Final Report on

Will the “Work From Home” practice be continued after the pandemic is over?

In partial fulfilment of Course:

Managerial Communication -2

Submitted by:

GROUP -2

Date of Submission:

January 3, 2021
Contents
 Abstract
 Introduction

Emergent Changes in Work Practices

 Virtual teams
 Virtual Leadership and Management

Economic and Social-Psychological Impacts

 Presenteeism
 Economic Inequality
 Internet access and connectivity
 Social Distancing and Loneliness
 Stress and Burnout
Moderating Factors
 Age
 Race and Ethnicity
 Gender
 Family Status
 Personality
 Cultural differences 
Conclusion

References
Abstract:

Remote working has become the new normal with the onset of COVID pandemic.
Most of the companies shifted their employees from their office desks to their homes.
In the beginning employers were not sure about how employees can be monitored
and feared that the productivity of the employees may fall. But it was not the case.
Rather employee productivity increased and in addition to that companies have
saved a huge amount of money in terms of office space rents, administrative
expenses and other miscellaneous costs.

But every new initiative has its own pros and cons. The Prolonged work from home
culture from the beginning of the pandemic and lasting today has impacted the lives
of employees in different ways. The factors that are responsible for the impact on
employees can be broadly studied under economic and socio-psychological factors.
This article mainly covers studies on factors such as presenteeism, economic
inequality, loneliness, stress and burnout. The Effects of factors such as age, gender
and cultural differences have also been studied in this article.

On observing both positive and negative implications of the above discussed factors,
it was found that negative implications of working from home outweigh positives.
Hence, it is recommended that work from home should not be continued after the
end of the pandemic in order to ensure social connectivity and comaraderie at
workplace. 

Introduction

Covid-19 pandemic had enforced the concept of “Work from Home” into an officially
mandated rule. Something that began as an enforcement, has now seen its
emergence and acceptance from and within all sectors. Before the pandemic the
norm was that the offices are critical to productivity and culture. Companies even
competed for prime spaces in major urban centres around the world and focused on
solutions that promoted collaboration in a workspace. This even led to the advent of
co-working spaces in recent past.Open office designs and co-working spaces have
been the recent norm in the name of human connection, networking and human
touch.

The satisfaction and the productivity people experience can be the product of the
social capital created through hours of lunch break conversations, meetings and
social engagements before the crises. However, this can also be looked through a
different lens.Less travel hours, opportunity to stay with family while working and the
flexibility of managing personal and professional life and finding new ways of
ensuring productivity, low real estate costs for corporates According to a Mckinsey
Research, 80 percent people said that they enjoyed working from home and 41
percent said that they were more productive than they had been before and 28
percent  said they were as productive.However, this rate of success of “work from
home” needs to be evaluated as this might be viewed as a temporary solution to a
crisis and not a permanent new model of working 

It might be confusing as the argument seems to be right for both sides.

Circumstances differ from organization to organization,locations to location and then
person to person.Some have enjoyed the new experience, so have been fatigued by
it.Some people are enjoying the new levels of virtual collaborations while others are
not. Hence, it is important to look at the situation through various angles and decide
whether going forward employees would prefer “Work from Home” when the
lockdown is uplifted and the normalcy resumes as there is no one size fits all
solution.The new way of working from home would require efforts across individual
functions and businesses.

The need for Virtual Teams and their effectiveness

With the onset of COVID-19 and the mandatory work from home that followed, one
sudden and inevitable change was the shift from physical teams to virtual teams.
Even though virtual teams were growing in numbers and importance since pre-
COVID days, it became a necessity for the survival of businesses once lockdowns
were announced in different parts of the world.

Virtual team came with its own challenges, communication being one of them.
Researches have shown that the effectiveness of communication in virtual teams is
lower than face to face meetings. This lack of effectiveness in communication also
results in small issues being escalated and leading to conflicts within the team. A
commonly practiced solution to this is to formalize the team processes, clearly
defining the goals of each team member and discussing it within the team, thereby
ensuring clear flow of information within the team.

