What offices are going to be, in case of IT companies.
After the influence of the COVID-19 began in Tokyo last year, especially during the campaign of staying home, lots of us worked at home.
I understand there're many kinds of thoughts about work from home if it effects well to quality, productivity and so on or not good. I also understand there're occupations that natually fit to work from home, and also there're occupations that don't fit it.
COVID-19 の影響が出た後の去年の東京、特に STAY HOME の期間中はたくさんの人が在宅で仕事をしていた。
在宅で仕事をすることについて、いろいろ意見があるのはわかる。仕事の品質とか生産性にどのような影響があったのか、とか。もちろん業種によっては自然とリモートワークができたり、逆にリモートは難しい業種もあったり。
So, I'd like to write my thoughts about work from home in case of IT companies. Because I don't know if other occupations fit to work from home.
ということで自分がリモートワークをどう考えているか、を書いておく。IT系の企業の事例として。他の業種がどうなっているかは知らないからね。
What proved last year.
In most of cases, it's proved that work from home works without critical problems. Especially in case of programmers, engineers and designers, each of them often work alone to get thier tasks done, for instance they often code alone, they create documents as well, and there're some others.
ほとんどの場合においてリモートワークでも致命的な問題はないことは証明されたと思う。特にプログラマ、エンジニア、デザイナーなんかは各自が各自で仕事をしていることがよくあって、例えばコード書いたりドキュメント作ったり、他にもいろいろと個人作業が多い。
Yeah, they sometimes need to have meetings with members of teams though, it can be done well even online. That's one of things that was proved last year from our experience work from home after spring of year 2020. Directors and producers are almost same as well.
もちろんチームのメンバーと打ち合わせが必要な時もあるけど、それもオンラインでうまくできるってことが2020年春以降のリモートワークで証明されたと思う。職種がディレクターだったりプロデューサーであっても然り。
How about clients?
We understand teams work well even work from home. So, how about clients? This means if all clients allow us have meetings only online. Simply, the answer is "No", I hope it would be "Yes" though.
リモートワークでもチームがうまく機能することはわかった。次にクライアントの場合、要はすべてのクライアントがオンラインミーティングだけで OK かどうかってこと。まあ答えは "No" だろう。"Yes" であって欲しいんだけど。
But in many cases it's okay to have meetings online, I guess. Before staying home and work from home are strongly recommended due to the COVID-19, it used to be common that all of us gather at one office to have meetings though, now most of us understand that most of them are not necessary to gather at one office.
ただほとんどのミーティングはオンラインでも大丈夫そう。COVID-19 関連で STAY HOME とかリモートワークとかが推奨されるようになる前はみんなでオフィスに集まってミーティングするのが一般的だったけど、今はもうその必要はないってことを多くの人が理解するようになったとも思う。
Work from home, then what kind of sense offices make?
So, actually the main theme of this article is this, what kind of sense offices make under situation a lot of people work at home. I'm sure that this style of work is continued few more month at least, and work from home itself is temporary common now though, it'll be common even after we're no longer worried about the COVID-19.
これがこの記事のテーマなんだけど、じゃあ多くの人がリモートワークをしていく中でオフィスってどうなるんだ？と。今の状態はもうしばらくは続くと思うし、リモートワーク自体、一時的にみんながしている感じだけど、恐らく今後は普通に一般的になるんじゃないかな、と。
The important thing we don't have to forget is that it should be workers' choise if they prefer work from home or work at office. Of course we don't have to forget that some of them still hope to work at office due to a lot of reasons. Oppositly, there're people who want to work from home like me. Repeatedly, that's each of us's choise.
忘れちゃいけない重要なことがあって、オフィスで働くか、リモートワークを選ぶかってのはみんなそれぞれが決めるべきなのかな、と。いろいろな理由でオフィスで働きたいって人もいることも忘れちゃいけない。逆に自分みたいに家で仕事してる方がいいって人もいるし。それはあくまでそれぞれの選択かな、と。
One fact we surely proved last year is teams work well whereever members work at. So office is one of places to work, also our home is one of places to work, and I think there're some more places to work, for instance co-working place near our home. I guess a lot of people realized that our commuting time used to be too long especially in Tokyo and even if we don't commute to office with taking long time, most of work goes well.
ただひとつ、チームのメンバーがどこで仕事していようと仕事自体はうまく回るってことは去年確実に証明された。オフィスで働くもよし、自宅で働くもよし、家の近くのコワーキングスペースでもいいし。特に東京だとみんな通勤時間かけすぎってこと、そんな通勤時間をかけなくても仕事はできるってことにも気づいたはず。
So, what are offices going to be then? I think they must exist there to serve place to work for employees who want to work at office, they must exist to welcome some new customers. You know, it's pretty hard for us to ask new customers who we haven't met yet to have meetings online. Also offices must exist as place to gather when it's necessary.
じゃあオフィスはどうなっていくのか？オフィスで働きたいメンバーの働く場所として存在すべきだし、新しいクライアントを迎えるための場所としても必要かな、と。まだ一緒にプロジェクトをやっていない新規のクライアントとの顔合わせがいきなりオンラインってのは少し難しそうだし。あとはどうしても集まる必要がある時に集まれる場所としても。
If number of people use office everyday decreases, office itself can be smaller than now. I think it's better, because especially in Tokyo, cost of real estate is so high and if office gets smaller, employers can use rest of money which used to be paid for large office, for other purposes. For instance, it's good idea to pay more salary to employees. This is just an easy example to understand though.
毎日オフィスで働くって人の人数が減ればオフィス自体も小さくしていいでしょう。特に東京なんかは不動産のコストも高いし、オフィスを小さくして浮いたお金を別のことに使うのもいいでしょう。例えばわかりやすい例で言えばその分従業員の給与を上げてもいいし。
Anyway, I guess a lot of people are still going to continue working from home after work of this year started. It's been continued since last spring, so now it's time for us to reconsider what offices mean, seriously.
とにもかくにも、まだしばらく多くの人はリモートワークが続くかなと思ってる。この状況は去年の春からずっと続いてるわけで、そろそろオフィスの意味を考え直すべきじゃないかな、とも思うわけです。
