Work from Home in the time of COVID-19

By Professor Deepa Mani & Professor Shekhar Tomar Mar 30, 2020

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and the subsequent work-from-home imperatives and lockdowns have led to significant economic disruptions around the world. As several millions of workers across diverse sectors are asked to self-quarantine, an understanding of the impact of this shift and mitigation strategies becomes critical. The insights from prior studies on the impact of work from home arrangements do not extend to the current context since these arrangements were mostly limited to a select group of workers and/or organizations and were often self-selected.

To better understand the implications of the current imperative to work from home, including readiness of different sectors, cities, and occupations, we measured suitability of diverse occupations to work from home in India.