The global pandemic has changed the attitude to home-office forever. Now it is obvious that working in the home-office mode has become not only an emergency measure in the fight against COVID-19 but also a new reality. We tell you about how home-office affected the world below.

Global changes

Stanford University economist Nicholas Bloom studies the social implications of the new "work-at-home economy" and the challenges of mass adoption.

For example, social inequality that occurs, at least in the United States. While ones still get paid and move up the career ladder, others are left behind. This applies to those people who, due to their activities, cannot switch to home-office. 

Bloom estimates that the loss of the physical presence of office employees reduced overall daily spending at restaurants, bars, and stores in the city centre by more than 50%. 

The real estate market is also changing — the average rent in major cities fell by 6.1%. People have significantly reduced the need for expensive housing in the city centre. 

What prevents employees from working at home as effectively as in the office

There are also local problems that many employees who have switched to home-office face.

• Lack of a workplace. More than half of the respondents in Bloom's study who now work from home, work either in shared rooms or in their bedrooms.
• Security issue. Not all employees install licensed antivirus software on their home computers if they even care about security at all and do not follow dubious links.
• Personal circumstances. Not everyone can work comfortably from home. Some people get lost in the mode, others are hindered by children or animals, and some simply find it difficult to adapt to the new working conditions.

Whether we like it now or not, home-office is the format of the future, which will lead to even more changes.

Home-office in YuSMP Group

For us, the health of our employees and customers is a priority, so the company immediately switched to home-office moe in the spring. 

In General, the YuSMP Group Studio was ready for this change, as we are used to working with clients from different cities and countries. The team has already actively used digital tools for setting and controlling tasks, so we managed to avoid chaos in our work processes. 

We created profile chats in the corporate messenger to always stay in touch and quickly resolve issues. A clear work schedule does not allow the working day to stretch — it helps to avoid overwork. 

Now our employees work in a comfortable environment, do physical exercises twice a day altogether, which not only helps the body but also strengthens the team spirit. 

We have always held engagement events, and even when doing home-office, we have found solutions for activities. For example, we played quizzes online, took master classes together, and met on video calls for training sessions.   

These events help employees stay energized and ready for new challenges!