2021, what we learned from it!

2021, what we learned from it

The year 2021, that we just left behind taught us many things about work and life, and about one of my favorite subjects; work-life balance.

During 2021, I think that we all believed that the pandemic would be over and somehow, we would go back to normality, or whatever we could name as the norm before the corona virus came into our world. The norm was, that we could go anywhere without being afraid of the virus. We could go on holidays, hop on a plane at a moment’s notice, party with our friends, and do many other activities. In this short article I will write about work, and the norm in Albania, which despite the five-week lock-down, was to work from the office.?

The remote, smart working, later hybrid work model became known during 2019, I believe from march onwards. Until then, it was more of a model that you use to read in fancy magazines of the new working habits of some new very modern companies. At least in Albania there were very few (if not any) companies which practiced the remote working model.

?The pandemics changed everything. The norm now is not a single model, it is not only remote nor it is working from the office. The only word that can describe the present model is the hybrid one, and even that one changes regularly. With the model of working from basically everywhere, it changed also the market and the habits of the workforce. Truth is that the employees have more demands than before, and that is not a bad thing at all. We have people in our organization that want to work for 1-2 weeks from Saranda, from a rented apartment there. This does not mean, that they are on holidays, they are working from home (in this case from a sea view room in southern Albania). We had another one who worked for a few weeks from Barcelona, because he liked it there. Another one went to Kenya for the same reasons, and actually I am not sure if he did much work there in the middle of the safari.

These kinds of demands were totally unknown and seemed unrealistic at the time. Now, this change of behaviour and demands is the new norm. Nobody was ready for this, as it caught us the managers of companies unprepared. The only solution was, and is, to move forward and to brace this change. I am sure that other managers have plenty of such examples, and I am sure that somehow, we are all struggling with this ‘hybrid’ model. We are continually looking for the best solutions, best working model for our employees, inside our offices as well as outside.

This new changing model, and the new demands of the workforce will contribute for a better work-life balance. There is one very important lesson I have learned over the years, about work-life balance. Choose a balanced workplace, somewhere where you feel good and they treat you not as just a number. Work is not the most important thing in life, so try to balance it with other aspects of life such as family, friends, trips, sports, music, hobbies and whatever makes you feel good.

Let’s wait and see what 2022 will bring our way, what new changes and maybe new solutions to our questions. Let us be positive, and make the best of it.

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