We’re all trying to find balance in the new normal as we rapidly change our working behaviour.
So let’s preface this article by asking how you’re getting used to version 3 of Amazemeet? We’d love to know if it’s helping you have better meetings?
Back to the business at hand. It seems like we’re all in this together right now, which in some ways is great, everyones having to deal with the same change. For some it will be short-lived for some a new way of working is being ushered in whether we like it or not. Our experience at Amazemeet hasn’t really changed, we’ve always been a distributed business but for those just starting out on this journey, especially more traditional companies, it’s a brave new world.
We’re saving money that’s all that matters, right?
As many commentators more qualified than me have pointed out, this experiment with home/flexible working has been forced upon us and in most cases it’s worked out pretty well. The bottom line is, well the bottom line. If you’re a huge company with a lot of office space in London or New York then it’s costing you a huge amount of money every year. Some estimates reckon a desk in prime central London can cost upwards of £60,000/year, multiply that by 2,000 staff and the figures are astronomical. If you could halve or even quarter that demand. You do the math? But culturally many businesses and more importantly the people that work in them are still trying to find a balance. It’s great not having to spend hours commuting, but it’s also too easy to stay wedded to a computer long after you’d have left the office. Social interaction is also different, humans are after all tribal animals, we generally like spending time with other humans and that’s much harder to do online. But hey, we’ve got Zoom so we’re all good! Finding how to balance this in the future is going to present certain challenges for businesses. remote connectivity aside, how will they ensure that employees come together in a meaningful way and interact as human beings. This social interaction needs to be considered as working relationships are important for team cohesion and productivity.
The productivity fallacy
There are still people out there that think we’re more productive in an office. That’s been disproven so many times it’s untrue. In fact if you added up the time spent chatting at the water cooler, coffee trips and idly chit chat we are certainly less productive than you think. However, this is where the social cohesion in a businesses tends to be formed, that’s much harder to do online. What’s certainly true is that spending more time with family and having a better work-life balance is paramount. Happy employees are motivated, productive employees.
Connect don’t just meet.
Without the face to face interaction it’s super important that we make time to connect. Not all conversations need to be meetings and that’s especially true when we’re relying on tools like Amazemeet to plan and run our meetings. Making time to speak to colleagues is vital, it’s what keeps us sane, productive and moving forward. It’s a key part of the balance required to make remote working work.
Tell us how you’re finding a balance in the new normal?
We’d love to hear your tips and discoveries over the last few months? What’s worked and not worked and how you’ve started to find a balance?
