The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we work. Huge numbers of people are now working from home. Some businesses will never return to a traditional office setting, requiring employees to present themselves at 8 AM sharp.
Microsoft is fully aware of these changes in the workplace. As such, it is launching WorkLab, a new publication to help businesses and other organizations get to grips with the evolving landscape.
What Is Microsoft WorkLab?
In a post on the official Microsoft blog, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams, Jared Spataro, explained that WorkLab is “a new digital publication devoted to illuminating the future of work.”
So, what does that mean?
As a world-leading technology company, Microsoft is well placed to gather information and further research into improving work environments across the board.
WorkLab will become a “destination for sharing science-based insight and thoughtful, compelling stories on how work is changing—even as the realities of work imposed by the pandemic are teaching us new lessons.”
At the time of launch, the WorkLab homepage displays stories exploring how the post-pandemic workplace could look. These include creating a healthier meeting culture, how you can focus and promote well-being in the “Always-On Economy,” and the bits of traditional work we’ve lost and what we’ve gained in exchange.
Of course, the tally of losses and gains was hardly clear-cut. A plus for some was a big minus for others. For some jobs, work from home, away from office distractions, had been a blessing; for managers and workers in more collaborative fields, trying to replicate the free-for-all creativity of brainstorming sessions had been brutal.
There are also some interesting insights from throughout the pandemic, illustrating the monumental shift to work-from-home models.
As you might expect, there is a strong focus on Microsoft’s products and how it has helped in various guises throughout the pandemic. But there are also interesting stories on WorkLab, such as how Microsoft Teams Together Mode came about and its development process.
Microsoft WorkLab Evaluates the Future of Work
WorkLab is then set to become a research portal of sorts, helping Microsoft shape the future of work in the immediate.
The post-pandemic work environment could well be drastically different. Microsoft is far from the only tech company or organization considering how to address a workplace more accustomed to working from home, but that may also want periodic social interactions or the choice to come to the office as they so choose.
As Slack co-founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield said to the BBC, “We all know that work will never be the same, even if we don’t yet know all the ways in which it will be different.”