The Record - Issue 21: Summer 2021

89 illness caused by Covid-19 in the workplace. The responsibility will also include transport to and from the workplace. Therefore, companies requiring employees to commute to work must also ensure that transportation to and from the worksite is safe. This safety, and the liabilities related, may result in a wave of predictable but extreme insurance claims and settlements. And no organisation wants this to happen. It is easy to believe that many large firms are championing going back to the office because they are heavily invested in commercial prop- erty. Companies that own their large buildings do not want them empty. They need people to occupy offices, otherwise they risk the finan- cial health of their business as the property becomes a burden rather than an asset. It is also likely that once commercial debt portfolios have been structured, even those with the most expensive properties will consider more flexible working again. Today, as we see all these company-provided directions, guides and policies differ tremen- dously, it is difficult to predict the longer-term ‘new normal’ and the ways people will work. However, what is easy to predict is that Microsoft Teams will continue to be the remote workers’ primary tool, and that working from any loca- tion will be prevalent. As workers will be in a constant rotation of dynamically working from their home and the office, it is our job as a soft- ware supplier to ensure this ‘new normal’ is as seamless and straightforward as possible. At the end of the day, the only thing we know is that we don’t know what the future holds. However, we can look at trends and businesses’ behaviour to understand that remote work will continue to rise and we should enable it for as many people as possible. Anders Løkke is the senior director of strategic alliances at Pexip