THE concept of ‘work from home’ was alien to most before the pandemic. Covid created social distance at many levels, caused heavy losses to many industries, and even led to the closure of several businesses. As calls for social distancing grew louder, organisations let scores of employees go, switching to the work-from-home model with fewer people. Those in manufacturing jobs, or employed as hospital staff, had to observe strict precautionary measures.

As no country was spared pandemic-related damage, work from home was adopted by all. Today, other than the United States, work from home is allowed only when employees cite exceptional circumstances. However, major companies in the US — Home Depot, Target, Microsoft, 3M and Intel etc — prefer regular office routines. According to a survey by prominent economists, remote work rates support the notion that more people are working from home now than they were in pre-pandemic days. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal discusses how remote and hybrid work has reached a “new equilibrium”. Before the pandemic, only seven per cent of workdays were remote. The rate shot up during Covid, and has now settled at just over a quarter of all........

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