Is Remote Work only for Certain Industries

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As a developer, I have a privilege to work from anywhere or most specifically from home. There are quite a few professionals who can actually work from home but this privilege is not for everyone. The Coronavirus has affected almost all the industries and its impact is huge where too many companies are shutting down because of loss of business. The most affected ones are the one where individuals cannot work from home and since because of coronavirus then can actually not go into work. Remote work had come into the picture because the business does not want to stop the business altogether and remote work also prevent the spread of illness and thus protecting public health.


PC: Pixabay.com

As we are talking about remote working now, if we think about it 10 years back then there is no such thing available to the employees. They have to go to the office or they have to take leave if they have some work. But now employers are becoming too flexible, if you have some bank work, we can work from home for a day and thus do that bank work too without taking leave. In the past, remote working also had a bad reputation because previously managers used to keep an eye on all the managers, with remote working is not possible. In simple terms, micromanagement is not possible in remote working and thus that is actually good for employees because that gives them the flexibility to do the work at their own pace. At the end of the day, the work should be done nothing else.

Since we are talking about remote working in the past, the technologies were not evolved to handle the remote working. The Internet existed, but the VPN's was too limited to accommodate all the remote employees. Along with that the advancement of Video Conferring has helped to remove the barrier in remote working, along with that so many collaborations tools just gave an advantage to most of the employers to have the remote working possible. Now, this is all about when the remote working is possible, but the remote working is not possible even now for some industries.


PC: Pixabay.com

Working remotely will fit for some professions only and not for all professions. Think about professions like barbers, bar operators, sports, salons, movie theatres, retail shop, airlines to name a few. You cannot remotely cut hairs or do nails, the bar operators cannot remotely send you drinks (though for that you have other options). Similarly, we have other professions like teaching, tech support, stockbroker and others which actually worked smoothly. Architects though continue to work online to create a design as per the client's need but that was not executed in actual buildings because of the shortage of workers as well as the lockdown.

There is some business who changes the course in the midst of lockdown, the example seems to be an eCommerce giant Flipkart who started delivering groceries. Similarly, restaurants, who started partnering with food delivery services to continue working despite the lockdown.

If we think Coronavirus as an Experiment (no one wanted the coronavirus to happen but let's see what the outcome it has bought to us), its always delighted to witness the changes in the way industries are working as well as how the digitalization is happening. The positive outcome I have seen that MNC companies like TCS, Infosys and others are reducing their workplace by 50% and that 50 % will be permanently working from home. This is actually a good step for a city like Bangalore because with this approach the traffic will reduce as well as the high prices of house rent and others will also come down substantially. One of my friends have said that their company does not have WFH options, but with this lockdown, the same managers and HRs are giving talks about the importance of working from home, isn't it paradigm shift.


PC: Pixabay.com

Though most of the companies will go back to their normal option just like before the pandemic, still some companies would continue to have remote workplace as they realize that productivity does not decrease much when you have remote employees. But again this will be limited to only those industries where remote working is feasible.

Through Remote working has its own advantages and disadvantages, what you think is the advantage and disadvantage of remote working?



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