A growing number of people are currently working or attending classes from home, thanks to the twenty-first century luxury of the internet. Although remote work is feasible for a big chunk of the population around the world, a greater population remains on vacation, or worse, without any job at all.
Students at MIT recently conducted a study that suggests a whopping 34 percent of Americans who usually commute to work had started working remotely by the first week of April. According to the work of the University of Chicago, the percentage of Americans who can work from home is also 34 percent.
Creating a platform to work from home in the worst-case scenario is a proactive measure that every company should have taken seems like a no brainer now. But here we are, learning it the hard way. Freelancers have been doing it for quite some time now, and it’s time for others to adopt the working method followed by individuals who make a living freelancing.
Most company executives believed working from home could drastically affect the productivity of workers before the pandemic. With most of the people who can work from working from home, we now get a clearer picture. According to research, employees are more productive when working from home.
Telecommuting, or working from home, is not a new concept. With significant advancements in technology, we have seen how freelancers and other tech companies took advantage of the latest technologies for the sake of productivity even before the Novel Covid-19 hit us.
As cool as it all sounds, working from home can be a bit complicated. First of all, the employees must be introduced to new employee time tracking software, cloud-based software, etc. Employees who have not used this kind of software before will need some time to get used to all the complications.
The restrictions do not stop at employees getting used to new technology, though, as these applications require added subscription fees. The company executives will need to clear funds for carrying the expenses of these additional applications, all while paying for office space that is not being utilized.
The implications of these circumstances could be severe, and company executives might start laying off employees to minimize expenses. It will keep them afloat financially for the time being.
As humans are known to make the best out of what little they may have, some positive aspects also need to be addressed. Employees working from home will likely be the new normal of the future, with so many companies embracing the digital medium of work.
Employees will be safer working from home, even if governments decide to open the economy. Investors are likely to also want their employees to work from home as it will later make their companies eligible to cut the expenses of office space. With results showing, employees have increased their productivity working from home, there is a big chance of this scenario playing out in real life.
In a situation like this, no one can tell what to expect. There is no guarantee of things returning to as they were. The only thing we are sure about is that things will change, and there may not be normalcy as we see it in the future.
