It seems trite at this point to say that the coronavirus has fundamentally changed life as we know it. It’s been almost eleven months now since the first reported case of COVID-19 in the United States and nine since most office workers started working from home.
But now that the initial shock has worn off somewhat, what happens next? Which of these earth-shattering changes to the status quo are here to stay? Well, the year 2020 has thrown more than its share of curveballs at all of us so I can’t be sure that something new and unexpected won’t happen as soon as I finish writing this. Barring more unforeseen strangeness, seems likely that remote work—in some form or another—is here to stay.
According to the World Economic Forum[1], only about 7% of civilian workers had the option to do some or all of their work from home at the beginning of this year. Over the summer, a study from Stanford University[2] suggested that number is now as high as 42%. Nearly half of our economy became remote overnight but it’s unlikely to return to pre-pandemic conditions any time soon.
Disability advocates have long pushed for more widespread access to flexible workspace environments, as have those representing women and parents with young children. For years, people who had difficulties commuting because they had to care for a relative or experienced a physical handicap, were told that it simply wasn’t possible for rank-and-file employees to work remotely. Now, with so many of us working from home, we know that remote work is possible and practical in many cases.
The truth is the technology has been here for a while, and now the culture is too. Folks who once would have been forced out of the workplace are now on equal footing with their colleagues.
[1] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/working-from-home-coronavirus-workers-future-of-work/
[2] https://news.stanford.edu/2020/06/29/snapshot-new-working-home-economy/
