The Duality of the Physical and Virtual Worlds of Work

Telework or virtual office work is not new. However, in the past its adoption has been restricted to a minority of workers and companies. In 2017, only 3% of French workers regularly teleworked. This situation changed with the rapid spread of the Covid-19 virus forcing governments around the world to impose strict lockdowns to protect their populations. Many organisations massively adopted virtual office practices as a crisis management tool to protect their employees, to respect the government’s lockdown restrictions, and to save their business. This situation made many companies consider keeping part of their workers at home permanently to reduce their real estate costs, or even becoming a virtual company. However, this decision is not without consequences. In this article, we examine the duality of the employee interaction with the physical and virtual worlds of work through a literature analysis completed by means of two web-based surveys with white-collar employees disclosing their experiences with both worlds of work.