Day 72 - Into the unknown

The isolation order finally came in today. We are locking down in a bid to contain the fastest growing escalation of Covid-19 in the USA, possibly the world. Louisiana is picking up cases faster than Italy did at this stage of the cycle, and it only looks like it is going to get worse. The logical thing therefore has come about, and from tomorrow working from home is the only alternative. I've got my work-from-home (WFH) station all set up, it is just a case of how it all pans out.

Now over the last few yers or so I've done a lot of remote working - whether it be with to back in the Manchester office from the USA or to site whilst being based out of an office myself. It is not new to me. Nor is it really new to anyone in my profession these days. It is a global industry, a worldwide business. But never before on this type of scale.

It is going to be fascinating to see how we cope, to see how we adapt. The likelihood is that the way we worked today may be the last day we ever truly work like that. Global collaboration, worldwide hubs and virtual offices are becoming more and more the norm.

The social interaction inherent in office based environments is being eroded away in the name of functionality and efficiency. For example, my commute is short but others will have 2 or so extra hours a day to play with now. That drives productivity and profit.

We have streamlined the activities so well and developed the technologies so thoroughly. The need for human-to-human contact is slowly being removed from the equation. 

Which makes me sad. 

I love the interaction in the office, the camaraderie. I still believe two people in a room with a common purpose and all the information in front of them can make more progress than 20 people in far flung corners of the global - fighting time zones, language barriers, lag (both net and jet), firewalls and dodgy broadband connections. 

There, to me, is still nothing like sitting in front of someone and having a conversation, reading the body language and the unspoken elements. I understand the modern world (and also appreciate that this virus is not par-for-the-course) but I sometimes feel that we need those interactive elements to do our jobs properly. We can't just sit isolated in our towers and retain that level of interaction and collaboration that is so critical to so much of life on this planet. 

Human beings are always better working together, towards a common goal. Now I'm not saying that there isn't a place for remote working in the future (once this is all over) but let's not be too hasty to all retreat to our bunkers and work from there. We are social creatures, in work as well as play.

So tomorrow is the big step for us all. As I said, I've done this remote working before - but both the scale of it, and the reasons for it, fill me with some trepidation for what is to come. However, as I've tried to put across on this blog, the future is something that is going to get here soon enough - you might as well embrace it while you can, however odd it looks.

Till tomorrow, Tom