How working from home changed during the pandemic

One year ago a lot changed for us. The way we interacted with others, the way we shopped or learned, and especially how we worked.
"What happened was, all these people who said one day we are kind of, sort of, maybe should have a plan...it was not a drill, we had to make it work," says Wayne Turmel, Co-Founder of the Remote Leadership Institute.
For those that enjoyed working from home, productivity ranked high of the reasons why.
"When I'm working from home, I'm alone, there are no distractions, there's no hey I got to go get another cup of coffee, hey I have to get some water. When you go to the office you look for excuses to leave your desk and when you're working from home there seems like there's a lot more focus," says Luke Schuster, Regional Sales Manager with Nationwide Mortgage Bankers.
The downsides of working from home during the pandemic, according to Turmel, were the lack of disconnecting from work, juggling work while multiple family members are home, but one of the biggest issues was not being able to collaborate with others.
"What we have learned is the most corrosive thing, the thing that is most impacting people is isolation. Human beings in our society get 60% of our interpersonal communication through work," adds Turmel.
Whether it was living expenses or just to take care of their family when the pandemic many of those that worked in larger cities decided they could just move back to their hometown and work from there.
"Think what it's like in rural Ohio, kids graduate school they go away to college and they don't come back. Whereas now, if I can work anywhere and want to take my kids back to grandma's in Zanesville and buy a house for half of what it costs in Pittsburgh, yeah I'm going to do that," adds Turmel.
Whether it was a good experience or a bad one, working from home isn't going anywhere and those that I spoke with said they'll be keeping the model even after the Pandemic is over.
"I think it will continue for me. A lot of appointments nowadays are electronic via DocuSign, but there are a lot of options out there. So if I don't have to go in and meet someone face to face I'll just do it from home. I have two appointments today, they're both going to be from home," says Bob Gratz, Loan Originator with Amerifirst Home Mortgage.
Turmel also adds, expect to see more and more companies adopting hybrid work models as we move forward out of the pandemic.