Working from home, a suitable option

Teleworking, pros and cons

Christine Leșcu, 02.09.2020, 02:00

Lockdown restrictions generated by the COVID-19 pandemic have forced everybody to reduce their travels drastically. Consequently, an appreciable number of employers allowed their employees to do their job from home. Initially, the measure was viewed with skepticism and fear, mainly as regards work efficiency. However, more than two months on, specialist research on teleworking has yielded surprising results. A telling example of that is the survey carried by HPDI, Human Performance Development International. As of late, the firm has conducted a survey among participants in the online training sessions HPDI has organized, beginning the second half of March this year. One of the outcomes of the survey was the fact that henceforth, the big companies will do 60 % of their activity, or thereabouts, at the office, while 40% of the activity will be done from home, for at least six months.

As for the drawbacks, 36% of respondents pointed to the lack of understanding regarding personal feelings as the main hindrance to doing their work from home. Then the flawed transmission of information was the most serious challenge for 28% of the employees who were included in the research, while 23% of respondents complained about the prolonged delay in response time, in the absence of direct interaction. All things considered, we can say that working from home “caught on”. Dwelling on that, here is HPDI general manager Petru Pacuraru.

“After the lockdown we thought people would go berserk, exasperated by the difficult time they had working from home, but we found out that in fact, people wanted to create a combination, a mix, between working from home and doing their job at the office, with the work being done from home having an even greater proportion than we might have envisaged. And that was also the surprise we included in the concluding remarks for our survey, whereby 40% of the working time will be spent at home, in stark contrast with the 100 % of the working time that was spent at the office. “

Even more surprising was the employees preference for teleworking. What the employees saw for themselves was that, working from home, they were more efficient. Moreover, transport-related costs became smaller, as well as rent and maintenance-related costs for offices.

Petru Pacuraru:

“There is this issue of the traffic, especially if we have Bucharest as well as its outskirts in mind, where much of the time was spent travelling to and from office. There are two hours to be spent in the traffic, on average, hours an employee stands to gain if he does his work from home. Even employers stand to gain something out of it, since job-wise, for themselves, anything else is better than the time the employees waste when they are caught in the traffic. If employees can have a rest for the two hours they otherwise waste in traffic, that can be an advantage for employers as well. There is also another aspect to be taken into account when we consider teleworking, people can have the chance to make the most of what they have. Bar fear or the panic of the early days of the lockdown, they passed just like a waves ebb and flow, people began to make the most of what they had: their flats, their homes, their children, their pets, in fact they enjoyed the results of what they had worked for so far. And, against all odds, efficiency during teleworking in no way diminished, all parties involved stood to gain.”

All that has been building up towards peoples wish to work from home, for two or three days a week. Could that be a forecast for the future? HDPI General Manager Petru Pacuraru attempts an answer.

“To that effect, I can only speak about 2020, by all means the year when lockdown and working from home have had their strong bearing on everybodys activity. It all depends on the field of activity as well, but I think companies tend to gradually return to the situation they had before. The concept of teleworking, we will never lose it, yet in time, its relevance will fizzle out, and that not because of the employees but because of the employers. Out of the need for control, the work ratio will eventually stand at 80% of it being done at the office and 20%, from home. But as we speak, things are totally different. After May 15, we thought a great part of our clients would return to the office, and here we are, quite a few of them has not returned to the offices. For their most part, they mull returning to the office in September. “

The technological revolution is in full swing, digitalization at work progresses very fast, so a good Internet connection is vital, especially while working from home. Internet speed and accessibility have become fundamental criteria in certain fields of activity, according to a recent classification compiled by BroadbandDeals.co.uk. According to that online publication, Bucharest is the best-placed city for teleworking, while the city of Rome is worst-placed, to that end. Internet speed and accessibility, with an average of 52Mbps MEGABITS PER SECOND reported for Bucharest, has been one of the criteria in the aforementioned classification, while the quality of the food home delivery services and the cost of living have also been taken into account.

Spanish journalist Marcel Gascon Barbera has for many years been the EFE Agency correspondent to Bucharest, also collaborating with Balkan Insight information site. Through his professional experience, the Spaniard has confirmed the validity of the aforementioned classification.

Marcel Gascon Barbera:

“Bucharest is the perfect city for doing the work from home, of for teleworking. As for the good points highlighted in the survey that has been compiled, I can confirm them. I cannot draw a comparison with other cities, but, from my own experience, I can say the Internet connection is excellent, it is also easily accessible, it is reliable and also cheap. Bars and restaurants, through the food home delivery companies, the services they provide are very good. Then theres the cost of living, which is lower than in other countries. For instance, I do not need a high-speed Internet connection. As far as Im concerned, the low cost is an advantage for me. But in the case of those who do Internet design and upload video files, the programs they use are more complicated than my programs, I only type and send my texts, whereas they need a strong and high-performance Internet. And thats what makes the difference between one city and another. And here, in Bucharest, we may consider ourselves lucky.”

As a journalist, Marcel Ggascon Barbera has always worked from home, but from now on, he believes teleworking will become a more and more attractive option, while Bucharest perfectly ties in with that option.

Marcel Gascon Barbera:

“Now, once with the crisis sparked by the pandemic, a growing number of people is highly likely to start work from home. They may not do that on a permanent basis, but what I know is that, in this period of time, some of them discovered they can also do from home what they did before while working at the office. They might also continue to work from home, partially. At any rate, it is an opportunity. And Bucharest is an attractive city, to that end. “

Who knows…once traffic congestion is reduced thanks to the option of working from home, it may very well be that Bucharest will also become a less polluted city.