Yes, some workplaces depend on the physical presence of their employees. Some of these (healthcare, for example) are indispensable and will continue to function as usual. Others (restaurants) will probably see business curtailed, at least for a time.
But in the many modern white-collar fields that have proliferated in recent decades, the virus will force employees to work remotely ‐ or more accurately, it will force employers to let them do so. This means that the coming weeks will test on a vast scale what has long been a growing phenomenon. At least some workers and their employers will test their relationship, changing the way they think about employment.
The model of working for an employer in an office (white-collar "Dilbert culture," if you will) became the mainstream model only very recently in the history of humanity. Prior to the 20th century, wage employment had been mostly the province of day laborers, factory workers, and household servants. But a great many people, and certainly most of those in the middle and upper classes, were expected to make their living independently. The wealthy lived from land and house rents; small landholders worked their family farms and perhaps took boarders for extra income; those with skills and qualifications ran their own firms or worked their own gigs.
The digital gig economy has been reintroducing that old model at the edges in recent years, supplanting "traditional" employment and circumventing its newly created regulatory strictures. But where the old office model persists, the next few weeks will put a new spin on it for all involved.
Telecommuting has its advantages and drawbacks. Every company will have to figure out which side of the ledger wins out. Some employers, including some government agencies, have so far resisted it because they fear they cannot keep an eye on their workers. There are also fears about the effectiveness of collaboration among dispersed workers. A virtual workplace may be less conducive to workplace conversations about approaches and creative ideas in some fields.
Yet in many cases, these drawbacks will be outweighed by the benefits just to the employer. For example, telecommuting employees can no longer pretend to be busy ‐ a true plague upon American corporate culture. Now workers can and must prove their value through actual productivity. A reduced need for physical office space also means lower overhead costs for the company. And remote workers can usually plow through illnesses with minimal time off for recovery, since contagion is no longer an issue.
There are additional benefits to the employees themselves. The ability to work remotely can add two to three hours back into a typical office worker’s day ‐ nearly 20% of his or her waking life. Remote work eliminates the costs, exhaustion, and environmental effects of commuting. It reduces traffic and, in the long run, the need for and expenses of car ownership. It allows employees to live in less expensive areas and regions, making the workforce less costly to maintain.