Jeremiah Owyang, a Silicon Valley industry analyst, recently tweeted a poll: 'Ideally, how many days per week would you want to work from home vs. at the office. Why?' Results were surprisingly divided as the voters favored not wanting to work at home forever for various reasons.
A few hours after Owyang's poll on Twitter, a recent count calculated that 44% of the voters would want to work at home for five days and 0 days in the office. They would even accept a 10% pay cut for this privilege.
The analyst explained the scenario with realistic considerations.
'Your company offers you the ability to work from home indefinitely, but with a 10% reduction in pay. Do you accept because you can reduce your cost of living by potentially moving to a cheaper region? And because productivity might go down (although many have higher productivity in their home offices) and you're competing with potentially cheaper global talent?'
Click Poll: Your company offers you the ability to work from home indefinitely --but a 10% reduction in pay.
Reason: your costs reduce, move to a cheaper region, reduced productivity, you're competing with cheaper global talent. - Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) May 19, 2020
On the contrary, 56% of the people voted otherwise - wanting to go back to the office or are seeking another job. Interestingly enough, this is about the same estimated statistics as the global ratio of introverts and extroverts.
One of the voters, Steve Alter, responded, 'I think two days a week in the office is enough to connect and have important [face-to-face] and group time. Also, don't think "home" means house; could be other remote spaces and off-site meetings."
Another voter tweeted, 'I'd go for 3 home, 2 office as well - but working as a freelancer currently - I'm working 6 days on average and have quite a lot of mixed scenarios (days home & office/client) including work on weekends. I guess that's not everyone's cup of tea, but it suits me well.'
Other voters continued to share their need for human interaction and missing the office environment, while others preferred the freedom to work remotely and cut travel time.
Read Also : How Technology and Science is Growing in 2020
How does Technology Change the Future of Work Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic?
Technology has filled the gap for numerous companies to continue operating despite community quarantine in most places around the globe. Communication platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, and even the recently developed Facebook's new Messenger Rooms allow employees and entire businesses to work remotely because of the pandemic.
However, contemplating this kind of work scenario is only realistic for tech companies and organizations that don't require physical contact - mostly white-collar jobs. This leaves the issue of remaining service jobs such as the tourism and hospitality industry.
Can restaurants, hotels, cafes, car washes, salons, and other service jobs survive if these white-collar workers decide or are required to work from home? That remains uncertain as the coronavirus continues to dictate how companies can continue or discontinue operations.
From Temporary to Permanent Changes
No company was fully prepared for the coronavirus affecting their workplaces and employees as many have transitioned to a work-from-home status. While some struggled with the new arrangement, people on social media have shared that they prefer to work at home.
Increasingly, some companies have even considered making this change permanent. For instance, Shopify announced that the era of 'office centricity is over; most staff to permanently work from home.' Facebook, Twitter, and Google all already work from home.
