Delta Variant Forces Renewable Energy Companies to Go Remote Again
The Delta surge is expected to worsen significantly during the coming months. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has suggested that some vaccine recipients wear masks and is considering booster shots for individuals who are immunocompromised.
Nonetheless, many big and mid-sized renewable, clean energy and sustainable businesses, as well as the federal government, are compelling employees who successfully worked remotely during the pandemic’s peak to return to the workplace. Over a third have already returned, and the majority are scheduled to do so by the end of the summer or early fall.
However, according to polls, between a quarter and a third of employees preferred full-time remote work, while more than half wanted a hybrid schedule that only included one or two days in the office.
Even if vaccinations are successful at avoiding hospitalizations, renewable energy employees should not have to risk spreading the disease to their unvaccinated kids or immunocompromised relatives. After all, they showed their capacity to work remotely for more than a year.
Fortunately, with the current spread of COVID-19’s Delta strain, some of the major engineering, technology and sustainable corporations in the United States have started delaying their reopening dates, and their employees are not complaining. Within the past several days, Amazon, Apple, Lyft, and Wells Fargo & Co. have pushed back the dates for when their employees have to return to the office. All of these actions were in response to the fast spread of the Delta variant.
According to Nick Bloom, a Stanford University economics professor who has researched work-from-home trends, this new strain is arguably the final nail in the coffin of the announced five-day return to the workplace.
The five-day return was still a possibility following the initial pandemic in summer 2020, but grew increasingly improbable as the virus dragged on into 2021 and we all became accustomed to working from home. This is arguably the best practice for now as we let the pandemic take its course.
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