ST. LOUIS– Are you still working from home? You may have thought it was just going to be temporary. But for some, it may be almost a year since you’ve been in the office.

A recent online survey found almost 30% of working professionals say they would quit their jobs if they couldn’t continue working from home.

Scott Schaffer with Blade Technologies says even if you head back to the office the paradigm has changed forever and video conferencing and remote work will be sticking around in the future.

He says if you were on the fence about upgrading your home video conferencing set up don’t hesitate. He says now is the time to do it.

Also, if your router or wireless access point is more than three years old you may want to consider updating that as well.

Schaffer says another thing that has changed is that your IT department may not just be down the hallway. He said more technical support is being delivered by remote access these days. He says the remote tech support is getting easier to use so don’t hesitate to reach out with questions.

He did warn you still need to watch out for phishing especially since your don’t have an IT person nearby. He says scammers are getting better at fooling people so don’t click on any fishy links.

Schaffer said one thing that is harder to recreate from the office is the social connections, like grabbing lunch or drinks with a co-worker.

He also explained that his team has discussed people turning off their cameras during video conferencing and he is encouraging people not to do it. He says you can really learn a lot about people’s thoughts just by their reactions. It also helps keep that social connection.