For thousands of Ford Motor Co. employees, going to work in the morning will not require removal of their bedroom slippers. Permanently, even post-pandemic.
The corporate giant told thousands of employees this month that they will be permitted to work from home after the COVID-19 crisis resolves.
Ford said it will allow about 30,000 “office workers” to use a “flexible hybrid work model,” which will entail reporting to the office only for meetings and team-building activities.
The decision from one of America’s biggest employers represents a seismic change in attitude — if not actual practice, given the past year — in the way business is conducted in the U.S. The pandemic and the concurrent lockdowns and social distancing advisories forced many employers to shift home base for employees. Those who could work remotely were asked to do so. And companies learned they had a nimbleness that they had been unaware of previously.
The impact of this new awareness is sure to play out as the months unfold, post-vaccination. More employers are likely to re-envision their work model. What was intended to be temporary has or will become permanent.
The ramifications will be broad and carry the potential to affect a range of social and economic systems from the price of office space to wear-and-tear on the road system to child care needs to workers’ compensation rules.
The wise employer that is considering making work-from-home a permanent situation should reflect on the gamut of impacts: Will employees feel isolated? Will the energy that comes from in-person interaction in the workplace be lost or is Zoom enough? At the same time, there are potential economic savings to be realized by a company that reduces its need for pricey office space and allows its employees to pay less at the gasoline station.
Change is sometimes good and it’s sometimes bad but it is always inevitable.
Ford’s hybrid approach to the way it does business — the mix of in-office and out-of-office time for a chunk of its workforce — dips a toe in the pond of change. It’s a cautious approach and likely the wisest one.
First Published: March 29, 2021, 4:00 a.m.
