A Comparative Study of Traditional vs . Work from Home Among the Employees Working from Home During COVID-19 Crisis in Raigad and Udham Singh Nagar

This study is related to the outbreak of COVID 19 pandemic in India, how the widespread of this virus has forced individuals to be locked in our homes which has drastically affected the growth of our economy. Not only India, the world is facing the COVID 19 catastrophe which has shut down all the professionals and business enterprises. Since the COVID 19 is a very contagious virus and it is incurable till date and curable with limited scope, hence WHO published the advisory stating that till the pandemic is dealt with every individual must maintain social distance in order to slow down the rate of spread of COVID 19. In this world of technological advancement and better traveling equipment, the world is nothing but a global village and since, if one part of the economy is getting affected, it has a large scale impact on all over the world. However, “Janta Curfew” has been implemented, it has become more challenging for the employees to visit workplaces. The study will detail about analysing the aspect of work from home facilities during the lockdown period. (The data is based on during the first lockdown period from March to June)


Introduction
Coronavirus disease  is an infectious disease caused by a new virus. The disease causes respiratory illness (like the flu) with symptoms such as a cough, fever, and in more severe cases, difficulty breathing. You can protect yourself by washing your hands frequently, avoiding touching your face, and avoiding close contact (1 meter or 3 feet) with people who are unwell.
Coronavirus disease spreads primarily through contact with an infected person when they cough or sneeze. It also spreads when a person touches a surface or object that has the virus on it, then touches their eyes, nose, or mouth.
The outbreak of the novel coronavirus  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. In India, the first case of CoVID 19 virus was detected in January end and we started to see an increase in the number of cases from March 12th 2020, according to a report of World Health Organization, the growth rate of CoVID 19 is very exponential and since it is very contagious and somewhat life-threatening, the practice of social distancing must be followed in every work environment. However, you cannot follow social distancing if you are working in an office since the interaction between people is a lot in the work environment, maintaining social boundaries looks kind of possible, so in order to fight with the spreading virus and practising the social distancing Hon. Prime Minister Narendra D. Modi as a drill implemented "Janta Curfew" on 22nd March 2020 to make people aware of the need for social distancing in order to fight the CoVID 19.
After the Janta Curfew was successfully implemented and meanwhile the cases for CoVID 19 were piling up day by day, to slow the rate of infection the LOCKDOWN was initiated in the entire country for a period of 21 days so that the community transmission couldn't be triggered and our health system could work effectively and not collapse.
But likewise, work is also an important aspect to survive in society, so there was a dilemma across the organizations of the world, how do we work and follow lockdown all at the same time? The solution to which was Work from Home. We live in an era where smartphones are getting smarter day by day and the Internet is dominating the work, our reliance is so much that without the internet in the workplace is like running a race with one leg fractured. So the idea of Work from Home was feasible since most works could be communicated through the Internet. Most firms in the business have prioritized their employee's health's first rather than the targets and permitted work from home. In this study, we will be analysing the advantages and If we talk about the outbreak of CoVID 19 virus in the district of Raigad we can assume that since the testing process is still ongoing, no concrete figures are provided regarding the Raigad District, till date no cases have been reported but as the trend follows up in Maharashtra as per 10/04/2020 1734 active cases are reported in Maharashtra whereas more than 30000 has been tested and only 188 got recovered. On the mourning part 110 also lost their lives while battling the CoVID 19 and Pune which is sharing its border from Raigad district has 42 active cases which constitute 0.9 % cases from Maharashtra.
Udham Singh Nagar: An official Census 2011 detail of Udham Singh Nagar, a district of Uttarakhand has been released by the Directorate of Census Operations in Uttarakhand. Enumeration of key persons was also done by census officials in Udham Singh Nagar District of Uttarakhand. If we talk about the outbreak of CoVID 19 in the state of Uttarakhand till date 35 cases have been reported and 1688 has been tested, however, there has been no loss of life in Uttarakhand. Udham Singh Nagar has reported 3 active cases and testing is still going on so numbers aren't concrete evidently.

Need for Study
 To find the feasibility of work from home facility.  Satisfaction level among workers.  To check organization and employee relationship.  To check the impact on salary and other incentives.  Whether such facilities the company should adopt during a crisis.

