The Zoom Economy

It's interesting how different people are dealing with the move to "online working" that's been going on around the country over the last 9 months. In my own case, our (expensive) offices have essentially been shut down since mid-March and although I pop in now and again to look after various computers that need attention I'm not particularly missing "office life", nor does it seem to have affected my productivity in any way. If truth be told my productivity now is probably higher now than it was this time last year! Much less in the way of people "hovering" around my desk for political rather than functional purposes, and distractions from people bringing their bloody puppies, babies and hyper-active toddlers in for people to gawp at have fallen to zero (rolls eyes)  In all seriousness though, I find I'm working less hours and yet getting more done?

Work-life balance is definitely tracking in the right direction, in fact we switched to a 9 day fortnight over the Summer, i.e. people took Friday afternoons off, and again, productivity was just as good as a normal 10 day fortnight (just goes to show what people used to do on a Friday afternoon in the office!) As a consequence of the emergence of the so called, "Zoom Economy" I'm seriously considering moving house to somewhere with much nicer scenery, less cars and warmer weather than the UK home counties, so long as it has good broadband connectivity and decent beer of course! I was speaking to a business colleague today who has "worked from home" on the island of Tenerife for the last 2 months in a fully serviced apartment with hot-tub, pool and veranda overlooking the ocean all for a few hundred Euro a month, and frankly no one even noticed, apart from his own family! Isn't it amazing how, in every crisis, there's always an upside to be found somewhere!