Work from home and changing dynamics

Abstract

COVID-19 has been the biggest crisis of our times. Never before has been the entire world and each and every individual been impacted at this scale but when impacts are large, changes are too. The fear of infection forced all of us to work remotely from our home. It was the test of our technology and a mass experiment of Work From Home (WFH). Our research study aims to explore the changing behavior and mentality towards WFH and gauge it's various physical, mental and social impacts. The research aims to study the differences in perception of WFH by different gender, income levels, education levels and age groups. We intend to explore if there is any relationship between travel time and WFH and reverse migration and WFH and further, if there is any room for the option of taking a pay cut. This research paper is based on extensive primary research survey on 100 participants conducted through Google Forms and the further analysis done through cross tabulation and graphical methods. The research sample was adequately representative of varied socioeconomic strata s and had significant people from both gender, different income and education levels. The research brought forward some interesting insights. More than 75% of workers want to continue with remote work at least some of the time. Youth dislikes hybrid and wants either completely remote or work from office. People in age group 25-40 are least willing to resort to only work from office and 41-60 are least willing to resort to remote work. Males prefer working from home more than females. Increase in income strongly increases the preference for hybrid work. Those who spend large amount of time in traveling strongly prefer work from home. Relocation is a favorable decision for most but pay cut isn’t an option. Work from home has improved productivity, relations, sleep and body but with a pinch of loneliness.

A new instrument to measure healthy workplace qualities: the People in the Office Scale

“…The concept of the workplace has evolved beyond the traditional office to include various environments like hospitals, universities and etc. Moreover, the boundaries between home and work spaces are often blurred in many professions, with employees even preferring the workplace over their homes (Hochschild, 2003;Damaske et al, 2014;Banga and Mahajan, 2021;Vandelannoitte, 2021). Sometimes, especially due to COVID-19 lockdown, the home has taken on officelike characteristics, while office spaces now accommodate various activities beyond production tasks.…”