New normal: working from home being the new trend in business world

In the brink of returning normalcy to the business and corporate world, it was the sudden rise of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic that our country was forced to return to lockdown like-restrictions again.

It seemed that someone had pressed the pause button to our lives for a second time. It was March 2020 all over again, nothing had changed. One and only difference being that these two events were more or less a year apart.

All of a sudden, the hectic pace of our country’s workforce who used to commute by local trains from their rural homes to the urban centres, had stopped again.  Many people found themselves out of a job again, unemployment rate increased a significant level due to the lockdown. Companies had to cut back on resources and thus many people had to find themselves out of a job again.

There were articles in circulation which stated that half of the jobs available can be carried out, also in the comfort of our homes and the other half which cannot be done from home needed to have a better pay than what prevails in the present.

However, the world cannot stay at a standstill for long and the business world has adopted working from home being the new trend in the business world.

Work from home (WFH) as a concept had been prevalent for several years, but Covid-19 pandemic has led to the entire workforce of an organisation in making that shift. Since 2020, we have witnessed a whole year of “Work From Home (WFH)”in which the employees have attended online meetings as well as worked for more than eight hours a day. No change? Is it? Completely normal? No, it will be the “New Normal”.

But what needs to be done to make “Work from Home”, the new normal?

A lot has to be done, particularly in large firms to get everything in place. Before the pandemic there were talks about flexibility at work, especially IT organizations has a work from home policy. This is because it has been said that some roles within the (Human Resources) HR really do not have the necessary need to work from offices. So, as a policy “Work From Home” (WFH) always existed within these organization.

After a whole year of working from home it has been observed that

While some love working  from home but the others miss the professional working space where the rhythm and pace is  different from the comforts of their homes , thus helping switching on their, what many people say, “Work Mode”. Office is a place where many socialise , where these people can interact with their colleagues and not just discuss work but share incidents, to the very problems of their daily lives . Many people are against having WFH as a permanent solution, as human beings, being social animals need to have access to a number of people around them, in order to stay healthy. To overcome this, it has been suggested that virtual “water cooler ”-like software should be created where employees can share a laugh amongst themselves , but it has been deemed unfeasible to work by most of the critics.

In this new normal, all jobs that have been applied, has been done via a virtual platform, to comply with the lockdown rules. One of the great aspects of working from, is that the employee is able to work from anywhere, his office can be located in Bangalore and he might be working from Kolkata. This is  a great aspect of work from home because this will help the employee  to increase in his savings , the amount which is spent known as “Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)” will not be used as the employee shall be living in his own house , in his hometown  and not inside  a rented flat in some other city.

Some light should be thrown on who are suited for the “Work From Home” style of work.  Aside from engineers, information technology employees, some positions in the Human Resources (HR) consultants, it is the knowledge workers who have the ease to work from home.

It will be difficult for people working in finance, insurance and the companies with proprietary applications to work from home.

Although, the new normal is being adopted rapidly, but it is essential for employees to understand the etiquettes required to work from home. They would require a separate workplace, which needs to be a quiet  place with minimal distractions. The employees need to be focused during their work hours so as to not let productivity of their firm suffer due to working from home. With these ongoing revolutionary changes in the business field it is essential for everyone to accept change as it comes.