Digital workspace: A boon or a bane?

Industrial revolution, product specialisation and the concept of producing for the world has changed the purpose we work for. Our workspace has been evolving right from the day we started working. Every advancement we make in technology has contributed to bettering our work space to ensure increased productivity, profit maximisation and better decision making. Computerisation in the production process has brought about revolutionary changes in the way we work. Some jobs disappeared completely while a lot many were created. Jobs that required a lot of mundane mechanical processesweredesignedtobecarriedoutbycomputersorcomputer controlled machines. This has primarily improved the quality of human life. Every change in our work space was replaced by a new change and it continues forever. As we always say, there is always a scope for improvement even in the most advanced technological advancement we even invented. Often, we as humans undergo changes in the way we think and live, leaving certain technologies obsolete instantaneously.

To put it as a definition, A digital workspace is an integrated technology framework designed to deliver and manage app, data, and desktop delivery. It allows employees to access their apps and data real-time—on any device, from any location, regardless of whether the information is stored through cloud services or in the data center.

Beyond any apprehension, digital workspace is the future of our work life due to its obvious advantages. Lets explore some of them.

• Increased flexibility:- The easiness of working and collaborating from anywhere is so irresistible.
• Reduced operational cost:- Eliminating in person collaboration cuts down a lot of cost including office space, travel, accommodation etc
• Improved productivity & efficiency :- It has been proved in studies that the adaptation of digital workspace has improved the productivity of the workforce substantially. Tools like google doc helps all team members to collaborate their works smartly and efficiently.
• Increased Revenue:- Once operational cost is reduced and productivity and efficiency are improved that will be reflected in the bottomline for sure.
• Enhanced communication and innovation:- Digital workspace ensures better, easy communication and collaboration.

There are many other advantages other than the ones listed above like improved employee & customer satisfaction. With the announcement of Mark Zukerberg on their plans to work on Metaverse, digital workspace is all set to undergo a paradigm shift. Till now, we had 2D platforms in which we could watch, write and talk to our colleagues. Metaverse will put us all into a 3D VR and AI enabled world facilitating us to have experiences of a workspace collaboration by wearing a set of goggles while sitting at our home in any part of the world. A better and enhanced way of collaboration taking us to a higher realm of efficiency

There are many other advantages other than the ones listed above like improved employee & customer satisfaction. With the announcement of Mark Zukerberg on their plans to work on Metaverse, digital workspace is all set to undergo a paradigm shift. Till now, we had 2D platforms in which we could watch, write and talk to our colleagues. Metaverse will put us all into a 3D VR and AI enabled world facilitating us to have experiences of a workspace collaboration by wearing a set of goggles while sitting at our home in any part of the world. A better and enhanced way of collaboration taking us to a higher realm of efficiency.

Well, that sounds very nice. Is that full of advantages or should we be cautious about anything? Are we considering every aspect of digital workspace or overlooking something that might cause irreversible changes in our life? As we know every coin has two sides. Let’s not fall back to the age old argument that digitalisation has cut down jobs. People have lost their livelihood due to the excess modernisation and computerisation. We already know that some jobs have disappeared as machines and sophisticated algorithms took charge of it. Some jobs have a different nature and characteristics which demand people working on them to unlearn and learn to work adapting to the fresh work environment. In Fact more jobs are created due to modernisation and digitalisation of workspace. The nature of works that need human intervention has been largely being limited to the ones that need creativity, problem solving and critical thinking. No wonder that these skills are the top listed in 21t century skills to lead a fulfilling career and life in the 21st century.

From a bottom-line perspective which includes efficiency and cost of operation, digital workspace is definitely a boon. How about the other aspects of work life? How happy are the people involved, do they miss meeting their colleagues in an office? Do they miss having chit chats and sharing gossip over a cup of coffee? Do they miss the Saturday parties after a week’s hard work? Are they striking a work life balance spending most of their time at home yet working? Is the family happy? Studies reveal that adults are spending about 11 hours a day in front of screens either working, playing or socialising. With the introduction of digital work space and the hit of COVID-19 work from home has become the new normal. Under WFH, employees are often asked to spend more time on work than when they used to work from a common office space. The overindulgence in the digital world gradually brings about a change in people to engage in their real world. They tend to be happy in the digital world and do not feel the need to go out and engage in the real world.

All this adds up to the other side of the coin. While we embrace the digital workspace and its obvious advantages, we must also be cautious about this other side. digital workspace, its policies, practices must be designed and implemented with these concerns in mind. Impressive bottomline is a need so is the wellbeing of the people involved.

Sibi Mathews

• sibitm@gmail.com