“Work from home 100% works for me,” says the IT employee on night shift who can sync his hours with rest, or the working parent who’s able to greet their child after school. On the other side, a leader argues that productivity dips, communication suffers, deadlines slip, and employees become hard to reach.

Since the pandemic, we’ve heard both sides of the remote-versus-office debate. Most companies seemed to have found their groove and there’s strong evidence to back remote working whether full-time or hybrid.

That was certainly the case in Hyderabad – work life seemed to be working —until the monsoons gridlocked the city. Commutes stretched 3–4 times longer, people were exhausted from long journeys on top of long days but the fallback plan of working from home came to the rescue. It felt like déjà vu from the pandemic—sorry for the flashbacks! Employees adjusted, rain poured, work continued…until internet cables were cut in a citywide clean-up drive.

Social media lit up with frustrated posts about being unable to get online. Two days later, many were still struggling.

What’s the lesson? It would seem we’ve grown complacent about work from home and the assumption that connectivity will always be there. But this is more than a business continuity issue—it’s a wellbeing issue. Stress levels spiked for employees who couldn’t log in and for leaders trying to keep work on track. Supporting wellbeing means planning for both productivity and peace of mind: giving employees backup data allowances, credit for device pairing, or simply acknowledging the strain when tech fails.

So, the next time you revisit your business recovery plan, look beyond systems and processes—ask what it means for your employees’ day-to-day wellbeing and overall experience. A resilient plan supports not just business continuity but people continuity. If you’d like us to help you with exploring the consequences of business continuity on the employee experience and design practical solutions, we’d be glad to help – get in touch today or when your internet is up and running again!