This transition is already underway, accelerated by the social changes necessitated by COVID-19. At the peak during the pandemic, up to 42 percent of Americans were working from home.[217] This experience will likely have a long-term impact on how both employees and employers think about work. In many cases the old model of nine-to-five sitting at a desk in a company office has been obsolete for years, but inertia and familiarity made it hard for society to change until the pandemic forced us to.
