To keep on working remotely, or come back to the offices - the new post-pandemic dilemma for Big Tech and Banking

 

During the pandemic, we have already seen terrifying reports on the work conditions of some remote employees, and have heard stories about unfair treatment from some of the biggest banks. Of course, the remote working environment depends heavily on the institution itself, and there is no universal recipe for it. But as far as we know, banks are struggling with remote working much more than Big Tech giants do. Why?

In February, Goldman Sachs rejected the idea that their workers could keep on working from home indefinitely. They backed this decision with worry about the organization’s ‘connective tissue’, and possible losses of ‘cultural capital’.

The terrifying data

All this hit the news right around the time when the latest Behavox report did too. The company researched employees in the UK, USA, and Canada and their findings are really frightening. The extent of the aggression the employees are witnessing, as well as gender, and racial abuse only exposes the gaps in HR teams’ and C-suites’ competencies. This also exposes the exponential amounts of work that needs to be done ASAP.

How many people are really influenced by banks’ decisions?

It is said that in the United Kingdom alone, there are 1 million people employed in the banking sector. This is a great number, and it only shows the scale of ‘work from home endeavor’. Imagine the costs of providing all the workers with tools enabling them to work from home. Also, imagine the amount of SurveilTech monitoring needed to ensure the smooth (and safe) functioning of a bank.

The costs and amount of effort needed to keep the institution going while still working from home are astounding. This is why it shouldn’t be peculiar that the banks can’t wait to go back to normality.

To read more, feel invited to read the fascinating Disruption Banking piece on remote working: https://disruptionbanking.com/2021/03/31/work-from-home-or-not-the-question-that-banks-and-big-tech-face-in-the-post-covid-era/.