Page 77 - Cyber Defense Magazine for August 2020

Getting Employees Back to the New Normal

Work will never be quite the same once the pandemic has passed

By Brendan O’Connor, CEO and Co-founder, AppOmni

There are encouraging signs that the Covid-19 pandemic – arguably the greatest disaster of our
generation – is beginning to recede, at least in some parts of the world. While the disarray it provoked
throughout the economy is still very much with us, there is reason to believe that a tolerable new normal
will emerge – an innovative set of practices representing a tectonic shift away from what normal used to
be – in the workplace, in leisure pursuits, and in commerce.

Although the contours of that new normal are still in flux, the experience of the past few months has
driven home some durable lessons – lessons we expect will help shape post-pandemic life as recovery
gets underway. One of the most apparent is that working from home is almost certain to become an
enduring element of employment for millions of workers. That’s good, both for the workers and their
employers. But it comes with certain caveats.

For starters, I’ve heard from leaders of several organizations that employees working from home have
been asking their companies to slow down the release of new and updated versions of their enterprise
software. Learning new software and mastering feature changes, particularly without hands-on personal

Cyber Defense eMagazine – August 2020 Edition 77
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