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Maybe this isn't what you were thinking, but it's had an impact on my life:<br />
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I've switched to working from home a lot more due to the virus. I'm not spending 2 hours a day travelling and my productivity has also gone up due to less interruptions. With the extra time I'm able to take a nice walk along an old railway line after dropping the kids at school.<br />
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I've just got a coffee beans grinder so I still have great coffee, similar to the place I stopped at on the way to work.<br />
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I've dusted off my exercise bike and kettle bells for working out at home, which are substituting for the gym right now. It's great to be able to decide to do a session on the bike when I feel the need and just be able to get on straight away.<br />
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I could have made any or all of these changes before the virus came, but I didn't...
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People are predicting that this virus is going to change the way big companies work forever.<br />
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I predict that a lot of big businesses will start to close some of their offices... without firing anyone. Instead, the people they hire will work from home.<br />
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Internet companies, like the ones we're involved with, have tended toward remote work for a long time. We hire contractors and even full-time employees who are required to report into meetings from home, while we only keep track of their work based on what the business actually needs. Then, we pay them accordingly.<br />
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But bigger companies haven't been doing that. They still believe in this idea that an office inspires a positive workplace culture, that having a lot of people together in one place is better to preserve the culture. They also believe in keeping track of people's productivity by keeping track of their attendance. It's the old way, from the days when a large plurality of the workforce worked in factories where they had to clock in and clock out. It's hard to let go.<br />
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Now, coronavirus is forcing some companies to close their doors to prevent spread and further loss of productivity. Some of those employees who were working from home will never return to the office again. <br />
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Unfortunately, this has a downside for employees. Companies that can no longer keep track of attendance need to keep track of total time worked. Applications like Hubstaff and Upwork's time tracker act to keep track of an employee's activity on their computer, which, if installed on the employee's own personal computer, takes away some of their computer privacy. It also takes away some of their freedom, as rules can be set on these apps to disregard breaks. So an employee that normally was in the office 8 hours a day, now has to be logged onto the computer for 8 hours of total 'working' time per day. Some of you might see this as a positive, however many employees will certainly fight against this. Companies do, however, have an interest in making sure that they're getting their money's worth out of their employees, so it's understandable why they may reach in such a manner.<br />
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This virus will certainly test productivity changes, and hopefully analysts are keeping track of productivity while employees are working from home. Studies in the past have found varying results when it comes to work from home's effect on productivity. We'll see what happens, but I wouldn't be surprised if the amount of permanent offices shrinks down as a result of the virus.</div>
