What did we learn from working from home during Covid?

Lena Anayi, John Lewis and Misa Tanaka

Since the onset of Covid-19, firms and workers have adopted and adapted to new working arrangements, which involved some workers primarily or exclusively working from home (WFH). What lessons – if any – can be drawn from this experience to inform future of work? A previous blog post examined how WFH might affect productivity. This blog post reviews more recent research on the experience of WFH during Covid, and considers what can be learnt about the impact of WFH on time use, workplace interactions and productivity.

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Remote working, bargaining power and productivity

Lena Anayi

Remote working soared during the Covid-19 (Covid) pandemic. Over half of British workers worked from home during the initial Covid lockdowns (first panel in Chart 1). And by February this year, nearly a third of workers were still doing so at least some of the time. But will this last? In this blog post, I explore firms’ and workers’ attitudes to remote working, the extent to which these may differ, and factors that might affect negotiations between them on future remote working arrangements.

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