What Does The “Work From Home” Revolution Mean for the Future of Business and Investing in America?

Before the coronavirus, working from home was only known to very specialized individuals with jobs mostly in the tech and online customer service industry. With the sudden rise in COVID cases, large companies with hundreds of employees who were usually in cubicle offices had to adapt to the sudden change of empty office buildings. Employees were suddenly (and with much difficulty) taught how to use online chat and video call services such as Zoom, Skype, and Microsoft Teams. 

    Employees were told to join online meetings as usual, but without being in their typical work environment of an office building, employees were struggling with joining meetings on time, or even getting out of their beds and changing out of their pajamas. While this method of online meetings was very rocky and came with its fair share of difficulties at first, the United States workforce showed how they can get the job done, whether it be from home or an office building. 

 

From March 2020, until now, corporate companies have seen record levels of productivity from their employees. Furthermore, workers no longer had to make the often long and tedious commute to work; with the change to online meetings workers no longer could call out for sick days. Now fast forward to the present day, many employees rarely commute to work more than three times a week- simply because there is no need to do so. Many large corporate companies have seen the same, if not greater, amounts of work getting done by their employees when they are attending meetings and completing tasks online. 

 

Many potential impacts working from home can have on the financial decisions you make. First off, there is a large shift in demand for office space. Companies no longer need 8-story buildings with hundreds of cubicles, when the same amount of work can be achieved at home. This means many corporate businesses have downsized their office buildings. With companies no longer needing large office space, this issue brings up a significant change in the commercial real estate market which is important to be cognizant of. 

 

Secondly, there has been a large shift in the demands of technology that companies need to get work done from remote locations. Many businesses now have to invest in large-scale technological infrastructures, such as high-speed internet for their employees, cybersecurity for all devices, and large-scale online meeting platforms that can have hundreds to thousands of employees in one virtual room at the same time. 

Finally, the work culture in the United States has changed entirely. Remote work has necessitated a shift in culture and management processes within the company. The most successful companies have adapted the pandemic to their work format entirely while remaining cost-efficient and productive throughout the whole corporation. 

 

As we have all learned from the pandemic, the best companies can pivot and remain on top of their sectors in business no matter what happens. Remote work will likely persist for the foreseeable future so it is best to embrace the change and learn how to properly manage your portfolio to stay dominant in the ever-changing financial markets.