Objectives
 To analyse the perquisites of Work from Home (if any) in the time of CoVID crisis.  To analyse how effectively the Work from Home can be implemented in the organizations.  To look out about if Work from Home could be an effective working tool in the post-crisis world.  To have an employee's viewpoint and preferences over Traditional Workplace and Work from Home.

Hypothesis
H0 -Employees are not satisfied with the Work from Home facility in respect of Raigad and Udham Singh Nagar District.
H1 -Employees are satisfied with the Work from Home facility in respect of Raigad and Udham Singh Nagar District.
H2 -Implementation of Work from Home even after the CoVID 19 crisis in Raigad and Udham Singh Nagar District.

1) Focused and Working Environment
In order to be productive and efficient in the work, the focus is must and to provide a distraction-free ecosystem nothing is better than the dedicated workplace where everything is workoriented.

2) Better Coordination between the levels of Management
When you are working at a dedicated place and everyone out there is pursuing the same motive as you, there cease to exist better coordination between various levels of management.

3) Compartmentalization of Personal and Professional Lives
No one likes to indulge their personal lives with their professional ones, it causes chaos to work and working in the traditional workplace can eliminate this variable since it is work-oriented.

4) Better Social Relations
Not only productive work is achieved in the traditional workplace but also better social relations between your teammates, your clients and your leaders are formed since you interact with all of them on a repetitive basis

1) Rigid working hours
Traditional Workplaces have very rigid working hours which makes the overall day pretty packed for an employee and he has to sacrifice all the other priorities.

2) Increment in Travelling Expenses
Travelling from home to work by any means will increase your expenses which will cause a reduction in your savings.

3) Informal Working Environment
Whereas work from home will focus more on to the point work rather than grapevine communication or chats between colleagues.

1) Lack of coordination between the teams
Since you are working from your home and there is a lack of communication between you and your team, it will act as a communication barrier and work might not run out seamlessly.

2) Time-consuming Practice
When you have a dedicated time allotted to your work, you can squeeze the remaining time entertaining your other priorities, but while working from home, you don't know what time you can work since many distractions will blend in between you and your work which can decrease your output and increase the time taken to complete a task.

3) Lack of Accountability
Due to no supervision, the employees might procrastinate the work and be held less accountable with respect to the work provided to them. Which could lead in the improper and ineffective workflow hence increasing the labour hours for nontechnical reasons.

Sources of Data Collection
The aforesaid research is to be conducted by the means of descriptive quantitative research methods with reference to data collections. Both primary and secondary data will be collected.
Primary data: Primary Data will be collected from the local consumers by the way of Questionnaire Method and Personal Interviews.
Data has been collected from the samples who are working in the corporate sectors. The concreteness of the work regarding the management of the office has been checked by collecting questionnaires via google forms. So several questions were put forward and samples responded for the same.
Secondary data: Secondary Data will be collected by past manifestations and goals covered in lieu of, leading research papers, websites and other research centres.
Data of CoVID 19 is collected from websites and newspapers which has been analysed by the researchers and all the data entries have been cross verified to ensure the reliability and authenticity of the information provided.

Statistical Tools Used for Data Analysis
The data will be combined in the simple and easy words and numerical data would be converted into easy words for better and precise understanding. Final data will be presented with diagrams, charts, graphs, tables, etc., with appropriate explanation. Data Analysis will be done by the content quantification, Google Docs, Google Forms and sorting the data by using the tabulation method, for which Microsoft Excel will be used. The final result will be found by Thematic coding and decoding and then testing hypotheses through F-test, and to test the intensity of relation ANOVA will be used.

Data Interpretation
In the survey of samples in Raigad and Udham Singh Nagar together, people were asked about their point of view on traditional workplace and work from home. All the people included in the survey are from Raigad and Udham Singh Nagar or outskirts. All of them are working professionals and practice traditional work in their day to day lives.

1) During the time of crisis of CoVID 19, is your organization providing you with the facility to work from home?
When People were asked about if in this time of crisis their organization is providing the facility of working from home in the districts of Raigad and Udham Singh Nagar, 80% said Yes and 20% said No. i.e. only 80% of the organisations supported the facility of work from home.

2) How many positive CoVID cases are reported in your organization?
When the locals were asked about the number of Positive cases in the area of Raigad and Udham Singh Nagar, 100% people were confident that till date there has been no case of CoVID 19 in their locality or surroundings or workplace, still, Work from Home was granted for precautionary basis.

