The Office is Closed V3.0

In January and May 2013, I published two books on Working from Home and what Collaboration in remote working looks like. In 2017, version two condensed the books into one and a case study compiled to look at the costs of traditional office space included.Now, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic companies, whether they like it or not, the majority perhaps not, have been forced to adopt, not experiment with, remote working by virtue of regulatory lockdown. Their inherent weakness, lack of agility, lack of planning, and managerial comprehension has been laid bare. This pandemic is not a bad case of flu where employees get sick, are off work for a week and then return. When managers leave at the end of the day, they are used to the lights turning off, and strolling to packed elevators with the sense that nothing is changing, or, needs to change.COVID-19 is very different. Infected people self-isolate, and end up in hospital, not at home with a cough and cold drink. When they go to hospital they tend to end up in Intensive Care, people's lungs are damaged, often severely if they survive. Some die. The daily infection rate and death count are published by governments and health organizations, on TV, and social media. It is a global phenomenon, national borders are closed, people cannot travel, precautions are exhaustive and exhausting. COVID-19 will be here for a long time. Even if a vaccine is developed, not everyone will accept or use it, and if like the flu shot, it has to be refreshed each year, not everyone will do so. Social distancing and face masks are now behavior. Labor lawyers are interviewed on Social Media and Television discussing what employees can do if their employer is not creating an environment designed to reduce transmission of the infection. If employees are infected as a result of inadequate management decisions, how the company can be sued is top of the list.Work place safety teams can no longer worry about who has CPR and first Aid Training, infection; social distancing, sanitizing the workspace, and equipment, Personal Protective Equipment [PPE] and what to do when infectious people are found to be present are now on their list. Managers demanding people be physically present when remote working is available are a company liability.