Remote working in India during the COVID-19 crisis

Abstract

India has been reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and has enforced a nationwide lockdown to ensure the spread is contained, and the situation is under control. This has paved the way for corporate across the length and breadth of the country to embrace remote working as the only feasible option to continue their business. Earlier, it used to be the IT sector employees and a handful of employees from other industries who had the privilege of working remotely. Now, with remote working becoming the norm, we aim to capture how it has affected people’s working style and if interactions with family at home during work hours affect their work. We also aim to find out whether performance takes a hit due to the absence of co-workers.A questionnaire was filled up by employees working from home that sought out details about their working style, daily routine, interactions with other people (family member or colleague), and their thoughts on the remote working lifestyle. The major factors were measured on a five-point Likert scale.People work for a longer time when working from home, due to distractions caused by interactions with family members or other people and also the absence of colleagues causes problems to be solved at a slower pace. Women work longer hours when compared to men, additionally due to household chores. The absence of colleagues coupled with distractions at home cause people to prefer working from the office rather than from home. This study would help identify what sort of impact remote working has on an employee’s performance and how it can affect the working style.The paper analyses the effect of remote working and the presence of family at home on an employee’s performance.