#WFH: 'The nowhere firm'...brought to you by Covid-19...

From this week's The Economist:

The pandemic may lead some companies that have outsourced lots of operations to the cloud to go a step further and get rid of at least some offices. "I just don't think we are going to go back [to business as usual]", says Frank Slootman, boss of Snowflake, a database firm. Even digerati like Twitter plan to turn more virtual.

Still, some businesses suddenly forced into remote work will rue the experience, predicts Mr Gascoigne. Without a learning period they will get all the drawbacks and few of the benefits. Brainstorming and other creative activities are possible online but take practice—and even then feel like an imperfect ersatz of an actual room. Recruiting and breaking in new employees is hard virtually. According to one recent survey of 3,500 remote workers, one in five struggles with loneliness. That is partly why GitHub and Trello operate optional offices.

Most businesses will always have to be located somewhere and need people to work side by side. But as technology improves, swathes of the knowledge economy will gradually move more functions online, 

Read the whole article, The nowhere firm, online here: https://www.economist.com/node/21782654?frsc=dg%7Ce