Working from home - the impact of COVID 19

With the pandemic sweeping the world, COVID-19 has rendered a large proportion of the workforce unable to commute to work, in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the virus. This has resulted in both employers and employees seeking alternative work arrangements. Quarantines, lockdowns, and self-imposed isolation have pushed tens of millions around the world to work from home, accelerating a workplace experiment that had struggled to gain traction prior to COVID-19.

Due to the pandemic, most if not all workers experienced work from home (WFH). Hence WFH has become a policy priority for most governments. In doing so, the policies must be made keeping in mind the practicality for both employers and employees. However, this current situation provides unique insight into how well working from home, works, and may play a vital role in future policies that reshape the current structure of working hours, possibly allowing for more flexibility.

Now, well into the pandemic, the limitations and the benefits of remote work are clearer. Although many people are returning to the workplace as economies reopen—the majority could not work remotely at all—executives have indicated in surveys that hybrid models of remote work for some employees are here to stay. The virus has broken through cultural and technological barriers that prevented remote work in the past, setting in motion a structural shift in where work takes place, at least for some people.

More than 20 percent of the workforce could work remotely three to five days a week as effectively as they could if working from an office. If remote work took hold at that level, that would mean three to four times as many people working from home than before the pandemic and would have a profound impact on urban economies, transportation, and consumer spending, among other things.

Remote work raises a vast array of issues and challenges for employees and employers. Companies are pondering how best to deliver coaching remotely and how to configure workspaces to enhance employee safety, among a host of other thorny questions raised by COVID-19. For their part, employees are struggling to find the best home-work balance and equip themselves for working and collaborating remotely.

With the vaccine rollout well on its way, people were required to register and take the vaccine once they receive a special code. President Cyril Ramaphosa has mentioned that the government planned to introduce mandatory vaccinations for certain activities like travel. Some people were skeptical to take the vaccine as they feared the possible side effects. At present 50.3% of South Africans are now fully vaccinated. As the vaccination rollout gains momentum, the looming question is to what extent will remote work persist?

By: Nompilo Hadebe

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