The Future Of Remote Work

WAMU 88.5 | By Haili Blassingame

Published June 1, 2021 at 3:26 PM CDT

Employees at tech startup company Fast work at their desks in the office on in San Francisco, California.

The pandemic upended work life for many Americans. Millions of people lost their jobs and the service and health care workers were suddenly pushed to the frontlines.

And then there were those, typically from more privileged backgrounds, who worked from home.

Cal Newport, author of “A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload,” writes about some of the challenges of this arrangement:

The home is filled with the familiar, and the familiar snares our attention, destabilizing the subtle neuronal dance required to think clearly. When we pass the laundry basket outside our home office (a.k.a. our bedroom), our brain shifts toward a household-chores context, even when we would like to maintain focus on our e-mail, or an upcoming Zoom meeting, or whatever else that needs to get done.

With COVID restrictions lifting across the country, more and more companies are rolling out their “back to work” plans.

There are plenty of people eager to get back to the office. But for those who aren’t, what might the future of remote work look like?