The present pandemic caused by COVID-19 has caused unprecedented turmoil in human lives. Invoking the typology of crises, we classify COVID-19 as an intractable crisis that necessitated nations to impose lockdowns. As national economies and businesses got a severe blow with this closure, organizations encouraged employees to work from home. Drawing upon the employee isolation literature, we aimed to examine the impact of work from home on employees during the lockdown. This investigation would help us learn about the nature and quality of work in the context of the current crisis. Towards this, we conducted in-depth interviews with 24 middle and senior-level managers across manufacturing and technology-enabled service sectors in India and analyzed the data using MAXQDA software. Employees reported an increase in working hours, major changes in their roles, reduced levels of productivity, and increased levels of stress. Besides these findings, we discovered sparks of creativity among employees during this isolation period. These creative steps were either towards nurturing oneself for career growth or towards solving long-pending organizational issues. Interestingly, the creativity was self-initiated. Our findings have key implications for organizations and their leaders who need to revisit work-from-home policies for the future workforce. We highlight our theoretical contributions and outline the scope for future research.
Unlocking the COVID-19 Lockdown: Work from Home and Its Impact on Employees