[ast.ggn]

I work in a company which operates out of it's manufacturing unit (manufacturing as well as corporate office at same location). Though I am not directly related to shop floor, work from home was never an option for me before nor it will be in future once this lockdown is over. My team is working from home right now, having online meetings etc. and doing our best with whatever we can but I doubt it is sustainable even for us. (non shop floor junta).

[Miyata]

As we may venture out and about, WFO or otherwise, may need to keep this thought in the foreground - something we must all have surely heard/read about:

You may be able to spread coronavirus just by breathing

Though current studies aren’t conclusive, “the results of available studies are consistent with aerosolization of virus from normal breathing,

if the coronavirus can be suspended in the ultrafine mist that we produce when we exhale, protection becomes more difficult

Trust we will take necessary precaution while even conversing about in public or with others around - both for potential spreading and potentially getting oneself infected!

While standing in queue for grocery I do see folks talking about in abandon with the masks (and symbolically guard) lowered - these are the very same folks we will be running into in office spaces as well.

[bluevolt]

It all depends on a company's culture and methodology being followed. Service based MNCs will be mostly hesitant to give WFH as freewill to employees as large number of employees will certainly exploit it.

Even today, many organizations are keeping close tab on the productivity of employees by scheduling two status calls (one in morning and one in evening) to talk what has bee done throughout the day and if their was any deviation (deliberately or by ignorance).

Imagine a company hiring fresh graduates and giving them option to always WFH. Will they really work?
The culture and mindset needs a change. Many people exploit WFH else, it would have been a norm with if this virus thing was not there.

From my own perspective, I would still prefer to go to office rather than WFH. For sure, it will be great if we people given flexibility to take it when one needs it.

PS - What we will do with our cars if there is no office and 100% WFH? Not all go out on long drives every weekend or so.

PPS - Above post is with respect to IT industry.

[libranof1987]

As the popular memes going around suggest, now we know which meeting could have been an email or phone call.

The companies that had a work-from-home culture, will continue to do so. Those that didn't promote it or weren't generous about it, will continue to do so. I don't think a lot will change.

For most service companies (working on a client environment), the infrastructure challenges cannot be ignored (lack of laptops, slowness of vpn and so on). A typical team's productivity is not more than 25-30% right now to be really honest. Most non-IT companies anyway can't support remote working so they'll continue business as usual.

I do think that this situation has reminded everyone what is essential and non-essential travel. So, I do expect business travel to reduce.

[vibbs]

I have very little experience with Work from Home.

I am in After market sales with an MNC in Marine Industry for past few years. Typical of Sales guys, most of the work was on the go, out of coffee shops, Hotels, Airports etc. But when we were not travelling we were expected to be in Office.

I think it had something to do with the culture in India. When I relocated to Singapore, I could see a marked difference in this aspect but still I felt not at the level it is in Western world. Now my profile is Global. I am in business development, the Business Unit is based in Europe whereas I support the whole of Asia, Middle East, Africa and Oceania. I could still work from home here in Singapore more easily I could do from India due to difference in attitude but I still used to work from office all days.

Now with this crisis, I have realised the advantage of working from home specially for someone in my profile who needs to work with people in such diverse time zones. It helps me to set my daily work schedule if I am working from home as this takes out the need to commute to and fro the office. I also get some additional flexibility to look after some personal work around my working times.

I am hopeful a lot of people and the managements across various companies will realize this advantage and Work from home could indeed turn out to be more common going forward.

[karan0009]

My organization is in favor of WFH policy & it encourages employees to WFH twice a week. It can be more as & when required.

Math behind this is very simple, they don't want to spend high on real estate cost. If a team has 100 members, it will be allotted only 80-85 seats. So by default few folks will WFH. Why to pay more when you can save.

[roy_libran]

Over the last couple of years, I have seen my employer actively trying to reduce the physical footprint of our offices and to this end one of the key mechanisms was in trying to reduce the number of workstations provisioned per employed or contracted staff member across shifts. Initially we started with a 10% difference in some offices and locations, and eventually the norm became 15% across all offices and locations globally. Lately there were efforts to reduce this further to around 30% difference but we were hitting strong resistance levels for a myriad of reasons.

Now, this entire scenario globally has meant that not more than 10-15% of our staff globally, is having to work from the office, and although in the initial 1-2 weeks the productivity and operating rhythm was shaky in some pockets, but the entire organisation has matured very quickly with productivity levels now mostly at where they used to be earlier. The ones working from offices are solely because of needing access to highly specialised set-ups or due to being part of regulated roles requiring on-site supervision.

I don't see any reason why my employer cannot take a decision after all this is over to only provision about 25-30% workstation per employee - a 70-75% difference because all the psychological barriers now stand broken. Our infrastructure capacity peaks and resilience have already been tested and proven. The investments made over the past 2 years have really been worth their weight in Gold right now, with the company being able to support almost 90% of our total staff strength concurrently working from home, without any significant performance lags.

