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Companies like Facebook (now Meta Platforms), Apple and Google are already developing technology that could help create augmented and virtual reality. Later this year, Microsoft is launching metaverse software that will integrate with its video conferencing app, Teams, which is mainly used in the remote working world. The upgrade will allow different devices to share the same digital reality, with users on a platform that resembles a video call with three-dimensional avatars in a shared space.
“There are two extremes where you either have to be working from home or you have to be working at the office,” says Robert Henderson, CEO of sales and marketing company JumpCrew, and a self-proclaimed metaverse enthusiast who’s eager to bring the new world to his own organization. “[Metaverse] is the perfect balance. We talk about the opportunity to have ‘water cooler’ talk in remote work, and that’s what the metaverse will eventually bring to us all.”
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For Henderson, the metaverse represents a chance to balance the work-from-home lifestyle with social connections usually made in person at the office, whether that be small talk between co-workers or mentorship opportunities. But what does Henderson’s vision of the metaverse mean for employees and the future of remote work? EBN spoke with Henderson, gaining insight into the next evolution of work.
How do you envision the metaverse for the working world?
It would be our office, but in a virtual meeting place where people can come together as an avatar-version of themselves. For example, instead of driving to the office in the morning, you would go to your desk in the metaverse, where 200 other people are sitting at their virtual desks. This gives us the opportunity to interact with each other. Our avatars can walk up and down the office and talk to each other like we would in a regular office. I think of the progress this way: if the phone was 1.0 and video calls were 2.0, then logging into your virtual office every day will be 3.0.
How do you foresee the metaverse strengthening workplace connections like mentorships?
It boils down to the way we interact with people. For example, a lot of junior lawyers learn from senior lawyers — that’s environmental learning. When we were younger, we sat next to somebody who was really good at doing what we're supposed to get good at doing. A lot of learning didn’t come out of a structured classroom environment. It comes more through apprenticeship. And business leaders are starting to get a little bit of heartburn as they ask themselves, “Is it taking longer for people to learn skills or learn trades based on the fact that they have to dial into something every time that they're going to learn versus having more water cooler type conversations?” The metaverse will turn into an opportunity to have more of those dynamic, impromptu conversations where learning can happen than a work-from-home work environment.
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Are there downsides to a virtual workplace?
There are already certain environments where every single employee has to log bathroom breaks or log out for lunch breaks. That's a pretty antiquated way of viewing the world, but there are still environments like that, in-person, that people have. The more modern office is more liberal. You still come to work, but no one is watching you every minute of the day. The metaverse will have those same challenges.
Companies will have to decide if they are requiring everybody to put their Oculus virtual-reality headset on at eight in the morning so that we can see them sitting at their virtual desk, or if they’re giving people the option of putting their Oculus headset on so they can walk around the virtual environment, meet people and chit chat. Anytime there's new innovation, the pendulum swings from one side to the other. At the end of the day, the functionality is very exciting for the future of work, but it will come along with a responsibility to create a process and regulation around how that virtual world is being used.
Why does the metaverse have the potential to connect us?
There are some gaps in the way that communication happens in a work-from-home environment, and the flow of communication is slower. So what a metaverse environment would solve would be the ability to have casual communication, instead of having to log onto a video call or set up a meeting. My prediction is that we're going to meet in the middle, where we can have a lot of benefits from in-person interactions with the benefits of not having to drive 45 minutes to get to your office.
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It's important for us to open ourselves up for innovation. There’s a general recoil that happens in society every time something changes or something is different. But business leaders shouldn’t look at it in a myopic way. They should think about how we can innovate based on the changes we see. This is an opportunity for businesses to embrace the future and to figure out how they can be part of it. It can't happen fast enough for me.
