09-30-2021, 02:57 PM
Workers are returning to the office only to be on Zoom all dayMany employees say they're operating at work the same way they were at home.
As many office workers head back to the office - even as the delta variant spreads across the United States - employees are facing a bizarre new reality: They're still spending most of their time isolated and glued to their computers for Zoom meetings, email and Slack. With more companies implementing permanent hybrid working options - in which some employees work from home and others in the office - the virtual nature of work may far outlive the pandemic. And with it, so may the quirks of the new office environment.
"There's this weird tension," said Brian Kropp, chief of HR research for the research firm Gartner. "We want everyone back in the office, but we still want everyone to do work by video."
The way people work in offices now doesn't look like how it did before the pandemic. And the technology that allowed many employees to work from home has followed them back into the office, from video conferencing to messaging services and collaborative work programs.
Zoom's latest earnings suggest that video conferencing continues to be in high demand despite offices reopening and employees working in-person. During the second quarter, the company reported that revenue rose 54 percent from a year earlier to $1.02 billion, though that's a slowdown compared to the 191 percent pop the company reported the previous quarter. Still, Zoom marked its first billion-dollar revenue quarter and had more than 504,000 customers using its service.
"Sales meetings have moved from conference rooms to Slack and to Zoom," Salesforce President and Chief Operating Officer Bret Taylor noted during a recent earnings call. Salesforce recently acquired Slack for $27.7 billion.
Google parent company Alphabet said during its recent earnings call its digital business tools product called Google Workspace, which includes Gmail, Google Docs, and video conferencing service Google Meet, "continues to show strong growth."
https://www.startribune.com/workers-are-...fresh=true
As many office workers head back to the office - even as the delta variant spreads across the United States - employees are facing a bizarre new reality: They're still spending most of their time isolated and glued to their computers for Zoom meetings, email and Slack. With more companies implementing permanent hybrid working options - in which some employees work from home and others in the office - the virtual nature of work may far outlive the pandemic. And with it, so may the quirks of the new office environment.
"There's this weird tension," said Brian Kropp, chief of HR research for the research firm Gartner. "We want everyone back in the office, but we still want everyone to do work by video."
The way people work in offices now doesn't look like how it did before the pandemic. And the technology that allowed many employees to work from home has followed them back into the office, from video conferencing to messaging services and collaborative work programs.
Zoom's latest earnings suggest that video conferencing continues to be in high demand despite offices reopening and employees working in-person. During the second quarter, the company reported that revenue rose 54 percent from a year earlier to $1.02 billion, though that's a slowdown compared to the 191 percent pop the company reported the previous quarter. Still, Zoom marked its first billion-dollar revenue quarter and had more than 504,000 customers using its service.
"Sales meetings have moved from conference rooms to Slack and to Zoom," Salesforce President and Chief Operating Officer Bret Taylor noted during a recent earnings call. Salesforce recently acquired Slack for $27.7 billion.
Google parent company Alphabet said during its recent earnings call its digital business tools product called Google Workspace, which includes Gmail, Google Docs, and video conferencing service Google Meet, "continues to show strong growth."
https://www.startribune.com/workers-are-...fresh=true
