The Great Work-from-Home Shift
As the epidemic subsides, businesses are shifting to mixed return-to-work plans.
As the COVID-19 epidemic knocked down the US economy, many businesses were unprepared for everyone to suddenly be working from home, leaving them rushing to put up remote processes. "More than half of the workers who were compelled to work from home overnight had never done it before with any regularity," says Kate Lister, head of Global Workplace Analytics, a research company. Before COVID-19, just 20% of employees worked from home.
When the pandemic struck, both businesses and employees were thrown into an unusual position in which they had to rapidly determine which tools, both hard and soft, they needed, how much space they needed, and how to manage their workflow. Sending laptops to staff, scheduling Zoom and Slack lectures, setting up virtual private network (VPN) systems, and ensuring that workers had the mental support needed to succeed in the new normal were all part of it.
Any distinctions between work and personal life vanished overnight. People were working from wherever they could find free space in their home or apartment, and parents were handling virtual school and daycare at the same time. Some of those concerns got more bearable with time, but they remained a significant adjustment. Approximately half of the respondents polled by Pew Research in October 2020 said they valued the flexibility and opportunity to regulate their hours, but 65% said they missed meeting with coworkers in person.
The favourable effect on the financial line was a significant plus for organizations previously concerned about remote work negatively influencing productivity. Indeed, 83 per cent of respondents polled by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in January 2021 reported that remote work was a success.
Even so, no one anticipated it to go on for this long.
Some businesses, such as Twitter, Slack, and Square, want to remain remote for the foreseeable future, while others, such as Netflix, LinkedIn, and Google, are adopting a hybrid strategy. Microsoft, another proponent of hybrid workplaces, developed a Hybrid Workplace Dial that categorizes office occupancy into six categories based on local health conditions and government recommendations.
On the other hand, other firms want all employees to return to work full-time. According to news sources, the growth of the Delta version has impacted the conditions for any back-to-the-office strategy. Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, and Morgan Stanley are among those changing their return-to-work plans to include needing evidence of vaccination. Employees who have not been immunized will be required to work from home.
Another unintended consequence of the work-from-home trend is the influence on the housing market. When remote employment became the norm, two things happened: Some folks recognized they needed additional room right away and raced to acquire a larger house. Others learned they could work from anywhere, prompting some employees to relocate closer to family members who frequently resided in different regions. It didn't matter where you were because everyone worked from home.
Still, there is some positive news for purchasers on the horizon. In its most recent housing market report, Zillow predicted 5.89 million existing-home sales in 2021, a 4.3 per cent increase over 2020 but a decrease from the 5.91 million total 2021 sales predicted in its previous prediction. According to Zillow, continued high inflation "would put upward pressure on borrowing rates, potentially dampening house purchase demand and home value appreciation."