Purbaya: One Day of Work from Home per Week Will Not Disrupt Economic Activity
Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa is convinced that the implementation of one day of work from home, or WFH, for civil servants and private sector employees will not disrupt the national economy. The government is currently drafting regulations for one day of WFH per week to anticipate the energy crisis resulting from the war raging in West Asia.
Purbaya stated that the policy would actually be efficient in reducing energy consumption if the WFH day is chosen carefully, for example, on Fridays. “It should be fine, if it’s just one day. Our overall productivity won’t be too affected,” said Purbaya at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Friday, 27 March 2026.
Purbaya is optimistic that the one-day WFH regulation could reduce the use of fuel oil or BBM. Nevertheless, he admitted he does not know the detailed extent of the savings. “There will definitely be savings of a certain percentage in BBM, I don’t know the details because it can vary depending on oil prices,” he said.
According to Purbaya, the WFH policy does not have to be applied to sectors that require continuous operations, such as factories. The same applies to essential public services.
“But for productivity, for factories and so on that indeed require continuous work, well, it doesn’t have to be, right. And for public services, it will still run,” said the former Chairman of the Deposit Insurance Corporation (LPS) board of commissioners.
Separately, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto assured that the one-day work from home policy for civil servants and private sector employees will be decided in March 2026. However, Airlangga was brief about the official announcement regarding the implementation of remote work, including the WFH day. He stated that the policy announcement would be made as soon as possible.
According to Airlangga, the government still has a few days before the end of this month to announce the WFH policy. “How many days left in this month?” he said. “Yes, so there’s still time.”
The plan for WFH for civil servants and private sector employees emerged in mid-March 2026. President Prabowo Subianto, in a cabinet meeting at the State Palace, encouraged measures to save fuel oil consumption. He also considered the WFH policy as a step to anticipate the impact of the global crisis. It is known that the surge in world oil prices occurred after the war between the United States and Israel versus Iran erupted at the end of February.
Energy economist and lecturer at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) Fahmy Radhi believes it will be very difficult to demand compliance from civil servants and private sector employees in implementing WFH. This is because the policy involves changes in employee work patterns.
He stated that if the one-day WFH scenario is implemented on Fridays, employees might not work from home but instead work from anywhere (WFA) at tourist spots while enjoying a long weekend. “Thus, BBM consumption cannot be saved significantly,” he said in a written statement on Sunday, 22 March 2026.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, WFH was quite successful in saving BBM because there was a variable of compulsion to avoid contracting Covid-19. This variable does not exist in the one-day WFH policy to be implemented. Without compulsion as before, it will be very difficult for WFH to be implemented consistently.
In addition, he assessed that one day of WFH risks reducing income for the transportation sector, including online motorcycle taxi services or ojol, and small, micro, and medium enterprises (UMKM) that have been providing lunch for civil servants and private sector workers, and other businesses.