The COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged a great number of employers to allow their employees to telecommute, many of them for the first time. And while it may seem as though working from home would be more relaxing than working in an office environment, telecommuters are not immune from stress. In fact, you may be surprised to learn exactly how stress can be affecting your remote workers and, just as important, how that stress is impacting their productivity.

The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in an unprecedented number of people working from home. In fact, many company owners and managers who would never have even considered allowing their employees to telecommute in the past found themselves embracing the idea – particularly when the only other option was to simply stop doing business until stay-at-home orders were lifted.

In this age of COVID-19, our everyday work environments are changing. More and more companies are now allowing employees to work from home. And while that may be the best way to allow many companies to conduct business, it’s not always an easy transition to make – particularly for the supervisors of those telecommuters. In fact, if you haven’t done so in the past, managing a remote team may seem like a daunting task.

The COVID-19 pandemic has already had a tremendous impact on our work lives. Even people who have continued to get up and go to work as usual – such as those with “essential” jobs like healthcare workers, grocery clerks, etc. – have likely seen their jobs morph into something different than they were before the onslaught of COVID-19. Changes have been especially felt by workers who have been furloughed or asked to work from home.

Even in the best of times – when you have one or more professional trainers working full-time to train employees at your place of business, for example – training new hires can be challenging. So, needless to say, if you are faced with the task of training a new remote employee, or providing additional training for one or more existing employees who work at remote locations, it can be even more daunting.

Many companies are currently helping their employees to do something they never expected to do: transition from working in the office to working at home. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has made remote work a reality for managers and small business owners who may not have even considered it just a few months ago. The good news is that companies who have allowed their employees to work from home report a happier, healthier workforce, as well as one that is surprisingly productive. But that doesn’t happen without some preparation upfront by company management.

In light of the recent coronavirus pandemic, the vast majority of companies who can allow their employees to work from home are doing so. In fact, in the midst of this pandemic, encouraging employees to telecommute is the most responsible action that any employer can take in doing their part to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, an increasing number of employers are allowing their workers to telecommute. While it’s true that some companies have provided employees with this option for years, the widespread outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in remote work becoming more and more commonplace throughout the world. If you think that working at home is a new concept, you might be surprised to learn that just the opposite is true. Remote work has actually been around since the notion of “work” began.

The World Health Organization (WHO) just officially labeled COVID-19 a pandemic. And companies, schools and other organizations around the world are now urging their employees and students to work from home. From China to Italy; from the U.K. to the U.S., companies of all sizes are insisting that their workers stay home and telecommute to help stop the spread of the virus. Over the last several years, there have been some companies that continued to promote remote work, but in the end, it may be the coronavirus that finally makes telecommuting mainstream.