Work From Home - A Mouse Trap

Since the Plandemic started, due to imposed lockdown, all IT companies and many service based companies implemented Work From Home strategy. The lockdowns are over more than a year ago, but most of these companies are not ready to go back to original style – Work From Office. There were many benefits realised by the organisations, that include huge savings in office space cost, electricity, internet and other sundry expenses like Tea / Coffee, snacks (where they were free), physical security guards costs, receptionists, and office-boys costs.

???????????There were also many benefits perceived by the employees, particularly younger, and unmarried employees. They could now work from their hometowns / villages at fraction of living cost, no rent, no transportation cost, no time wasted in commute, traffic jams etc. So, it was celebrated as win-win for employers and employees.

???????????But there are many hidden losses / costs, bared by the employees. Since they are at home, all the time (willingly or forcefully), they had to slog for 2 to 5 hours extra. It was huge benefit for the employers, but most employees were not aware till recently that their work-life balance has been screwed up. Earlier once the office time was over, employees were free to roam around in the city, enjoy personal life, spend quality time with families (married ones), go for gym, sports, entertainment. But now all that have been drastically reduced, as they have to be online all the time. Office is never over. Employees are unable to communicate, discuss with other employees in informal way, which earlier used to be most effective way of growing personality, increasing technical and soft skills. All these have gone for toss. Employees have become aloof, lonely and always lost in thinking about the work. It has deteriorated their mental health, and no one is realising this.

Other unseen problem for youngsters, is about challenges in getting married. If the boy is working from his hometown like Kharkatwadi / Kavathemahankal, girls are not ready to get settled in these small villages! Also mingling opportunities with colleagues / friends’ circle in cities is lost, making it difficult to meet prospective groom / brides and arrange marriage themselves. Now its entire parent’s responsibility to get their sons / daughters married. Being from previous generations, many good candidates get rejected before their son or daughter know about it. It’s becoming complex than one could think of.

???????????Similarly, there are more losses for organisations that they are still not realising. The biggest flaw in this system is the security and confidentiality threats. When an employee works from home, his / her laptop may not get all the security precautions that they used to get in the office. 1) At home you are working on the employee’s internet, which could also be shared by his / her family members / friends / neighbours. So, they form a type of intranet on the same router and could easily share any sensitive data over their home intranet. 2) Although many organisations block USBs, certain websites (particularly email sites like Gmail, Yahoo mail etc.), still employees could find innovative ways to share their data to others. 3) The biggest threat is about the confidentiality. Any intruder, not an employee of the organisation, could poke into the screen of the employee! He / she can literally see and shoot the features of the software, architecture and critical workflows, presentations, confidential data. Once the client gets to know about the confidentiality breach, the organisation would be in big hole! All the benefits of saved costs of infrastructure, electricity, internet, and other sundry expenses would be nullified, and huge amount would go in the law suites.

???????????So how could we combine the benefits of WFH and WFO at the same time avoid the losses due to security and confidentiality threats? The best solution is developing Satellite Centres in Tier 3 cities, and at every district place. The entire industrialisation is concentrated at metro cities which has increased the real estate costs many folds. So, if the organisations develop satellite centres in these smaller cities, the infra expenses would be much less. The living costs also would be quite less. Employees living in the respective districts could stay in their hometowns and come to office in these satellite centres or even rent home at comparatively much less. Employees could enjoy more family and personal life with good interaction with office colleagues, have more live, informal discussions, and learn from others. Being in controlled environment, high security and confidentiality could be maintained. To conclude let’s start new culture of Work From Satellite Centres!