Work from home

A survey conducted by YouGov in partnership with USA TODAY and LinkedIn showed that working from home in the US during the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 pandemic has had a positive effect on workers’ productivity. That’s according to 54 percent of respondents in a recent survey of professionals ages 18-74.

Many reasons were cited why this is so: time saved from commuting (71 percent), fewer distractions from coworkers (61 percent) and fewer meetings (39 percent). The workplace might be forever changed by this experience forced by the COVID pandemic.

WFH had been heaven sent for people who hate waking up before dawn for the long commute through traffic, and the same thing going home. WFH is apparently also good for those who suffer bosses who call too many meetings.

Working from home should be the new normal in the short term. It helps slow the spread of disease, specially because a good vaccine or cure for COVID may be months, if not years away.

But there are some disadvantages. Most survey respondents (51 percent) feel lonely working from home, with 20 percent feel lonely most of the time. Roughly two-thirds say their primary source of human interaction right now is their immediate family… not always good.

To fight this off, USA Today reports, some are calling friends more often via phone or video calls during the day (49 percent). Or they are spending more time on Facebook, Twitter or other social media (37 percent). All counterproductive in a workday.

“As folks start to go back to work in offices and resume their commutes, I think individuals are going to be thinking through what parts of this COVID phase of life they want to keep,” said Maria Flynn, CEO of Jobs for the Future, a nonprofit in Boston that seeks to drive change in the workforce.

“Is it going to make folks reconsider how much time they want to spend commuting or having more flexibility to work from home?”

Experts see this pandemic as a “game changer” for remote work. Most managers used to steadfastly think it can’t be done. COVID showed it can be.

Here in the Philippines, Manny Pangilinan predicted that in the new normal, companies have to prepare for WFH and social distanced offices. At the Ateneo-UP webinar, MVP also acknowledged the impact of this WFH development on telcos… more broadband usage, putting pressure on telcos’ capex.

David Leechiu, a property consultant, feels negative about WFH. He thinks it is not sustainable.

Why? We have poor telecom connectivity, too many relatives and therefore distractions (domestic violence being a major factor), it’s simply too hot because 70 percent of households don’t have roof insulation, air conditioning, or access to clean water. Corporate fraud will accelerate significantly because work from home has very little supervision, and therefore, more risk for fraud and corruption across all levels.

Entrepreneur Toti Chikiamco reports otherwise. Toti said his company has abandoned their physical offices and will henceforth WFH. “We found no loss in productivity. A number of employees are happier because they save two to four hours in commuting time.

“The GM of a software development company I talked to also said his productivity went up. With project management tools like Jira, you can track whatever your employees are doing and what they have accomplished.

“Another advantage of the WFH is that you don’t have to implement the workplace standards mandated by government, such as one to two-meter distancing, instituting temperature checks, regular rapid testing.

“Under DOLE rules, a company is liable for all the medical expenses of an employee who contracted COVID if it didn’t follow the workplace standards. Even if it did, the liability threat remains.

“You can have smaller office space just for general meetings or rent on a per day basis from Regus and other temp space landlords.”

If Toti’s experience is more universal, WFH may continue beyond the quarantine. If that happens, companies will not require more office space to comply with social distancing rules as Leechiu predicted. There should be good savings on office leases.

But companies adopting WFH must deal with some challenges.

For one, how to rebalance home and work when work suddenly becomes home. Work can be interrupted by number of domestic concerns. Child care and spousal relations also make it complicated.

The USA Today survey found out that among those working from home during the pandemic, 23 percent were sharing work space with a spouse or partner and 14 percent were sharing it with children engaged in online learning.

But the pandemic has forced many employers to at least entertain the idea of working from home in some form for some of their staff.

My daughter, who works for a tech company based in Silicon Valley, told me there are many companies there not planning to go back to their offices until Fall. They are comfortable with their WFH arrangements forced by the pandemic.

Actually, my son-in-law had been working from home months before COVID, supervising a crew of technical and artistic staff in Bangalore from a room in his Denver home. And it works. Technology sees to that.

For us, we may not have a choice. WFH will most likely be a necessity a bit longer, bad broadband notwithstanding, because our battle with the Wuhan virus has yet to peak. The quarantine may be extended beyond May 15, at least for some areas in NCR. Tony Lopez of BizNews Asia summed it up: “The Department of Health under Secretary Francisco Duque was slow or failed to conduct the three Ts – test, contact tracing, and treatment. That is why the DOH could not have the trust of the people.

“Having failed, the DOH just kept on taking the path of least resistance, quarantine. But quarantine has killed the economy, rendered 25 million jobless, made half of the people poor, and triggered mass hunger, malnutrition, and police abuses against so-called quarantine violators.”

The story of our lives today! At least technology can rescue us if we let it.