In the News

We are lucky to live in a time when we have an abundance of digital communications tools at our fingertips. However, the thing with tools is they each have a purpose they are best suited towards.

If you’ve grown used to the quiet of working at home, the thought of returning to an office with other people might make you concerned about having to readjust to trying to tune out other people’s conversations so you can get some work done.

Pandemic life has been tumultuous, but has also been an interesting experiment for the workforce to see just how many careers can actually be performed remotely. With that newfound knowledge, it’s expected even after the pandemic that many positions will remain remote for the sake of convenience.

Advancing technology has enhanced many areas of our lives. But there is no denying new tech has also changed some workplaces to the point of eliminating roles formerly performed by people. Now with artificial intelligence improving every year, it has some fearing it could lead to widespread replacement of workers in favor of machines.

While we’re all hoping for much of life to return to how it used to be after the pandemic ends, the changes we’ve seen to the workplace have not been all bad. In fact, many analysts are predicting some form of remote work is here to stay and that that isn’t a bad thing.

Many people have had to adjust to their work or school being virtual for over a year now, so they might believe they’ve got it all figured out at this point. Yet the reality is this situation is still very new for everyone, people are still figuring out the rules, and there isn’t a whole lot of training on how to make the virtual adjustment.

With many companies having to do layoffs over the last year it has often fallen to the remaining employees to pick up the slack. This means job roles have become blurred and workers are having to develop new skills to stay relevant.

Companies have not been able to avoid the fact that the pandemic has required a shift in how employees operate. Sure, work continues to get done, but many workers are feeling disconnected, burnt out, and just frustrated trying to juggle the mingling of their home and job.

Now that everyone has had to become familiar with virtual communication, it has helped many grow accustomed to the different ways of doing so. However, talking via video call, an email, or a group chat all convey very different tones to your message. While each of these tools is incredibly useful, using them interchangeably is opening yourself up to a breach of etiquette.

Whether a team of employees is scattered around the country, or just so large that it makes communication challenging, a lot of companies have turned to team collaboration software to keep everyone connected. Two of the most prominent examples of this software are Slack and Microsoft Teams.