Unexpected things happen during times of crisis. World War II killed millions, destroyed families and economies, yet it also gave birth to the digital computer and Britain’s National Health Services. The United Kingdom is fighting the coronavirus with an army of health workers drawn from the NHS, while scientists from various countries, including India, are busy cracking the challenge posed by the novel coronavirus on the descendants of Colossus, the first digital computer.

The crisis unleashed by the coronavirus on the Indian economy has similarly had an unexpected outcome – the widespread adoption of the work-from-home culture, considered untouchable across a spectrum of industries in the country. While the culture of working from home has been taking root in the West for quite a while now, Indian corporates have steadfastly fought shy of encouraging anything remotely like it.

However, as CNBC reported on March 23, the movement of working from home has been on the rise in the USA. It quotes Gallup’s State of the American Workplace 2017 saying that 43% of employees work remotely with some frequency. Research indicates that in a five-day workweek, working remotely for two to three days is the most productive. That gives the employee two to three days of meetings, collaboration and interaction, with the opportunity to just focus on the work for the other half of the week. And tends to save a lot of per-employee operational cost for a company.

In India, the culture of working from home has never been a hit with the corporates. However, with the government ordering a nationwide lockdown to halt the highly contagious coronavirus, many companies were forced to encourage people to work from home wherever possible. The quantitative outcome will only be known after a while but what can be said with certainty is that many households are witnessing something novel – the office-goer doing office from home.

However, while many companies had to allow work-from-home in the face of the lockdown, the concept has to pass the test of voluntary performance on normal days. Though the technology to allow people to work from home efficiently already exists, the Indian office-worker will have to demonstrate the skill of balancing official work against other demands in his or her personal space.

Going forward, what would be of interest to note is whether ‘work from home’ in India will be considered a gift from the days of the coronavirus.