Last year, many people turned their living room into an office. Due to corona, working from home became the norm at many companies. After a year in which many people worked from home, many employees longed to be back in touch with their colleagues in the office. Nevertheless, working from home has also had its benefits. For example, not having to travel to work creates less stress, less CO2 emissions and more spare time. In addition, for a lot of people, working from home increases motivation and productivity (NI Business Info, n.d.).

This raises the question of how working from home can be organised for these people in the future. What are the technological possibilities for non-office jobs? And does this offer more opportunities for expats?

According to Aart Braun, network architect at NIVO, sees many technical opportunities for non-office jobs: “Remote control of vehicles is already being done. For example, rockets and drones are remotely controlled, planes use autopilot and soon autonomous cars will be on the market“.

Braun believes that many of these potential developments will take place in the logistics- and transport sector in particular. “Many still find it scary that a robot can fly a plane better than a human. We`ll have to wait for the acceptance of humans, which will take another ten years”.

Visualisation of how a pilot could work at home

This means that robots can control vehicles a lot better than humans. Which can make it easier for humans to control these vehicles remotely in about 10 years’ time. Other techniques, such as virtual reality sports games, cannot yet be expected in the coming decades.

Visualisation of how a professional football player could work at home

Does this mean that working from home will become more common? Not according to Aart Braun: “Interaction with your colleagues is indispensable in most work. There is a good reason we work in the office“. Because of this, Braun does not see it making work as an expat easier: “If a company has an office abroad, employees will work there. If a company does not have an establishment, it will always be important for employees to work in the head office on a regular basis”.

What we can expect is that people will have a healthy mix of working from home and working on location in the future. Working from home can be convenient in some cases, but not every day. Nevertheless, we can expect many changes in the logistics and transport sector due to current technology.

Visualisation of how a excavator operator could work at home

NI Business Info. (n.d.). Advantages and disadvantages of employees working at home | nibusinessinfo.co.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2021, from https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/advantages-and-disadvantages-employees-working-home