From an individual stand-point, I was one of those who used to regularly go to office, despite having had the latitude to work from home at discretion for many years now. Due to this pandemic situation I have setup a small home-office, and find myself quite comfortable and productive. I might still want to go in to office about twice a week, for a few hours. But that would be mainly to get out and hang out with colleagues, rather than for any significant official reason! There isn't even any more a pressing reason for me to continue residing in Delhi NCR (or a similar mega-city), if more and more companies enjoy and encourage the flexibility, cost savings and simplicity gained out of this new way of working. All I need is a good internet and phone connection and I am set. I am even hoping some VR-tech player will step in with the next evolution to ZOOM, which is VR based meetings.

Though this model would not suit every industry, but every industry can definitely find similar efficiencies and simplicity from the multitude of roles within. Every penny saved is a business advantage and organisations would be foolish to let go of the immense opportunity to reduce the bottom-line. This pandemic disruption can be leveraged quite effectively to make wholesale changes to the way of conducting business, and company's would do well to try and maximise the benefits rather than playing a conservative hand.

[Zed]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

However, will companies think about continuing WFH going forward? Will they see the cost / productivity advantages and incorporate a full / partial WFH for all or insist of reporting to the office?

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

.What the current situation has done is provide a large-scale live test that most organizations may not have conducted of their own volition, so now decisions can be made on objective information instead of guesswork, cultural assumptions and individual biases.

Originally Posted by akshaymahajan

.I am hoping that people manager's become a little more open to the idea of WFH and employees after this forced WFH, can differentiate between using and abusing WFH. I am curious though whether this would also lead to more freelance/contractor opportunities?

Originally Posted by Eddy

We do not have enough space in the house where all 4 us can be on calls simultaneously. The poor mobile signal in 2 of the 5 rooms does not help either.

Originally Posted by procrastinator

Choosing long term WFH should be given to the employee. Results can be monitored by supervisors to continue the telecommute or not.To answer the question: Yes, it will. There are tweaks planned as I learn what is required to be efficient and productive at home

Originally Posted by chieftain

Productivity certainly seems to be bolstered by WFH, per the following studies. I think this pandemic has proven it COULD be done, and research shows it SHOULD be done, so perhaps it will be done. (I have some concerns about work-life intruding on personal life, though.)

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

WFH can only be reasonably applied in an organization that in one or the other way revolves around IT.

Originally Posted by vb-san

Some organizations may continue to encourage WFH even after the situation is over – firstly many the employees would have got tuned to this option, and secondly it is a saving for the company as well (infrastructure and office space).

Originally Posted by ast.ggn

Though I am not directly related to shop floor, work from home was never an option for me before nor it will be in future once this lockdown is over. My team is working from home right now, having online meetings etc. and doing our best with whatever we can but I doubt it is sustainable even for us. (non shop floor junta).

Originally Posted by libranof1987

As the popular memes going around suggest, now we know which meeting could have been an email or phone call. . I do think that this situation has reminded everyone what is essential and non-essential travel. So, I do expect business travel to reduce.

Originally Posted by vibbs

I think it had something to do with the culture in India. When I relocated to Singapore, I could see a marked difference in this aspect but still I felt not at the level it is in Western world. I am hopeful a lot of people and the management across various companies will realize this advantage and Work from home

Summarizing common themes in your posts :

Applicability & Effectiveness of WFH: Covid19 has provided a large-scale live test for WFH, as Chetan-Rao says, which will generate qualitative data on pros & cons across regions, industries, and competencies. The related info and inferences will be a yardstick for continuance of WHF after normalcy returns.
This lockdown will shine a light on jobs where, it turns out, part-time WHF is not just possible but smarter and more satisfying. The challenge for organizations will be establishing tools & processes that assess the quality and efficiency of work-output + employee morale. And do away with the conventional measurement of time spent on a daily or weekly basis.

The employee perspective: There will be instances when personal preferences or lack of space, as Eddy reports, will render many of us non-supportive of WFH even when our work \ organizations permit. And Vice-versa. This is why employee inputs ought to be an integral part of WFH policy discussions. On the flip side, many of us will now reassess our choices for space and amenities in our residences - for ourselves and family members.

3. Large-scale WFH when normalcy returns? Individuals and organizations will have a better handle on meetings, reports, processes & competencies (and potentially individuals) that add real value to their operations. The more progressive ones will drive change toward improvement. I agree with libranof1987 that business travel will reduce as organizations strive to contain expenses. However, in the longer-term competitive-advantage will dictate the extent to which business travel can be made remote. Not just business travel but most elements related to continuance of WFH will be dictated by competitive-advantage and costs if bottom-lines dictate policy. This is why employee satisfaction/retention/development ought to be considered in WFH decisions.

Considering human-nature to choose the path of least resistance, it is within the realm of possibility that things go back to the way they were.

From my perspective, an ideal outcome would be for business and civil-administration leaders to review WFH (or mobile-office) and other aspects related to work-life balance, with qualitative data, and drive change in organizations and civil-society focusing not just on financial outcomes but on human well-being and the well-being of our planet.

