To Work, or Not to Work, from Home

A RECENT SOCIAL MEDIA platform report mentioned that over three-fourths of office workers in India are heading back to office, essentially to socialise and to become part of normal team activities.

- Srinath Sridharan & Steve Correa

Contrast this with just a year ago, with Covid unlocking, the mood was quite different. People doubted the need to get back to the workplace. It was assumed that work could happen from home, or anywhere remotely.

In the past several months, we have witnessed many organisations calling back employees to the workplace. This stirred up debates on the usefulness of hybrid work formats, even its implications on career opportunities. Going back to a formal workplace has now become a mindset issue. A report by ADP Research Institute reveals that over three-fourths of Indian employees would be ready to take a pay cut to have flexibility of working remotely or hybrid and to have control over their work timings.

So how does one make sense of all these data points?

Looking Back

When the Covid pandemic struck, the world learnt to work remotely, be it knowledge workers delivering services, or those in trade who had to learn to use digital tools for their livelihood. Suddenly the phrase – Work from Home (WFH) – became the norm. People and enterprises adapted and delivered results. The stress on human minds and health did happen with WFH. Every digital transformation proposal that was gathering dust was cleared for immediate execution. Digital became the new currency for enterprises of any size to survive. It seemed you either Digitise or Die.