SEISMIC SHIFT

WHAT IS COMMON between World War II and the coronavirus pandemic, apart from being large-scale humanitarian crises? They are both watershed moments in the history of work. If the former brought American women out of their homes into the workforce, the latter forced a large section of the global white-collar workforce back indoors to work from home. In doing so for nearly two years now, the fast-mutating nanoscopic but lethal virus has brought widespread acceptance for remote work.

“In the beginning of the pandemic, many employees were complaining that working from home impacted their work-life balance. But things have changed and people have clearly realised the flexibility it provides. If you ask people to come back to work, 30-40 per cent of them may even quit, if there are options available,” says T.N. Hari, HR Head, bigbasket. The online grocery platform plans to keep all its offices open, leaving individuals and teams to decide who comes in and when. Hari estimates that less than a quarter of his workforce will be in office at any given point.

HR executives are unanimous that this hybrid model, where employees come into office a few days of the work week and work from home on the remaining days, is the future of white-collar work. An extended, once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, coupled with the opening up of jobs and digitally enabled opportunities for skilled workers, has made them reassess their life and work priorities in an employee-driven market. Mercer India’s Senior Principal Mansee Singhal puts it like this: “The whole