Have digital tools replaced the office?

If work from home works so well, why does anyone still have office space?

That's a question we've been forced to consider as wave after wave of the pandemic has limited our ability to work together in one place. And it's one that's going to affect the way we all work in the future.

There's a vibe going around that, now that our teams have had a taste of that flexible work freedom, they'll never want to go back to their 9-5 desk routine. That may be true for those of us fortunate enough to have a home with office space, great wi-fi, and all of the tools that we need to get our work done. But what about the recent grad living with three roommates in a 700 square foot apartment? For some, the workplace isn't just a desk, it's a place to meet interesting people, learn, grow, and get access to all of the office toys that we don't have at home (it's become painfully obvious how few of us own printers).

As with many things that we've experienced over the past year, there are lessons that we can take with us to combine the best of both worlds.

Our team has a saying that the office should be a resource, not an obligation. Offices have huge advantages for teams: There are places to meet and collaborate, we can exchange ideas without booking a call, and sometimes the greatest leaps forward happen almost accidentally, as the result of an overheard conversation, or a break room brain-dump.

In our recent round of hiring interviews we asked every candidate whether they preferred an everyday office culture, a fully supported work from home arrangement, or a hybrid. Perhaps unsurprisingly, every person answered definitively that they'd prefer a bit of both. I happen to think that's great news for employers who are able to create that type of multi-location workplace.

Digital tools have made it possible for us to collaborate remotely, and I hope we never go back to travelling across town for a 1-hour status update meeting. Instead, we can start to match the right tools for each job that needs to be done. Here are a few ways that we can start to categorize the various tools we have at our disposal:

• In-person office work = Collaborative, creative, messy tasks. Great for solving problems and getting people aligned.
• Out of office work = Uninterrupted tasks. Best for mid-project production and independent idea generation.
• Virtual meetings = Quick, informative, and transactional. Best suited for one, or two-way interactions (ie. Q&A). Not well suited for multi-directional communications (ie. brainstorms).
• Digital communication tools (Slack, Notion, Teams, Google Workspace, etc.) = Asynchronous knowledge-transfer. Best for sharing the results of our work done elsewhere and asking follow-up questions. Should not be the paces where work happens.

Perhaps the best part of the future of work is going to be the way that we (employers) are able to choose. People used to think that we must be doing something wrong when we told them we didn't have set office hours. Now we all get to build the type of work environment that's going to be right for us, which means that, more than ever, it's going to be important to pay attention to our people and ensure they're getting the tools and spaces that they need.

Written by Conner Galway, Junction Consulting