Darren Allen, Genesis Property: Remote work could limit career opportunities for future generations of professionals

The work from anywhere system has become a hotly debated topic on the labour market in the past year. For some, it brings opportunities to expand professionally and focus on activities and projects that kept being postponed before the pandemic, while for others it seems to take away opportunities in their career path. The reality is that the effects of remote working in the long run are not yet fully understood, especially if we are talking about young people at the beginning of their careers, so the companies’ and employees’ efforts to return to the office are becoming more relevant than ever.

For experienced professionals, the shift towards remote working might have felt at times like losing grip on day to day activity and a disconnection from the team. But years in the field helped them rapidly adapt. However, for young professionals just starting out their careers in a pandemic world, remote work meant so much more. Some joined companies without getting the chance to physically meet their colleagues. Others started out with a digital induction process and a great deal of their day to day tasks without even leaving their home. There’s a whole experience in getting to know a company, with all its culture and teams, and pandemic generations of professionals are missing out from what previous generations might have even taken for granted.

For most, remote working brings up something specialists call ”fear of missing out” (FOMO), whether by not really feeling part of a team or by not having the same career opportunities they might have had if working fully in the office. And young professionals looking seem to be more concerned than their more experienced colleagues, as shown by a recent report released by the Swedish employer branding company Universum, member of the global data, research and insights community ESOMAR. Furthermore, young professionals also feel that remote working can impact their prospects for better positions and income growth in the long run.

Office work and offline interaction with managers and colleagues has an enormous contribution in building connections and trust between employees, in strengthening teams and contributing to the employers’ overall performance. This aspect of confidence in the workplace was also what Genesis Property had in mind when it created the IMMUNE Building Standard™ as a blueprint for the healthy buildings of the future, leading to healthier people, businesses and economies. With an array of coherent criteria and procedures, the standard brings companies and employees one major step closer to returning full time in the offices of the future.

Dr. Darren Allen joined Genesis Property in 2020 as Development Manager and has been a key part of the IMMUNE Building Standard™ since its inception. Darren is a chartered construction and project management surveyor with +30 years of local and international experience, focused on project performance, stakeholder value and developing people.