Trends in Work Culture in 2021 (1)

We are living a historical moment that is redefining absolutely everything. It has transformed the way we relate to each other, our leisure time, the way we shop and, of course, the way we work.

In 2021 we start a year in which coronavirus is no longer something new in our lives, but a protagonist; but we do it with the lesson of all those previous months. We are going to use that knowledge to try to anticipate which trends in the workplace are going to stand out the most from now on.

The first thing that comes to mind is a word repeated endlessly: telework. But this in itself is not a trend: we could almost say that it is the new standard in professional relations.

Obviously, as you will see below, remote working has a decisive influence on most of these trends, but it is not the only thing that will define the next year in the workplace.

It may have taken a global pandemic for many companies to be "forced" to teleworking.

There has always been a lot of reluctance, even in contexts such as the e-commerce that lends itself so well to it. In Spain, we are used to face-to-face work and find it difficult to assume that things can be done differently.

The reality is that this boost to teleworking throughout the year 2020 has shown that it can be just as productive and efficient, that technology allows us to fill some gaps such as meetings, that it makes it easier for workers to find a balance, that it is more environmental and, most importantly from the point of view of the company: that it is more profitable as it can eliminate unnecessary or redundant costs.

Without a doubt, in 2021 we will see the reality of teleworking become even more consolidated.

One of the problems with the conventional work model is that employees are forced to spend many hours away from home.

Even if the working day is not longer than 8 hours, we have to add up all the time spent commuting.

The result is, in a way, people who live from Monday to Friday devoted to work. Practically their entire personal and family sphere is displaced until Saturday and Sunday, so their level of satisfaction suffers and they are more likely to "burn out" in the dedication to a store.

Teleworking has the immense advantage of giving the worker back many hours of their own time each week and is also more flexible, so that the feeling of not getting to their personal priorities is lessened.

Office walls no longer limit workers. In 2021, we will see how remote work takes us to other locations very easily.

This will be beneficial at all levels, as it allows us to do field work, be more reactive to any opportunity or incident, and even have the freedom to take advantage of personal leisure until the last minute by working on the road without productivity suffering.

It seems that the concept of going to sign in to an office with a coffee machine and metal filing cabinets from the last century is finally over.

Derived from workers´ubiquity, comes that of the business itself. The concept of enterprise becomes much more fluid.

By freeing ourselves from offices and firms, we make all kinds of commitments to the physical. If we consider that business is starting to be more important on the other side of the world, we can go there for 6 months until it is perfectly adjusted and then come back.

This also has a very important potential savings. Keep in mind that you can operate in the main markets of the world working from a country or an area in which it is much cheaper to settle down.

This is not directly a consequence of teleworking, but it does have a certain importance in it.

We have realized that we were tied to an outdated model, an absolutely archaic way of working. To what extent is it beneficial for the company to have a worker dedicating 8 hours a day to us? Wouldn't it be more logical to assign him a reasonable task and a deadline to do it?

The moment we stop seeing the boss as a paternalistic figure who guards his workers, we will see how people find greater motivation than is often believed in doing their jobs. If they are also given the power to dispose of their time and manage their work, we will see productivity rise.