The most critical tool in any business belt is the ability to quickly react to unforeseen circumstances — second to that is the ability to learn from them. Offices all across America had to learn how to deal with a workforce scattered to the winds during unprecedented times. Guest rooms across the nation became offices, Zoom was the water cooler, and keeping internal documents safe on the internet suddenly became a much sharper priority. As we slowly, but surely, return to the office one thing is for sure: we’ll be returning with a drastically altered view of the workplace.
Tools Obtained by Working from Home
Working from home, initially, was a contentious topic. How would employees fare working ten feet away from their couches? What was going to keep them out of their pajamas and in the right mindset? Would productivity plummet in service of the family’s cat and dog?
A few years of embracing remote work has shown quite a precipitous increase in productivity. The workforce is filled to the brim with people that understand their own natural rhythms, people that are driven to do good work for the sake of their own pride[1]. When remote work swept the nation, a wide majority of employees reported increased satisfaction with their workplaces to go along with the increased rate of work they were producing from their home offices.
Additionally, workplaces suddenly had access to a deeper well of talent. With remote work, the most qualified candidates were no longer pulling themselves from the pile of applicants because of a long commute. Businesses operating out of an expensive business park were able to drastically decrease overhead by relocating to less expensive areas — no longer needing a city center to consolidate their talent — or by closing their offices altogether[2].
Reports of increased job satisfaction, higher output, and depressed overhead have been convincing evidence for some of the tech giants, you know, some of the most valuable companies in the modern world. Remote work is taking a permanent spot in their workplaces[3].
Benefits of the Office
Remote work is all well and good, but the reality of returning to the office is still upon us for a good reason in many cases. The truth is, some businesses and their work culture thrive in person. A good brainstorm in the writer’s room, an in-person negotiation with rapidly building rapport and lively handshakes, the joy of seeing your work friends after a weekend apart. These are all aspects of the office many of us crave.
Something as simple as laying your hands on a hard copy of a document is enough to dramatically change your relationship to your work. Abstract deals jotted down on paper hold a weight that digital backups never will[4].
Not every business has the luxury of remote offices. Some of them need tightly-knit groups of employees with their heads together in real time, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Some offices have become expensive storage units, begging to be warmed with heated exchanges and feverish work. If that’s your business, then the return to the office is most likely a welcome one[5].
How we can merge the two and Axel’s role
Now that so many workplaces have discovered the benefits of working remotely, these will be difficult to turn a blind eye to, even during The Great Return. Workplaces can still benefit from the lessons learned from remote work. Contracts can be negotiated with remote work provisions to net some of the best talent in the world, saving money and retaining crucial employees. Your bottom line can rest easy knowing that startups or small businesses are more than capable of thriving on a foundation of remote work. Most importantly, however, the strategies employed to keep businesses safe and effective through the internet can be effortlessly folded into central work models.
We can work with secure shared drives. We can work with decentralized servers that are easily accessed. We can work without worrying that one bad link will bring the office to its knees. With cloud-based file-sharing software increasingly intermingling with office life, the days of lost backups and forgotten thumb drives are about as relevant as floppy disk anxiety.
By keeping the same vigilance and flexibility remote work required of businesses in 2020 and beyond, we create offices that are smarter, work harder, and, most importantly, they become more private and secure.
About AXEL
Using a secure file storage system is the key to protecting your data from breaches and ransomware attacks. That’s where AXEL Go comes in. Offering military-grade encryption and decentralized blockchain technology, AXEL Go is the best way to protect yourself and your business from unauthorized cybercriminals. With privacy concerns not going away anytime soon, secure file-sharing is a necessity for businesses and individuals. If you’re ready to try the best protection, try two free weeks of AXEL Go here.
References
[2] https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/are-we-really-more-productive-working-home