Even though lower levels of helping mentality has been observed among members
in a virtual setting, it provides an opportunity for the team members to be bolder in
requesting help. The quality of support received is such cases tend to be better than
usual. Virtual teams also help eliminate the discomfort and awkwardness associated
with asking for help in an office setting in front of co-workers by helping maintain
personal privacy.

It has also been observed that virtual meetings tend to be more effective in
brainstorming, but at the same time, individual performance shows that virtual
teammates miss out on the creative benefits that flow in face to face interactions.
The increasing number of virtual teams globally has led to researchers studying the
omnipresent issues such as anxiety and stress in virtual settings as well, and how
they can be communicated and regulated, making teams function better online

 Virtual Leadership and its challenges

The importance of effective leadership that determines outcomes impacting all levels
of employees has been highlighted in the challenging times of COVID-19. Studies
show that successful leaders are individuals who possess the ability to make the
right choices and also offer reassurance about the future to subordinates through a
combination of realism and optimism. It has been found that employees respond well
to leaders who project a symbolic state of affairs that they can identify with. An
encouraging find shows that leadership can also be effective from a distance and the
recent work from home situation has proven this right with many businesses
reaching pre-COVID productivity levels despite being managed online. Furthermore,
the absence of physical cues of dominance and status tends to increase participation
and coordination among different levels of employees as well as between employees
and leaders.

The persuasiveness of leaders during and after COVID times is determined mainly
by their ability to clearly define organizational values, openly discuss and understand
the issues in their organizations, clearly direct the team towards an ambitious vision
and confidently demonstrate the achievability of goals. The development of such
leaders is aided by proper training that facilitates professional development.
Adequately investing in the professional development of the workforce can be
beneficial to the organization in the long run resulting in better team synergy under
normal conditions and also by helping them be better prepared in the event of a
future crisis.

Another notable aspect to consider during COVID times is the leader-subordinate

relationship. In the absence of direct monitoring, the assessment and appraisal
activities shifted to a result focused assessment which was found to be generally
effective. But the prolonging of remote working can cause reduced opportunities for
feedback and learning resulting in lower organizational commitment and thereby
leading to higher employee attrition. Thus, it is crucial that the leadership focuses on
developing trust and commitment of employees during remote working situations and
ensuring that virtual onboarding of new talent is done with utmost care, ensuring new
joiners are not disadvantaged due to the lack of direct interactions with their leaders.

Virtual presenteeism

Presenteeism term was initially coined to describe the problem of the employees
who had to go to the workplace even when they were sick or injured. But the
meaning has evolved over the time by including people who are physically present at
the workplace but aren’t engaged psychologically. An employee would arrive at
office on time and stay in the office longer and yet not achieve anything significant.
These employees aren’t motivated or more productive, being present only in terms of
body. The cost of this is high, around $150 billion in US each year, $26 billion in UK.

Due to the current situation as companies have ramped up remote work, the problem
of presenteeism is going home with the employees. Even though this is virtual
presenteeism, it doesn’t make it any less real. In fact, more people are being
impacted by this virtual presenteeism. For people new to remote working, it is very
natural to feel a bit zoned out, or there is always a feeling that because one is at
home, that person has to prove that he/she is working. It generally takes time to
adapt to remote work. Generally, many employees don’t get enough time to adapt to
remote working.

A survey[1] showed that 46% of people who are working from home during the
lockdown felt the need to prove that they are present,with 35% working even when
they were ill. The employees who were working while sick,40% stated they weren’t ill
enough to justify a sick leave, and 26% continued working due to excess workload. A
further 16% worked because of the fear of being made redundant.
Lack of visibility is a common problem for the regular remote workers and for all the
new remote workers struggling to adjust, it’s the main problem. Since the employees
start feeling invisible, they work longer days, feel the need to go the extra mile to be
visible.

