On New Year’s Eve 2020, we clinked glasses, bidding adieu to a year that was, by all accounts, stranger than fiction.
Little did we know that in December 2021 we would be experiencing a collective case of deja vu.
Employers that were ramping up to welcome staff in office have reversed course, shuttering their shops indefinitely. Remote work came with all the trappings of a revolutionary labour movement, zero-minute commutes, better workplace health, worker happiness and better retention.
Will remote work continue to be a major trend for 2022?
Let’s break down the three biggest trends we can expect next year.
Trend 1: Negotiating the Great Return
While many employees and employee advocates alike will continue to sing the praises of remote workplaces into 2022, all employers are not as enthused.
While Google has pushed back its return-to-work date — originally slated for Jan. 10 — it is facing a work culture crisis. At a year-end all-hands virtual meeting, CEO Sundar Pichai addressed employee concerns regarding company culture, in particular a loss of “candor” and “honesty,” with bureaucracy taking their place. Pichai referenced how remote work might very well be the problem: “We are obviously communicating at scale now — to over 150,000 people and particularly through the pandemic, doing it all remotely.”
He pointed out virtual meetings have changed how the company communicates, noting, “Sometimes, I do think that people are...
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