Regardless of the geography, field of work, lifestyle and others, there is no way of denying that the COVID-19 pandemic had a deep and long-lasting impact on all our lives. The IT industry in its entirety and the major actors in it have suffered changes in the ways of doing business and working. The impact of these changes is still far from being understood and is expected to have deep long-term consequences. For example, even the most straight-forward consequence of the pandemic context, the remote work (telecommuting), considered by some as a “revolution” and by others as an “accelerated evolution”, is still treated in a very simplified way and its future trend is unknown. While it is easy to quote a statistic saying that “60% of employees feel that they are more efficient working remote”, it is almost impossible yet to quantify the impact of the practice on the mental health, social life, work-life balance and other aspects related to the employees themselves. If we go further and look at the wider impact over the companies, the uncertainties expand drastically as they enter in the classical areas of: organizational culture and values, employee loyalty, retention, workplace management, benefits (to name only very few of them) etc.

Are you an IT specialist trying to figure out if remote working is the best for you on long term? Are you in charge with leading a team of IT specialists and keeping up its spirit and engagement through these trying times? Do you run a software company and face problems with the organizational culture and personnel attrition caused by the pandemic context? This presentation has a little bit for everyone.

After setting the stage by touching some straight-forward but also some less obvious consequences of the pandemic context in the global and Romanian IT industry, the speaker draws on his wide experience in the IT domain and his findings while working in Romania and abroad to go beyond the statistics and surveys. Centered around concrete examples and providing advices in an entertaining and practical way, the presentation is expected to be a reflection and an eye-opener, no matter if you are a newbie or a professional.