3) Where do you find a more friendly working environment?
On asking about the favourite place to work from the people of Raigad and Udham Singh Nagar it was obtained that 80% prefer working in the organization and 20% prefer working from their homes only, i.e. the majority of people prefer traditional workplaces.

4) During work from home, are you facing any deductions regarding your salaries?
Remuneration is the motivation everybody likes it, so when people of Raigad and Udham Singh Nagar were asked about if they are facing any deductions regarding salaries during this LOCKDOWN situation. 16.7% said yes, 26.7% were not sure about it and 56.7% didn't face any deductions, i.e. majority of people were happy with the salaries provided to them even in International Journal of Research in Engineering, Science and Management Volume-3, Issue-11, November-2020 https://www.ijresm.com | ISSN (Online): 2581-5792 132 the time of crisis.

5) Do you get the right amount of support and guidance from your supervisor during Work from Home?
When asked about the support and guidance from their supervisor during Work from Home, by the people of Raigad and Udham Singh Nagar 83.3 % were satisfied with the guidance provided while 16.7 % faced problems in support and guidance, i.e. the majority of employees were able to work seamlessly amid lockdown.

6) "I have adequate opportunities to develop professional skills while working from home"
We asked the people of Raigad and Udham Singh Nagar if they had adequate opportunities to develop professional skills while working from home, 63.3% people said Yes they developed some skills, while 20% were not confident about it and 16.7% said No they didn't have any opportunity. 7) "I feel easy to communicate with all levels of the organization" In this period of Work from Home when people of Raigad and Udham Singh Nagar were asked if they had any problems regarding communicating at any level of the organization following was the outcome of the people, 50% are agreed that they didn't have any issues in communicating with the levels of organisations. 23% are neutral for the question. 13.3% strongly agreed with the question. 8) Are you experiencing any co-ordinating issues with your co-workers during work from home?
When people of Raigad and Udham Singh Nagar were asked if they are experiencing any co-ordinating issues with their coworkers during work from home. 66.% of the people were positive about the effective co-ordinating while working from home, 10% were a bit paranoid about the coordinating and 23.3% faced the problem of ineffective coordination amid lockdown work from home. 9) Are you experiencing any technical issues at home during work from home? If yes, what are they?
When people were asked if they were facing any difficulties regarding the technical issues at home during work from home, mixed statements were received, a majority of people complained about not having wi-fi at homes., while many people were facing the communication issues such as network and connectivity problems due to lack of service providers because of lockdown.

10) "I get appreciation from my immediate supervisor"
When the samples were asked whether they are getting appreciation from their immediate supervisor, 46.7% have put a tick against yes with the mail they are getting appreciated and 26.7% are working but they are not being appreciated, 26.7% are neutral respondents.

11) In future, what will you prefer? Why? (After the CoVID crisis)
When asked from the people regarding their favourite spot to work after the closure of lockdown, 76.7% people said they would prefer a traditional workplace, while 23.3% of people prefered Work from Home. Traditional Workplaces will be preferred the most.
Due to the various factors such as:

Conclusion
The main motive to go through this topic was to analyse the workflow an individual can generate while Working from Home. We were curious to know about if the work could only be performed in the designated workplace or one could breach the barrier and work on their own terms yet be productive to the organization they are serving. Due to the outbreak of CoVID 19, there is an opportunity to find out if the traditional workplaces are effective or not.
So, we reached the conclusion that a majority of employees were satisfied with the Work from Home facility during such a crisis, thus H1 is accepted. But this is only due to the dear of CoVID 19, otherwise, most of the people want to perform their work in their designated office premises. However, since most of the persons were satisfied with work from home facility amid lockdown and CoVID 19 terror in the districts of Udham Singh Nagar and Raigad, thus H0 is rejected. On analysing the responses, we got, most of the employees were satisfied with the work from home facility only during lockdown period, however, majority of people still prefer their old traditional workplace to work around, thus H2 is rejected.
During such crises organisations should provide work from home facilities and support the decisions of our government regarding the rules of lockdown to overcome such issues as soon as possible. Which will result in the overall development of the economy rather than the situations like inflation, unemployment and this CoVID 19 pandemic? Moreover, the organizations should provide the employees with the facilities like laptops, internet and flexible working hours which will lead to the smooth functioning of work and objectives of organisations will get fulfilled along with the objectives of the nation.