Week 16: EOTO Part 2; How Technology and Coronavirus Are Streamlining the Work From Home Movement

Covid-19 has certainly turned the world upside down, making everyone stay inside of their houses, but if we look past the the fact that we can't go to our favorite restaurant, or see our friends, there is a sea of workers who have now been handed the dream they have been hoping to receive from their bosses for years. EVERYONE who maintained their office jobs and is not essential has now been blasted into a world of Zoom calls, and skype chats from home, and all the perks that come with it, like extended lunch breaks and not being monitored. So what does this sudden technological shift mean for the future?

According to surveys from MBO Partners, "In 2019, millennials made up 38 percent of the full-time independent workforce, up from 37 percent last year. Boomers, many of whom are aging out of the workforce, fell from 35 percent to 33 percent."

What does that mean? Well 41 million Americans were already freelancing or contracting from home, and sure they met their clients in person every once in a while, but they did most of their work from their dining room tables. According to surveys ran by Global Workplace Analytics in 2019, 80% of people reported that they would like to work from home a few days a week.

In the matter of weeks the whole world lost their jobs or started working from home, and we were forced to adjust. For my stepdad's company, that meant teaching his administrative assistant that her 15 year old son could not be walking around shirtless in the back, or his associate needed to clean up before they all got on a Go2Meeting.

The reality is, although there were growing pains, this has become our new normal. Facebook has already started to implement a new conference call software to compete with Zoom, and and the same time, hackers are finding ways to get into insecure calls. That means more online platforms for work, and online ads and shopping, it means an increase in awareness of cybersecurity that will hopefully come with it.

I think that communication will become even more online based, and continue to push towards improved technology. Now that employees have received a taste of work from home, and are able to show their employers that they are capable of doing the same quality of work, people will be able to work for any company from anywhere without relocating, it diversifies the competition for jobs, and we will be more globalized than ever before.


Sources:
https://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/work-at-home-after-covid-19-our-forecast
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/347672

https://www.mbopartners.com/state-of-independence/