Will home-based be the new norm?

Before COVID-19, we spent more time at the office than in our own homes. We made sure we had creature comforts like espresso machines, microwaves, and in some cases, a nice comfy chair for a quick afternoon nap. And despite the proximity of the offices, we emailed or called each other instead of getting up and walking over.

Our offices were a meeting place, our very own think tank with the required boardroom and lunch facilities—a place to come together and be part of a team effort.

We would start our day by catching up on last night's activities, discussed sports, or perhaps the latest trending movie. And of course, coffee, lots of it. When the team settled down to work, we were nearing 9:30 am and sitting down for the days' work ahead. Add to that the lunch hour, impromptu meetings, and the occasional personal phone calls, and suddenly it's time to go home. Now I truly enjoyed having the team around me, but there were times that unnecessary interruptions were bothersome and distracting.

Enter the pandemic. I was never a fan of working from home, fearing that my need to visit the refrigerator would overpower my productivity. And without a place to be, my day would not start until after NBC's Today show was over. But the reality is I work more and for more extended periods. If you add up commute time, coffee time, chit chat, and lunch breaks, that's a lot of time doing nothing. Instead, I head to my computer (with coffee in hand, of course) and have cleared out the previous night's emails by 8:00 am. I forget to have lunch, working through the day, sometimes late into the night. And unlike the TV commercials, I shower and get fully dressed, independent of scheduled Zoom calls. And speaking of Zoom, it was the novelty we loved that soon turned to overuse and eventually disdain. But the reality was, I scheduled more appointments in a day on Zoom than driving around town. I never had to lug around a projector for presentations or worry about parking.

Now I don't want to appear like a workaholic either. The beauty of working from home is that you can attend to other obligations without the guilt of leaving the office. You begin to appreciate what work-life balance is all about. You see more of your spouse, the kids, or handle errands. Financially speaking, no more office lease or utility bills to pay - it adds up quickly to the bottom line!

The real question is, how do you manage a team when they are out of sight. This may not apply to all companies, but I believe that they will work harder and happier given the freedom to work from home. After all, leadership is not about looking over their shoulder but encouraging them to meet goals independently with a sense of responsibility and self-management.

In the end, if we need to meet in person, there is always Starbucks; they have plenty of coffee!

#HybridWork