Office work post COVID-19 - will the former routine return?
The hybrid model is likely to be the way of working in the long term, post-COVID-19, even as employees return to the office following the “honeymoon” period of emergency remote operation. This time last year, after the semi-lockdown, employees had started a slow move back to the office in a new reality of staggered entries and division of the workforce for safety reasons. Meanwhile, a rise in satellite workstations was also experienced as some office headquarters were replaced by social meeting spaces. But an anticipated post-pandemic work-from-home revolution has not necessarily kicked off. Companies are, instead, taking the “window of opportunity” to bring their staff back to the office to restore team spirit, according to Chamber of Commerce president Marisa Xuereb. That sense of community has been lost over the last year and it was now safe to “call staff back to realign as a team”, she said, pointing out that some employees had disengaged. The idea was to renew relationships and address the communication shortfall that developed along the course of the coronavirus, Xuereb said. Companies had lots of adjusting to go through, she said, describing the situation as a “stock...