As the financial behemoths of Wall Street and the City of London reassess how they’ll operate in the post-pandemic world (assuming we get there), change is certain. Even with COVID-19 in check, staff working away from an office building will no longer be an exception. Banks will be thinking about saving on their huge urban real-estate costs, and employees about a better work-life balance.
When you look around at the relatively empty streets of New York and London’s business districts right now, you’d be forgiven for thinking this shift will be seismic. But one mustn’t underestimate the resilience of "business as usual” in boardroom thinking. Speaking to some of the world’s biggest banks, one gets the impression that the new way of working might not be so different to the old way.
The overnight shift to WFH enforced by COVID-19 has undoubtedly dispelled the myth that people work harder in an office. Critical business functions were performed pretty well from makeshift desks at kitchen tables or in spare rooms. Investment banks coped with a spring surge in securities trading without any visible problem.