Work life has been very different over the past couple of years. For those who have been able to take their office work home, the taste of autonomy and time saved might be one not worth giving up anytime soon. The work from home lifestyle has become the norm from many and meeting at an office is now a rare occurrence.
For me, I waved goodbye to commuting and gained time to put toward productivity and work/life balance. Family, self enrichment and the comfort of my own environment have been welcome changes. In a post pandemic world offices may reopen but whether companies enforce a return to standard working hours on-site is a different matter.
Dropbox Founder, touched on the subject of ending the 40 hour work week after employees have realised a new way to work collaboratively with similar work output. Then time efficiency and comfort given to many raises the obvious question of whether society should do away with mandatory office culture altogether. Of course there are many benefits to working in the same environment but on a macro scale, efficiency for a business and its employees might well lie within the realm of flexible home working. I would hope that more companies adopt this as the new norm and we see better systems come into place to support workers and performance gauging.
Technology has been key to office working and it continues to improve and become accessible to all. I believe companies will continue to adapt and realise better ways of working without reverting to the standard office setting in the future.
https://www.businessinsider.com/dropbox-drew-houston-40-hour-office-work-week-is-over-2021-9