rise in remote working and the flexibility that comes with it enables more mothers to do the same job while doing the school drop offs and pickups in between meetings, for example. 

 

The flexibility, of course, benefits other family members too, not just mothers. Fathers, siblings, and grandparents all have more opportunities now to help with younger children, meaning that there can be less pressure on working mothers to take all the strain alone and more quality time for the wider family to spend together. 

 

 

The technology powering this movement

This new approach to working happened so suddenly that it’s easy to forget that if the pandemic had occurred a decade earlier, businesses would have struggled much more to adapt to remote working. 

 

The easy ability to connect and share files between colleagues is only possible thanks to the power of cloud technology. And while this was certainly gaining popularity pre-pandemic, much like with remote working itself, the enforced lockdowns were an accelerator for the cloud really taking off. Its flexibility, scalability, and optionality make it an ideal solution for teams that no longer work from the same physical premises every day. 

 

However, it is widely accepted now that using cloud solutions comes with an increased element of risk. Cloud providers are not usually responsible for all of the security measures that data stored in the cloud requires, so it’s vital that businesses invest in additional security to keep their data safe. 

 

Remote working opens businesses up to multiple new risks that must be considered. There are more endpoint devices to keep track of and keep secure, with employees more likely to connect them to unsecure networks either at home or on the move (in coffee shops or airports, for example).

 

Workers are also more susceptible to phishing attacks outside the office, as they’re more likely to have distractions which cause them to let their guard down. Even the lack of in-person contact amongst teams could cause an employee to be tricked by an attacker posing as a colleague with the help of AI. 

 

Business leaders must therefore prioritise having the right cybersecurity measures and processes in place to ensure that these risks don’t slip through the net. From multi-factor authentication and access control to threat detection tools, the cybersecurity market has every solution businesses need to keep their systems secure. 

 

Additionally, employee education and training are critical. Especially now that more staff are working outside of the office environment, business leaders must ensure that employees are kept informed of the latest cyber threats and trained regularly on how to avoid putting the company and themselves at risk. 

 

 

A balanced future 

The COVID pandemic undeniably changed the way we view work forever. And while it may have taken some time to adjust to a new approach, it’s clear that we are unlikely to return to pre-pandemic working habits.

 

Some challenges remain, but the advantages that remote working offers both employers and employees mean that this new flexibility is here to stay. 

 

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Richard Gadd, SVP & General Manager EMEAI at Commvault

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and ake1150sb