Work From Home Is The New Normal

Introduction

Now a day’s work from home is the new normal, abbreviated as WFH, so what exactly is work from home and why do companies allow it?

A term coined by Jack Nilles in 1973, back in the seventies when most of the developed economies of the world had already transitioned from the primary, agrarian & manufacturing sectors to the secondary services sector. The employee of a company was not a blue-collared factory or a workshop worker, but a suit-clad white-collar worker, who is supposed to sit on a chair with a desk and crunch numbers throughout the day making meaning out of them, profitability became the only bottom line for these companies, they just wanted their employees to deliver results, an employee taking a sick leave would mean an operational loss to the company, thus the idea of work from home was born, where the sick employee could work from the confine surroundings of his home and still deliver results. These companies quickly realized that it was the end day result of their employees that mattered the most, thus they started allowing their employees to work from home when needed considering that they delivered what was expected from them.

Covid 2020

Fast forward to 2020, when the technology advanced tremendously, working from home became as easy as a breeze for those companies, what was then considered an exception started to become a norm, till?COVID-19 struck us. Then WFH was the only available option to them. What prompted companies the world over to take this decision? Contrary to the belief that the virus was not to stay much longer, the situation went out of control forcing the government’s world over to declare lockdowns in these unprecedented circumstances. In India, Mumbai was known by another name "A city which never sleeps" wore a deserted look on its busiest streets. As lakhs of migrant laborers all over the country tried to return to their villages, images of the migrants trying to walk back to their native place were heart-wrenching, India faced a humanitarian crisis like never before.

When Narendra Modi announced the lockdown in his usual 8 PM speeches. There was a sense of fear and panic amongst the people. People were frightened because they were thinking about what is going to happen next? Are we going to be in much worse condition? Not to mention, thanks to our Prime Ministers for his style of communicating with the people instilling confidence amongst the citizens to face this situation.

Many institutions have thought about the possibility of adopting "work from home" as a permanent arrangement. While MNC's like Amazon, Adobe, Microsoft has gone ahead & approved Work from Home permanently, some companies are still hesitant to fully adopt this arrangement. These firms are the ones that are dependent on the physical presence of customers at their outlets to generate profits.

It is an old decision in today's time, as it will have numerous positive effects to it, like, for example, electricity expenses would be cut down. Lakhs of rupees can be saved if the offices are not operational. Mortgage or Rent tariffs are the major expenses of an organization. During this pandemic period, it will assist especially those small corporations which pay heavy-duty on mortgages or rent. The amount which will be saved can be invested in various other things or they can increase the remuneration of those workers who have worked hard throughout the year. Eventually, it will motivate the staff to work more efficiently and effectively. Another positive outcome which perfectly fits here is that employees who were not efficient when working from the office, usually wasting their time in unproductive activities like water and tea breaks, can now work towards devoting their time for better productive use for the company. Since in the modern corporate world, time is of the essence and time in itself is a precious resource.

Critics of Work from Home have thrown light on the fact that employees tend to be less efficient when working from home, as there is less managerial control over them, they tend to slack off and not meet their work deadlines regularly. On the contrary,y there are companies where the employees must come to the office since Work from Home arrangement would not be feasible for them, for example, An MNC like Ericsson, for some of its mission-critical activities of Network Operations Centers(NOC), which require 24 hours surveillance of the network from specialized computers only operational in the office, requires its employees to be physically present in the office, they have made arrangement o?beds for their employees simulation a home-like structure in the office so that they can rest and work simultaneously.?This is a new idea & I don't think this type of step has ever been done before.

Now let's look from the perspective of the employees what do they miss about going to the office for work? Yes, they do certainly miss things like office politics or office gossip, many workers used to attend office so that they could keep themselves entertained through the politics and gossip talk. The couples are also forgetting their partners as they are unable to meet them in the office. Single people who want to be in a relationship or missing out on their crushes cannot connect or talk to them as offices are closed. Office romance is fading away due to this pandemic condition. Cigarette and tea vendors are also unable to produce any profits as their industry is dependent on consumer's hands. Office peons also come into the category of unlucky ones. They are fired from their jobs because everyone is working from their homes. They will get back their jobs only when the management decides to open the offices

Certain individuals are in difficult situations due to this epidemic as their jobs has been affected. Not only the lower management, but the middle and the upper management have lost their jobs reports of IIT/IIM graduates being unemployed are flooding the newspapers every day. Often seen as a beacon for success, an IIT/IIM degree is a sure-shot 'walk out of poverty' ticket for many Indians. If they are to face such harsh conditions, then what can a student who graduates from an average college expect? Is their future too dark to even contemplate?