The “New” Work Necessities: One Year Later

In our previous blog post, we took a look at the reality of the new “office life” – our shift to remote work, the increased reliance on technology, the change in our daily commute, and the growing need to maintain a solid work-life balance. With this shift came a reliance on a new set of necessary tools for the workday.

Supportive home office furniture.

Using kitchen counter stools, dining room tables, or sofas and coffee tables for a workspace is fine for a short time, but eventually has led to aches and pains. Investing in home office staples – whether it was a real desk, ergonomic chair, or computer stand – became necessary to facilitate a comfortable and supportive home office.

Video conferencing devices.

Video is providing a lifeline for companies and teams to continue work without geographic constraints or safety concerns. Professionals now rely on video conferencing tools like Zoom and Microsoft Teams to communicate. Days that were once spent in conference rooms have now turned into hours on camera, so much so that “Zoom fatigue” has become a concern. Meanwhile, ring lights, headphones, and bigger monitors became popular to maximize this new way of working.

High-quality office supplies.

The shift to working at home and selecting our own office supplies made it evident that purchasing high-quality options are worth the investment to make the workday run smoother. Selections range from new pens that won’t dry out, sturdy note pads, and high-quality printer paper – such a Boise Paper products with a 99.99% Jam-Free^® Performance Guarantee – so you won’t have to worry about a paper jam ruining your day.

Virtual team management programs.

Popping into a coworker’s office to check on the status of a project is no longer an option, so work teams needed a new way to track progress and maintain momentum. Virtual project management systems such as Monday, Trello, Basecamp, and Slack became essential programs for many to help organize documents and tasks, and to make it easier for teams to stay on track. 

Time management tools.

Working from the comfort of home can make it difficult to maintain maximum productivity throughout the work week. Productivity and time management apps such as Blink, Todoist, and Time Doctor can not only help management monitor daily workloads on a company-wide level, but also help team members know when they’ve hit their daily hours or productivity levels and remain on track with their workload.

As the “new normal” and the future of our office life continues to evolve, so will the tools we consider necessities to our workday.