It’s, May. Yay! Spring has arrived, and along with the flowers poking their heads out of the soil, many people are rolling up their sleeves for the vaccine poke! What’s next? Is everyone really returning to work? And if so, what will it look like now?
Here in the Alpine, Vancouverites have traded in their condos and purchased chalets in Whistler and Pemberton. The landscape has changed. Big office buildings have been left empty, and who knows if they will fill up again. Many vacationers who were unable to travel during the pandemic decided to sell their second homes. This opened new opportunities for knowledge workers to move out of the city and into the great wide open. This pattern is repeating in many places, not just our mountaintop village.
This is great news for our ski town, because empty houses are now filled with families. This change will likely bring in new resources, or at least demands for resources, which eventually will need to be addressed. Now that people have shifted their lifestyles, many are not planning to go back to the same old same old. Some people have even threatened to quit their jobs if they are forced back to the office.
The situation raises three questions we must now consider:
1. Did we really need to be in the office to think and work, just so someone could watch over us to ensure we were putting in our time?
- Did we really need to commute and spend hours in traffic, and then pay for parking, when we could have accomplished everything at home?
- Do we really need to buy so many clothes, shoes, cars, and jackets, just so we can continue to live in the old paradigm?
The pandemic has shifted our thinking. People are reconsidering their lives and lifestyles, and many are considering their options. Just like Spring, this is a transitional time; everything is changing, and the old way is over.
No one really knows what the future of work will look like.
The changing landscape of work might mean new business, new positions, new hires, new teams, new rituals, new ways of thinking, new ideas, and new ways to be creative. The endless possibilities make this a very exciting time.