[Jeroen]

I think it will. I also think the choice is not necessarily as digital as a lot of people make it out to be. It is not work at office OR work from home. For many people it could be work at the office AND work from home. Here in the Netherlands 4 out of 10 people work from home on a regular basis. A far smaller percentage works from home the majority of time.

Most people enjoy having two options. You get the best of both worlds. My daughter and her husband both work 4 days a week and usually 1-2 days each from home. My daughter edits scripts for TV and her husband is a journalist and editor. It gives them a lot of flexibility on how they want to arrange their professional and personal life.

Jeroen

[Equus]

Where its feasible to allow employees to work from home, it will definitely expand. The infrastructure (mobile/internet/power/etc) needs to step up and folks will be willing to pay more as well. The infrastructure cost savings (no need to allocate cube/cabins, cost savings from reduced shuttle runs, house-keeping optimizations, etc) would be compelling to corporates to consider part of the employee base to WFH.

[Malyaj]

It will increase but I don't think it will result in en-masse abandonment of office spaces. There are companies which have invested a lot of effort in making their offices fun places to work and it is an important element of their positioning both for attracting talent as well as clients. During my career I have seen enough people who WANT to work from office. The reasons are various - not getting along with family, a psychological dependence on the office environment (due to lack of a social life), better amenities (games and sports facilities), better ambience, air conditioning and even free food!

Personally as someone whose entire livelihood has been killed by staying at home, I fear I will be in this position soon:
(those familiar with Pearls Before Swine by Stephen Pastis will appreciate this more )

[subraiyr]

I just finished a call with some of my leadership today. In the last 1 month we have effectively moved from a 15% WFH staff to 83% WFH staff. And we are talking about big volumes in whole numbers. Management was asked a question if they would return back to offices once the lockdown is removed to which the answer was an emphatic No for now. This is the New Normal according to them. We have moved regular corporate/administrative functions and client facing functions to home with most of the clients agreeing
I believe that this will become the new normal for a lot of organizations. With a global recession looming, firms will want to improve their bottomline and this will mean new ways of working. I remember working on an Opex initiative which was made notorious across India by reducing paper napkins in toilets. This was just a small one, but we also did route optimization for IT/ITES firms which helped them in their bottomline. This will be the way forward wherein office real estate, housekeeping, administrative expenses will reduce
If you were to split typical functions of a firm, there would be
Product Engineering
Production
Pricing
Sales
Marketing
Aftersales

Of these apart from Production and Sales the rest can simply be done outside of facilities. In other words either from Homes or smaller satellite offices. Firms will move towards this direction soon

Employee engagement is the next big thing that comes into discussion when we talk about WFH. However, there are ways to bring this to similar levels as before and my current employer has been doing it quite well. I am sure this will be sold as a service soon.
My guess is post lockdown, there will be an experimental phase for most of the new age firms and some traditional firms wherein they will spend one quarter in continuing with this and using data analytics to define their next move. But as my firm says this is going to be the New Normal

[SoumenD]

My firm has been kinda liberal with WFH option. I used to WFH once or twice a week before all this started. Now it's just an extension.

Major negative I see is the human F2F interaction has reduced drastically. The usual greetings around desk or pantry are lost. Now you need to ping one in communicator/lync for that friendly chat which is not always possible as you never know if the other person is free/busy. So there's always a bit of reluctance. At office you can visibly see them and figure out before dropping by.

Having said that I am not sure all clients would be happy about their work being done from home due to data integrity concerns, the reason why service based firms have dedicated ODCs. Specially banking, defence etc.

Another demerit for bhpians would be their beloved steeds getting less running. I bought an automatic car specially for office commute and if it reduces to once a week, I would feel my investment going pointless. Last I tanked up on 14th of March and I still have 80% fuel left

[motorworks]

I work for a brick and mortar Apparel Retail company and quite simply put, work from home was not a word that any of us knew before the lockdown! This wasnt an option earlier and since our work primarily revolves around physical products, WFH was unknown territory. Also, our work is very collaborative in nature, with teams like design involved, we needed to see physical products, i.e., Garment products, Fabrics etc, all the time.

So when WFH was announced, most of us thought it would be a non starter. But we have managed to find new ways to interact constantly, set up meetings in MS Teams, which is a great tool by the way. So, im kind of occupied 10-6 everyday, with just a one hour break for lunch.

I guess this whole lock down situation opened up new ways to get people moving, so quite possible that our organisation may push for a optional WFH policy, of say 2 days in a month post all the chaos.

[charanreddy]

I have read some where that a person’s intelligence is the average of 5 folks he interacts with most regularly.

Our organisation and leadership promoted working from office and our guidance was at max 2 WFH s per month. I used to meet interesting people , have conversations on what’s going on in their neck of the woods. I miss this the most in a WFH set up. Also I see that as my day becomes more interlinked with my personal work, I miss the dedicated time I used to have at office for coming up with new thoughts, things and having fun along the way. Personally, I would prefer coming to office at least 3 days of the week and make sure all of my team is present so we have quality discussions and interactions. An all WFH world will just be too dull and make me less effective , IMHO.