Teleworking in the COVID-19 Era

During the first stage of the Covid-19 pandemic, changes were happening daily for all of us. This pandemic era was a drastic causative agent of trying new ways to complete every day activities. As a consequence, virtuality was accentuated. In an even more widespread manner, virtual activities came into our lives. Most of them are here to stay. 

Teleworking has been easily accepted by companies and staff members. These days, teleworkers are increasing in number in most countries and in most areas of economic activity.  Currently, in the midst of the Covid-19 era, this seems to be creating a permanent teleworking force that needs to be driven in a productive and profitable approach. Telework does not mean more or less profits. It means that there is a new option for completing tasks at work. 

The pandemic as catalyst of teleworking 

Before Covid-19 many activities were done only in person. It was out of the question to have a doctor’s appointment on a video call, and nowadays it is normal to have them. Teleworking in most areas and sectors was the only option that kept companies and organizations running. However, it was in many ways a forced adaptation. In some cases, this created non-profitable scenarios for many businesses. But the truth is, in many ways it opened a permanent window of new opportunity.  As a consequence of confinement, teleworking was implemented in a lot of areas. We’ve learned it is possible to have teleworking in many areas inside of the workforce. However, every country and industry sector is impacted in different ways, and retail experiences have certainly been affected the most significantly. 

Lessons from the coronavirus on teleworking

Life before and after the coronavirus will not be the same. One of the great lessons that this experience will leave us with is that many people can work remotely without problem with existing technologies. In addition to efficiency, telecommuting offers great promise in other ways. For example, it can provide greater flexibility for those people with family and personal commitments. The fact that more people are working from home in the midst of the global coronavirus crisis will undoubtedly mark what teleworking will be like in the future of work. If this global experiment is implemented effectively, it will show why telecommuting can be a very valuable tool for both companies and employees.