To counter the virtual presenteeism, the companies need to have effective remote
management in place. Establish a clear communication structure so that they know
when to be available and when to not be. Employees should be aware that it isn’t the
quantity of work but the quality that matters.

Effects of economic inequality

Work from home or remote work can lead to socioeconomic inequality in many ways.
This depends on the job sector and the employers,as well as the loss of benefits
which are associated with the remote work.Working remotely is not possible for
everyone.It is estimated that nearly 100 million workers across the 35 advanced and
emerging countries are at rick as they are unable to work remotely.Low-income
workers are least able to work remotely.Generally the jobs suited for remote work
are well paid ,white-collar jobs. Many people don’t have access to high-speed
internet and computers to work from home.Reliable power supply is also not
available for few sections of the society.Hence the transition from the traditional
working to work from home would be easier for the rich compared to the lower-
income people for whom access to the internet is a luxury.

Internet accessibility and connectivity 

Unreliable network is one of the primary challenges to deal with to continue wih the
remote working conditions. Around 51% have experienced some IT pains during the
shift to support working from home,while 29% are still facing the technical issues in
the US.With the meetings being held virtually on zoom and Microsoft
teams,unreliable internet connections have caused problems. Poor internet
connection have hampered the quality of the audio and video on the
videoconferencing platforms which is preventing from getting the work done and
effectively engaging and collaborating.And since most of the data is located in the
cloud,poor bandwidth hinders the access to that data.The next biggest worry is
maintaining the security and compliance for remote workers.Moving from the
traditional work system to work from home system exposes security gaps for the
organisations and these gaps are to be addressed to protect the integrity of the
company and ensure compliance with the industry regulations as well.For this cloud-
based security systems are being used,which enables the companies to monitor the
security and compliance remotely.

Effect of Age

Age plays an important role in the new working from home culture. Many work-from-
home employees say “Working from home is eroding our mental health”. According
to the survey conducted by Oracle and Workplace Intelligence, 78% of the pandemic
affects mental health negatively. Out of them 85% said their mental issues had a
negative impact on their home life. These results are subject to vary according to the
age of the workforce.
Old people are not worried compared to the young people about their mental health
while working from home.  59% of the surveyed baby boomers said they had
experienced more anxiety and stress. 73% of the millennial group surveyed
expressed that their anxiety and stress was more than that of the year before.
Finally, 80% of Generation Z said they had a negative effect on their mental health
this year.

From observing these results it was found that younger generations were hit badly in
terms of their mental health in the workplace. They are likely to suffer more if the
work-from-home culture is continued even after pandemic is over. Whereas
according to the survey, the older generation is less likely to get affected by the new
normal and more comfortable with the work from home culture.

Effect of Gender:

Work from home helped both men and women employees, it made them stay
indoors nearer to their kids and comfortable in their own environment. But recent
study carried out by Qualtrics, revealed that work at home is more beneficial to men
than women. 57% men said work-from-home affected their lives positively compared
to 29% of women. Survey report also found that 70% of male workers' productivity
has increased compared to 41% of women’s productivity.

The differences in proportions of both men and women is mainly because women
have multiple tasks to be carried out along with their job routine. This includes taking
care of children and their education and other household routines such as cooking,
cleaning etc. Whereas men saved a lot of time on commute and distractions at the
office premises, this helped them to allocate their saved hours towards completing
the job.

Promotions are the main motivating factors for both men and women. But when it
comes to facetime, it plays a major role in receiving promotions. Traditionally visibility
of an employee matters and it is a factor for promotion, and since women have to
cater needs of home and office so the likeliness to get a promotion is less compared
to men. According to the Boardlist survey fathers were three times as likely as
mothers to get promotion while working from home.

So women are not motivated to work from home compared to men.

Country Culture:

Culture plays a major role in defining the seriousness of employees while they work
from home. In countries like China, Japan and South Korea the idea of working
means sitting in a traditional office and working for long hours. Even the employers in
these countries consider that employees who work for long hours are loyal and they
are suitable for any perks. They do not give importance to productivity. This also
explains employees are more loyal compared to other countries. They stick with
companies for a long time demonstrating their allegiance towards their employers.

