The costs of covid-19 have been tragic, but the pandemic has also compressed a decade’s worth of digital innovation in areas like remote work into less than a year.

Revelation

A crisis always brings its bundle of bad and good things. Undeniably, the covid-19 crisis had and still has terrible consequences that force us to question our developed and occidental systems from a different perspective everyday. The best example is our relation to work. When we don’t have the choice but to make things continue to work we see how adaptative we can be and we realize how many options were already possible before. Companies made everything they could to continue operating with their workforce at home. An impressive investment in resources and a surprising capacity to change happened. Now that many of us gave remote work a try, a lot of people discovered a new way to balance their work and personal life. A revelation, for the vast majority of people, that a new paradigm is possible. But as soon as the health situation was getting better, a urge to return to ‘’normal’’ started to appear. Despite a successful adaptation to a critical situation a latent mentality is resurfacing and recalling all of us that the situation is exceptional. Remote work triggered a shift and I doubt that will leave no trace. Like every radical change, you can see it as a risk or as an opportunity. I am curious to see how workers will reassess their requirements, how remote work will change the work market and how companies will handle this new paradigm force. Exciting!