COVID-19: 3 Passing Fads You Should Ignore

The last four months have been an overload at times around Gyan on how the world has changed. I think a lot of it is just an overreaction. The world has been and will remain normal after this in more ways than you may think. There could be some sustainable changes, but those were happening anyway. The pandemic just helped speed them up. Here are some of my thoughts. I understand some of you will agree, and some of you won’t. Either way, I would like to hear from you. So please feel free to comment/react to it on our LinkedIn channel. 

Work from home

There is a lot of news about how working from home is the new normal and how everyone is saving on office space and getting employees to work from home almost permanently. It’s just a temporary phase, guys. Working from home is not as effective or productive as working from an office in majority of the cases. 

In some cases, it is. People who are more productive working from home would be far more likely to work as “freelancers” rather than “employees”. So what will happen is that work from the office will resume as soon as this is over. 

Meanwhile, companies will look at getting a lot of their work done via the “gig economy” be coding or marketing or sales, or delivery. The gig economy is an old trend and will only gain velocity post-pandemic. This way, organizations have the best of both worlds to increase productivity. The workforce, which is more productive to work from the office will work from the office as employees, and the workforce which is more productive working from home will work as contractors/freelancers, all digitally connected.

Robots will take over

Another popular piece of news is how robots are taking over everything from manufacturing to hotel room cleaning to avoid human contact and hence infection. Sorry to bust your enthusiasm, but that’s not happening anytime soon. The tech is not ready yet. What will happen, though, is the movement toward automation to reduce human intervention. Again the main aim would be to increase productivity. We already see it happening in retail execution in emerging markets where mundane jobs are handed over to technology, apps, and analytics. A trend that’s only accelerating due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Contactless

This one is my favorite. People are going gung ho about how social distancing is here to say. Look, humans are social animals. Every given opportunity, we are going to assemble. So as soon as we are even close to normal, our vacations, in-person parties, and coffee counter gossip are coming back. 

What will happen though is, due to an increase in the gig economy and automation there will be lesser humans at the workplace and hence there will be less contact. So it’s not “contactless”, it’s “less contact”. Again a trend we already saw gets the acceleration. We love to think that it will be multitouch through digital. Instead of reducing contact, businesses will increase it with the help of digital technology.

Do let me know about more such fads/hype you have come across just cause there is a pandemic in the world! Happy to bust more myths.