To say that the way humans work has changed since the days of hunter-gatherers would be stating the obvious. Just describing the major milestones in the history of work across the globe could span the length of an entire book. For the United States, some of the salient features of the workplace in the past few decades include: an increasing share of women entering the workforce in the 1950s; cubicles becoming the norm in office layouts during the 1960s; the prevalence of fax machines and laser printers in the 1970s; an introduction to the idea of work-life balance as well as the widespread use of personal computers in the 1980s; the advent of cell phones and email in the 1990s; technological advances posing a threat to many low-wage, low-education jobs in the 2000s; and, the tech sector boom and an emphasis on having a diverse workforce in the 2010s. Currently, as we are living through a “massive experiment in telecommuting” necessitated by the current global pandemic, working from home as the default mode of operation has a fair chance of becoming the hallmark change of this decade.
Working from home is not a new concept for many employees who have been taking advantage of the telecommuting options offered by a lot of organizations. But the mandatory remote working environment these days has helped everyone fully grasp the notion of working from home full-time. Even companies that never allowed remote work had to quickly adapt to this new mode of working. Unsurprisingly, working from home allows employees to better manage their schedule, customize their workspaces, avoid long and tiresome hours spent commuting, save money, and enjoy more time with loved ones. Employers, too, can benefit by reducing or even slashing costs that go into renting an office space and other related overhead expenses.
However, I would be remiss to not mention the challenges that come with working from home on a full-time basis. Employees could succumb to a lot of distractions while they are not in a traditional office space. They could have difficulty developing and maintaining a routine and being available to answer immediate questions. They may even face logistical issues such as poor internet connection. On the other hand, employers would have to train managers to better ensure their team’s productivity as well as invest in maintaining the required infrastructure to enable remote work.
It is essential to note that while workers with computer-based jobs can work from home, millions of US workers – grocery store employees to healthcare professionals – do not have this luxury. Even then, a major change could be on the horizon. A shift in the way many companies operate after their employees have worked remotely in a successful manner during the pandemic, could have spillover effects on many other aspects of the economy. A wide variety of jobs will no longer require employees to move to bigger cities that have usually had better opportunities. This could directly impact the long-established patterns in the residential real estate market. The ability to hire talent from anywhere across the country, or even around the world, will help promote meaningful diversity in the workforce. Compensation packages by employers would have to account for ancillary costs such as home-office setup and internet connection, and even take into consideration the physical location of employees for cost-of-living adjustments to salaries. Employers may also have to establish codes of conduct which are more suitable for new working patterns. Moreover, efforts toward closing the gender gap and the gender pay gap can be strengthened by this new wave in the long history of working.
Having realized the cost savings generated as well as the viability of the work-from-home model in terms of productivity, companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Zillow, among others, have recently told their employees that they don’t ever have to come back to the office. Such drastic measures implore one to understand the feasibility of this model as well as its impact on employees and employers alike. Possibilities are endless, but only time will tell whether a successful transition to an entirely remote workforce or at least a hybrid model – some middle ground between a traditional office and a completely remote workforce – is the future for a majority of US companies.
