We are now roughly a year into the COVID pandemic, and for many of us working in the technology industry things changed quite drastically. Or did they?

The new normal

It is Monday morning, 8:25am. I am sitting at my desk, sipping on my coffee, enjoying the view at my garden, right out my office window and I am ready to start the week. I log into my computer and open Zoom, my employer’s video conferencing tool of choice. In a few minutes, me and my colleagues will have our daily standup meeting, discussing what blockers we have, and how we proceed with our tasks.

There really isn’t much difference between this experience and the one I had a year ago, when I was still working in the office. Except that everybody in consistently on time, and we can actually “walk the board”. Let’s be honest, it is 2021, most companies do manage their tasks in JIRA or some other digital tool. If there’s a physical board at all, it’s usually out of date anyways.

Don’t get me wrong, I like physical boards. They great for visualizing ideas and concepts and drawing fancy charts. But I’ve never ever seen a team consistently and timely moving around postits on a physical board. Apart from the fact that most of the time, postits just keep falling off the board anyway.

After the standup, a coworker and I decide it’s a good time for some pair programming. So we do that. One person, thd driver, shares a screen, the other one provides ideas, feedback and guidance. We don’t have to cram two chairs behind one desk in an office that just wasn’t designed for two people to work together at one desk. Instead we each enjoy the comfortability of our own, well-selected ergonomic equipment, our standing desks and our monitors arranged just the wayw e like it.

Sounds like a dream? Well, it is not. It is the new normal. And I like it.

The new challenges

But of course, there are challenges. The biggest one is probably the lack of social interaction. Water-cooler talks, spontaneous coffee breaks, or just a quick chat in the hallway just don’t happen in a virtual environment. At times, especially when you are one of the people considering their coworkers as friends, this can be quite hard.

Of course, there’s an easy fix way to alleviate this. Virtual coffee breaks or even virtual lunches are quite common now. And while it’s not the same as meeting in person, it’s still a good way to keep in touch with your coworkers.

Another challenge can be the lack of separation between work and private life. When your office is just a few steps away from your living room, it’s easy to just “quickly check your emails in the evening” and end up coding a fix until midnight. There is another side to this coin, though. Personally, I have found out that I enjoy the flexibility and I am much more productive when I can simply take a longer break at around 3pm, go for a walk with my dog or to the gym and then continue to work on my problem in the evening. I suppose this has to do with a process called “incubating” - when you are stuck with a problem, and you just can’t seem to find a solution, it’s often a good idea to just let it rest for a while and come back to it later. Oftentimes you will find that the solution comes to you much easier, even if you have not consciously thought about the problem in particular.

Is it a temporary blip or a permanent change?

It’s interesting to note that first studies investigating the productivity of home-office workers aren’t really conclusive as to the impact Some found out that employees seem to feel more productive when working from home, others found out that they feel less productive. The same can be said from the company’s perspective. Companies like GitLab, can already build on a vast experience with processes and tools adapted to remote work. For others, the transition was much harder, and they are still struggling to find the right balance. Another cosideration that often comes up is a rather ethical one: as a technology worker, you are privileged to be able to work from home. This is something, that is simply not possible for a mechanic, a nurse or a teacher. Policymakers and companies alike ask whether this is fair to them.

For the moment, it looks like the goal of most companies, especially the more traditional ones, such as banks or corporate consultants is to return to the office, at least partially. A hybrid model could be a good compromise, where employees can choose to work from home at least some days every week.