Never Say Never
Never say never.
It’s a saying we can use in many situations, and one I always use when discussing workplace trends.
The last 2+ years has escalated the trend of remote working, forcing many workplaces to adopt working from home, and now hybrid-working arrangements. Almost overnight in-person events and conferences were moved online.
We’re at an interesting tension point where the discussion on a return to the office often raises the shortcomings of remote working and virtual everything. “Virtual will never replace in-person” I have heard some state definitively.
Never say never, I say.
Of course, in some workplaces remote working is nothing new. The technology to enable it has been here for decades, and many of us have been working with people all over the globe without stepping foot on a plane for years. As a people person, I love being “in real life” with others, and at the same time, I’ve got strong working - and personal - relationships with people I’ve never met in person. And, I’ve chatted with many a startup who deliberately structure as a virtual organisation and have developed strong work cultures.
What is for sure in this world of ours is that things are always changing. The more things change, the more possibilities that emerge.
I was recently reading about developments in the “tactile internet” where a number of engineers are working on communications methods to transmit touch over the digital divide. It sounds amazing, and somewhat impossible. Yet, I wonder, how might that reshape our conversation on workplace trends.
Never say never.