An Inclusive Analysis on Work from Home Culture for Citizens of Navi Mumbai amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

There has been a complete paradigm shift in Indian working culture as the series of lockdowns were enforced to protect lives from deadly corona crisis. Only the essential service workers were allowed to attain offices and all other were requested to follow work from home. Thus, this seems to be new for many of the professions and all became possible due to digital platforms. There have been both positive and negative impacts drawn from the new culture of work from home. Though it is a common practice in many multinational companies and the percentage is still lower as compared seen increasing during the pandemic outburst. Homeworking is one initiative that has been promoted as a way of improving the work–life balance. But then there exists lot many challenges on technological, social and infrastructural fronts. If work life ends up looking similar to pre-COVID times, with some number of workers still regularly going to an office and others going in sometimes or not at all, promotions may hinge on what’s normal for each employee’s work unit.Work-from-anywhere arrangements could be even better for productivity than working from home, depending on the type of work.This study is based on primary data collected via random sampling method from 550 respondents across Navi Mumbai. The literature reviews help to understand that there have been studies in past but not much on the current crisis of pandemic. Thus, such a study would help to understand the paradigm shift in working culture in Indian scenario from setback to comeback. This explores the question of whether working (or not) from home improves people’s capacity to balance their work and life commitments. This study is explorative in nature, which outcomes demonstrating challenges and probable solutions to the adoption of work from home culture and increasing dependencies on digital platforms.

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