The big productivity culling is coming, overhiring was so easy, all seemed justified.
Careful of marking yourself as replaceable with remote labor. You might not like just how remote management will go :)
In earnest, whom did you actually envision to be "essential" then?
What will probably happen is the company will want to lower the workers salary based on the local market that the IC is operating in. If you aren't trying to wage arb, then you could keep your job, and potentially be happy.
-Mark
The primary problem I see is that offshoring tech work to India has been an option for a long time, but has largely failed for a variety of reasons - US companies seem to feel they get better value paying a much higher price for talent in tech hubs. It's not clear how the calculus would be different now.
My interpretation of "essential" with it comes it ICs is someone with a vast amount of domain knowledge which is critical for the continued operation of the company.
I've worked at many places where essential workers were in other countries, and I didn't know if they worked in an office, from home, or from a ski resort. But it didn't matter because they had the information I needed.