The Healthy Work Campaign published a new Medium article recently, “Remote Work or Return to the Office? It depends.” exploring the enormous transition that many workers made to “remote work” during the pandemic. Up until June there appeared to be some movement from corporations to encourage workers to return to the office environment, though some companies had moved towards the idea of permanent “hybrid” work – including some days at home and some days in the office. The surging Delta variant has stalled these decisions somewhat as more data is emerging that some vaccinated people, if exposed to the virus, may still become infected and be able to transmit the virus to others.
While there are some benefits to working from home, there are many who want to return to an office environment. What our article ultimately concludes about remote work, is that regardless of whether you work at home or in an office environment, or for the millions of essential worker who never had this choice, the quality of the working conditions will follow you. Healthy work continues to be an important goal no matter the environment.