Chinese employees and employers have different reviews and reactions to the
concept of work from home. Employees fall under constant surveillance by the
managers and they make sure that their staff is not reducing their responsibilities.
The regular meetings and reviews decrease productivity of employees. The new
work-from-home move takes time for both employees and employers to get adapted.

Whereas in European countries such as Germany there is legislation passed making

work from home a mandatory after the COVID-19 pandemic. Now around 25% of
German workforce is working from home, a rise from 12% earlier. Even companies
are moving forward in implementing work from home wherever possible. Finland is
the country which leads the whole world in flexible work. This defines how different
cultures in different countries perceive and deal with work from home. This defines
work from home may continue in some countries whereas the work may follow the
conventional path in other countries after the pandemic.

FamilyStatus:

The individual family status, like those who live alone or live in a joint family with
young children and old parents, seems likely to be affected by how COVID-19
impacts these individuals’ life and work. In many households where either one or
both parents are working, seem to be affected by the requirements to work from
home, especially when they are responsible for their children who are at a young age
or go to school. These working parents who have school-age children face a lot of
challenges while working from home, especially when the schools are closed due to
this pandemic. 

According to some research, it was found that It is known that in couples, women
typically perform a significant share of household work, and this can lead them to
opt-out of their jobs and sacrifice their career for family. It is known that partners play
an essential role in supporting and shaping each other’s careers and developing
professional identities. The couples also have to manage the emotional labor of
dealing with anxiety due to this ongoing pandemic. Now These working couples
need to communicate openly about how they can divide the household work and
take care of their children. 

These working couples often adopt a stiff-upper-lip stance and bottle up their
concerns in these times of crisis. This might not be helpful for these couples. They
need to understand that each other’s key problems are critical because it makes
them more attentive and sensitive. because when they understand their partner’s
concerns, they can take the necessary practical steps to soothe or mitigate the
issues between them.

Personality:

The Big Five personality traits predict It is found that different working behaviors and
attitudes, including those relevant to COVID-19, like coping with work-life balance
and an individual’s well-being. It is found that Extraversion and Conscientiousness
play an essential role in successful adjustment in any situation. Extraversion helps to
adjust by promoting more frequent experiences of higher levels of positive emotion.
In contrast, Conscientiousness contributes to adjustment by favoring commitment
and perseverance towards more predictable and long term work goals. Both traits
play a key yet distinct roles in workplace adjustments to the pandemic. COVID-19
can be considered as a “critical situation,” which limits the regular expression of
personality. 

Some experiments show that increasing introvert behaviors can decrease positive
emotions. Thus, extroverts’ interpersonal and emotional advantages may get
affected due to this COVID-19 situation. In some countries, lower levels of
Extraversion have been reported where people have suffered from critical levels of
infectious diseases. Hence, organizational interventions that bring role clarity and
specify goals for individuals or teams might offer the much-needed predictability in
these uncertain times. The increased focus on work goals and how to pursue those
goals may eventually increase individuals’ positive emotions.

There are other types of individual differences that are important as well. With
respect to work from home, it was found that people tend to enjoy work and perform
better when they were able to keep a clear boundary between their work and non-
work activities. In contrast, these people tend to prefer switching between different
activities and are less stressed by mixing work and non-work boundaries. 

Cultural differences in Organizations:

The variations in the culture around the world can be classified based on dimensions
of cultural tightness-looseness. This can be compared to classifying cultures as
relatively collectivist or individualist, which appears most relevant for making sense
of COVID-19. It explains how human groups have developed strong norms and
tighter organizational cultures in reaction to life threatening-experiences. 

Some researches suggest that cultural tightening has certain advantages that
include more significant social order, efficiency, and directive leadership, which
becomes more adaptive during a crisis. It has been observed that nations with more
infectious disease threats are indeed culturally closer and, as a result, less
innovative in science and technology.

