It is time to collectively shatter the stigma attached to working from home
KARACHI: The coronavirus pandemic has revolutionised the workplace in a sense that the majority of companies have now opted to work from home. Though organisations around the world have already moved beyond domestic markets, encouraged cross-cultural interactions and supported virtual teams, they did not fully embrace the concept of working remotely.
After the lockdown, restrictions continued in different parts of the world. Companies like Twitter, a dominant social media site, has allowed its employees to work remotely for an indefinite time period and has closed down 35 of its global offices. They have also announced a separate allowance for their employees to help them purchase office supplies. Similarly, Google and Facebook have accepted a home-working policy till 2021. Other workplaces have begun to redesign their office space to make social distancing possible by creating more spaces between desks, developing one-way corridors, and following a shorter work-week policy.
Amid such an unprecedented situation, one cannot help but come to terms with work-from-home policy, which at the moment seems to be the most feasible option. While some organisations can afford to restructure their offices and adopt social distancing measures, most of them lack the space and resources to do so. Therefore, it is time to collectively shatter the stigma attached to working from home and develop infrastructure that can ensure maximum productivity during the present circumstances.
Organisations must empower their employees by inculcating in them technical and problem-solving skills. They must also accept a flexible work schedule, and adopt a task-oriented and result-oriented approach, rather than following a process-oriented approach, where the focus is on following a standard work schedule, procedure and protocol. We need to realise that thousands of lives remain at stake amid the current pandemic, and there is no other option but to adapt ourselves to this new normal.
Nayab Iqbal
Published in The Express Tribune, June 19th, 2020.
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