Prediction: If you insist on only working remotely, you may soon be obsolete.
I am predicting that over the next five years, the most valuable employees will be the ones who show up to work in person. Remote work has been fun, but there are clear warning signs about its continuation. Those warning signs present a chance to rise above the crowd.
Remote work was on the rise during the pandemic, and a whole lot of good has come out of it. Many meetings that required travel have been replaced by Zoom or the like. Efficiencies are arguably better than ever, a direct benefit of the forced pivot we made in 2020 to remote work. And let’s be honest, who didn’t enjoy working in sweatpants or athleisure every day?
But if you look a little farther, you’ll see it’s time to pivot again.
Remote work will be with us from now on, but it is shrinking quickly. The value of being together is now on the rise. This is a prime opportunity for business owners, employees and job seekers to focus on “in-office” jobs.
Here’s why:
1.Since Hybrid Work Can Happen Anywhere, Remote Workers May Become an Excessive Expense.
Study after study is showing that the number of job openings for remote work is shrinking. Yes, employers want their teams back together. But I would encourage you to think a little bit further.
Imagine if remote work becomes the norm for most industries. If an employer figures out that good solid jobs that were previously based in the United States can be moved to remote locations where labor costs are much cheaper, it will happen. Look no further than the way manufacturing jobs have left the United States for places that cost less to produce.
Think a step or two ahead with me. If a lot of great jobs remain remote, then a lot of great jobs will also leave the United States. That means smart people need to lobby for work that is in the workplace. If I’m looking for a job right now, I’m going to be looking for one that wants me in the office. And once I’m there, I’m going to prove that I can do my job, and add value on-site in a way that a remote worker never could. I predict that this will happen in the workplace, and that those who insist on remote work will end up becoming an overindulgent expense.
2.The Rise Of The Machines
If you’ve been watching the rise of artificial intelligence and chat GPT, then you know that some of our jobs are going to change and perhaps be replaced in the next several years.
Just last month, the second-highest trending article on LinkedIn was about how chat GPT correctly predicted the ending mark for the stock market for the day. Artificial intelligence can now score a perfect score on the entrance exam for law school, the SAT, and it won’t be long before many jobs will be replaced in the same way.
Prediction after prediction is showing that many current human jobs will be replaced by machines, and at a faster pace than we have imagined. In my mind, that means workers need to figure out how to do what computers cannot do. That is, being human.
- The Chance to Shine
What can a computer not do that we can? What can an in office person do that a remote worker cannot? There are many answers, but one that immediately comes to mind is to be present and be human in an office. After three years of isolation, I think that people are starving for community more than ever. We simply weren’t created to be alone. And virtual communication, while greatly improved from before, and much more normalized than ever, simply isn’t a replacement for being near one another in an office. I’m advising my young adult children to look for jobs that require on-site presence and to become great at human soft skills. This is how they can avoid being replaced by artificial intelligence.
Think with me about a few human soft skills that you could improve, and that you could bring to your workplace. I’m all for the rise of artificial intelligence, I think it will enhance our workplace, but it will also certainly change it. And the people who will rise above the crowd in the future are the people who will master human soft skills, human communication, and humanness.
The advance of technology can be frightening, and it can make you want to run and hide under a rock. But the best days of our workforce are ahead and not behind us. I do believe that the best workers, and those who will enjoy the best days of the future, are those who begin showing up in the office now. Those who act a little bit ahead of the trend line, and begin hiring people in the office, or looking for work in the office. I believe these people will be the trendsetters. And I believe history will smile upon them, reward them, and remember them, as being separated from all the rest.
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