Is work from home feasible in the long run?

Context: As the COVID19 pandemic and the resultant lockdowns have made work from home (WFH) an imperative for several industries, it may bring more flexibility for some, while exacerbating the existing divides for others 

Arguments in favour of WFH:

• Not a new phenomenon: Already adopted by the numerous IT industries, pushing not only work from home but from anywhere.
• Democratic Way: Previous technologies were highly monolithic; the new platform provides great opportunity for inclusion. Last-mile connectivity is being assured in villages through Bharat Net.
• Important role of companies: in provisioning of meaningful jobs to women in tier 2 cities and employees based in US teaching village students in India over Skype.
• Still be a physical-digital world: Multiple models will emerge as we go through the pandemic providing more flexibility.

• E.g. rise in co-working space, providing big opportunities for the realtors.
• In education, common labs could be built where students can participate during vacations. 
• Hub-and-spoke workplace models: clusters based workspace based on a given industry.
• Hoteling: booking a seat, and make it a workplace.

Arguments against WFH:

• Aggravates the divide:

• At home between men and women, older and younger due to scarce resources like computers.
• Heavily differentiated internet connectivity gap between rural and urban areas will get larger.
• Women will be much more hard presses to combine their household chores with workplace responsibilities.
• Certain states are more able to provide better quality jobs than other states.

• Loss of actual human to human contact: which is an integral part of work or education, a lot of the learning happens outside the classroom. 

• Domestic violence: has increased as for many women and children, home is the most unsafe place. UN Women has designated it as Shadow Pandemic.

• Highlights socio-economic differences: with online classes, the glimpse of everybody’s home leading to class divide becoming apparent.
• More flexibility and less security:

• For industrial workers, the changes in labour laws remove any protection for minimum wages or fixed hours of work.
• Flexibility and insecurity are two sides of the same coin.