Organizations need to find the perfect balance between an overly tight or loose
culture. Some organizations respond to their shaky economic standing. In contrast,
Here successful organizations will benefit from flexible tightness rules that would
bring employees together and prevent social isolation and loneliness. When the
sufficient tightness or looseness of an organization's culture changes while dealing
with COVID-19, there will be some associated changes in how employees navigate
to other dimensions. In a culturally tight organization like hospitals, airlines, etc.,
team creativity and innovation may be fostered by allowing teams to interact virtually.
In contrast, culturally looser organizations (e.g., universities) might profit from a more
significant concern with health and safety regulations due to COVID-19.

Psycho-social impact of work from home

Loneliness- Workplace loneliness can have detrimental impact on the employees’
commitment, behaviour and performance. The virtual connections lack the richness
of proper communication and misunderstandings are a major concern. The absence
of non-verbal cues are certain to increase the fear of dejection at an interpersonal
level and that can be a major trigger for loneliness.

The connections formed through chat and discussions during lunch breaks and
coffee/tea intervals not only provide respite from the work but also foster a healthy
relation among employees. This lays the foundation of the work environment and
culture. The absence of such connections with the other employees can have
detrimental impact on the team work. 

Therefore as organizations develop policies regarding the way forward, greater

percentage of focus should be on ensuring regular meetings with employees to
foster team work.

Stress and Burnout- The ambiguities associated with COVID-19 had required
organizations to protect the employee health and well-being. There was greater risk
of employees encountering job burnout – a chronic stress syndrome, including
feelings of exhaustion and a distant attitude towards work. A study indicated that
people who were exposed to hurricane Katrina had above baseline stress and
depression symptoms a year after the event. Mental health issues may remain long
after crises. 

The work from home scenario resulting from the lockdown imposed let to such stress
and burnout among employees of all generations. It was also observed that while
remote working let people set their own schedules, the irony of the situation was that
many felt that they were expected to be available at all times With all the tech at their
disposal, people are always on call. The price of this pressure of being available at
all times is burnout. -from-home burnout is quickly becoming the next societal health
crisis. A Monster.com survey found that 69% of respondents have experienced
burnout since the pandemic started, up from 52% in May.

It was also found that workers across the U.S., Canada, and Europe have added two
to three extra hours to their workdays. Employees’ travel time saved has been spent
on the desks.

Although remote work appears to offer more flexibility and better work-life balance,
that’s not always the case. The time saved is replaced by  the stresses of the office
with overwork, anxiety, and an urgency of always being available.
Conclusion:

Up on observing the impact of Socio-psychological factors and moderating factors

discussed above, it is evident that there are negative impacts of continuing work
from home even after the pandemic. Considering the Moderating factors such as
age, generation Z and millennials are not able to cope up with the work from home
culture and also this led them towards depression, stress and anxiety disorders.
Even women are unable to cope up with the work from home culture as they need to
take care of their children who are in front of them. Whereas during normal days
parents used to drop their kids in play schools and they used to come to work, where
as in the work from home cases they have to concentrate on their work while their
kids are around which becomes difficult for parents to manage their children.

In addition to the above mentioned circumstances the virtual communications and

connections have a negative impact on individuals by deteriorating their
interpersonal skills and it negatively impacts the concept of teamwork in
organisations because of the introduction of work from home. Moreover, Tech
companies can have this luxury of work from home but employees and workers in
other sectors cannot have work from home privilege as most jobs in other sectors
such as manufacturing, Agriculture, banking etc., cannot be fully converted to work
from home.

So on a whole, companies can save a lot of money by reducing their office spaces
and administrative expenses with the introduction of work from home, but with the
continuation of work from home even after pandemic will lead to mental illness of
employees and this further leads to decrease in productivity and finally this impacts
the whole existence of the firm in long run. Organizations must rethink their strategy
on continuing work from home  even after the pandemic.
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