Zoom Was A Thing In The Past?
Even though applications such as Zoon sound like the most recent and popular downloaded software of 2020, virtual meetings have actually been around for quite some time.
In fact, virtual offices have been such a hot topic that scholars and researchers have written multiple journals published to universities. For the sake of our topic, let us dive into Pete Abrahamsson Lindebald’s “Organisational Effects of Virtual Meetings,”.
Published in 2015, this journal holds valid pros and cons to virtual meetings for the Swedish Government and large corporations. According to the journal,
“ Swedish national policy supports the implementation of VMs as one of the solutions towards low carbon infrastructure and sustainable transportation,” (Lindebald, 2015, P. 113).
Just from the introductory pages, I learned 2 points. Firstly, virtual meetings could be beneficial to the environment. Especially nowadays, with most employees in America still working from home, people are naturally going out less, decreasing their use of transportation. In that sense, the use of less vehicles improves people’s carbon footprint. Although I am unsure about Sweden’s home culture, it is safe to say that American household electricity consumption has drastically increased since the quarantine situation. Sure, there is less of a need to go out, but families will naturally find other reasons to go out and live in their “new normal.”. Humans cannot be trapped in a house forever, and if anything, more people have been exploring the great outdoors by camping out of state. This means people are still driving to places.
In terms of the internal household, the majority of people do not have a choice but to cook, work, and relax at home. The added water, electric and gas requirements have undoubtedly increased in every household in America. Simply put, yes, I agree that workers are not visiting the office as much and have possibly reduced their gas expenses, but other forms of energy have been consumed, hurting the environment just as much. Hence, the virtual meeting setting could alleviate the carbon footprint of bigger companies but might not make a great difference for smaller ones.
The journal also provides a mind map concerning important factors of virtual meetings.
One topic I would like to expand upon is employee satisfaction. We can debate all about the pros and cons of virtual office spaces but if workers do not welcome it, then this cannot be implemented at all. Linebald went over great benefits of working from home.
“Working virtually is expected to enhance our possibilities to make more efficient use of the skills and competencies available inside and outside the organization,” (Lindebald, 2017, P. 117)
Working fully remote essentially provides more time for workers to do their job. There’s no need to book a conference room or dress from the bottom down. But who said those small tasks weren’t necessary? If anything, the administrative to-do’s such as buying coffee before heading to the office increase human interaction. With the current situation, we have been stripped of a lot of “fun” pre-work activities.
With all of that in mind, we can say that online offices will become a thing of the future, just as it is now. But for the sake of being human, companies and governments should consider keeping some kind of in-office requirements for workers to physically keep in contact. A live group setting is simply irreplaceable.
References
Lindeblad, P. (2016). Organisational effects of virtual meetings. Journal of Cleaner Production, 123, P.113–123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.08.058
