“Zooming” in on the Future of Work Collaboration

With more than half of the workforce currently working from home, Zoom has quickly become synonymous with video conferencing. Zoom usage increased 67% between Jan and mid-March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic (Apptopia), and is also now used by 90,000 schools in 20 countries to teach remotely. Despite the recent public scrunity on Zoom’s security breaches, Zoom’s user counts continue to rise and firms, even financial institutions with strict compliance policies, are starting to adopt in order to catch up with work efficiency.

Since I started working from home in the beginning of March, I’ve been invited to at least 100 Zooms and personally had attened at least 50+ for management meetings, virtual happy hours, quick catch-ups etc, and while my experience has been positive, I can’t help but disagree with people claiming “Zoom is the future of work” or “videoconferencing will replace 80% of in-person meetings”. At least not with the platforms we have now.

Every workplace is a community, and within each community there are always a few different types of activities going on. Work is of course an important priority, but so is the social aspect of work. The importance of…