In March when employees were forced into total lockdown, and work from home, their productivity shot up initially. Managers were surprised at how well the employees performed from home, juggling office and homework as well as balancing the distractions at home.
Many companies like Facebook, Twitter quickly decided they would adapt to working from home permanently and some companies even promised to give up office spaces entirely.
Now as the work from home stretches into six months, things are not looking so good. projects are getting lengthened, training is becoming tough and hiring and training new employees more complicated. Employees feel less connected and young professionals are feeling the lack of personal touch of being with their seniors and learning how they do the work.
There seems to a consensus now that while remote work is necessary now, it is not the solution once the epidemic eases and the lockdown restrictions are removed. there is a feeling that this is not sustainable. The early productivity gains companies saw have levelled off. It could be attributed to employees driven by fear of losing their jobs and this is not sustainable in any case.
The phase of remote work would continue for some time but employees are getting fatigued and the productivity is dropping. Some work, by its nature, becomes difficult to manage remotely. For example, product testing involving debugging and integrating software with hardware become a nightmare with the teams spread across and working from home. Some work which was completed in one hour at the office sometimes takes a full day with time spent on coordinating with remote members.
Design and prototype teams need to physically be together to develop products. So also logistics, which obviously cannot work from remote locations.
Also, it is important to have people in a room and observe the body language and read signals that do not come out on the screen. Then there is the potential for spontaneous interactions which may be triggered off by a passing comment which sets off a train of thoughts that need to be explored.
What may ultimately happen is a hybrid model, with time spent on working remote and with opportunities to regularly convene teams to office. The teams would agree to come together for a certain time on certain days of the week to discuss, collaborate, strategise and then go back to the remote workbenches to continue their work.
The extended work from home arrangements is likely to affect career development. This is especially hard for freshers who are expected to ease into the role of their seniors a couple of years down the line, and this cannot be done remotely. this requires closely working together with their mentors, understanding the processes and procedures and then building on it.
Customer service employees who require a mix of classroom training with practical and simulated exercises would be affected the most as they cannot do it remotely. They do not have the opportunity to ask the experienced employee for help or advice that they would have if they were in the same office.
Ultimately, the employees would have the choice of working from home voluntarily with some compulsory face to face meetings in the office.
Companies Start to Think Remote Work Isn’t So Great Aèer All
By Chip Cutter WSJ 2020/08
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