Introduced in
\nRomania two years ago, telework has gained a lot of traction in recent months,
\nbeing one of the solutions identified to ensure social distancing norms imposed
\nby the pandemic. 15,000 people had a telework clause already stipulated into
\ntheir employment agreements when a state of emergency was declared in Romania
\non March 16. Over the next two months, their number tripled. In other words,
\ntelework became more and more the solution, both for employees and employers.
\nTelework does not suit any field of activity, however. Actually, it’s turned
\nout to be a challenge for many Romanians. A study conducted by Colliers
\nInternational in Romania and nearby countries reveals that 40% of respondents
\nare experiencing difficulties working from home. Spontaneous encounters with
\ncolleagues have been flagged as one the things employees seem to miss the most.
\n67% of participants say there is no clear boundary between personal and professional
\nlife. Despite these shortcomings, more than half of Romanians who took part in
\nthe survey claim their productivity has not fallen short. 23% actually say they
\nhave been more effective working from home. Company managers too seem to have
\ntaken notice of this boost in efficiency, which is why they are considering making telework a regular part of
\ntheir companies’ activity. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yet how viable exactly is telework? It’s a very
\ninteresting topic, Romanian Social-Democrat MEP Carmen Avram says. She told us more
\nabout the benefits of telework:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I believe
<\/p>\n Apart from
<\/p>\n This isn’t
<\/p>\n Sociologist
<\/p>\n
People are
<\/p>\n The future is
(Translated by
An overview of the pros and cons of working from home<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":143588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43939],"tags":[39838,35374,44630,44631,44629,35875],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-156373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-future-starts-today","tag-carmen-avram","tag-covid-19","tag-mircea-kivu","tag-remote-working","tag-sorin-faur","tag-telework"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\ntelework will become commonplace across the EU. It’s been proven, and I
\npersonally find this to be a paradox, that employees’ efficiency has gone up
\nduring this period. More studies are still needed, but the evidence shows that
\npeople work better whenever it’s possible for them to work from home. Let’s
\nlook at the European Union. The entire budget for the next seven years will
\nfocus on economic recovery, in turn based on the Green Deal. What is this Green
\nDeal about? It seeks to reduce carbon gas emissions and pollution overall. I
\nthink getting working people out of their homes and out in the streets in
\nnumbers similar to those prior to the coronavirus crisis will be one of the
\ncriteria taken under advisement. If we want, for example, to curb emissions, we
\nwould have a lot to gain from keeping our employees working from home, whenever
\nthis is possible. This would lower emissions and make employees deliver better
\nand faster in sectors where this is possible, employees who stick to deadlines
\nand complete their assignments. So, in terms of the Green Deal, this will be
\none of the options on the table. It’s equally profitable for employers too.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nworking from home, telework also relies heavily on technology, meaning it is
\nbeing carried out through electronic means of communication. It requires
\nstate-of-the-art hardware, so as to improve productivity. At the same time,
\npeople require certain skills, having to rethink their interaction and take up
\nnew roles. We’ve spoken to human resources expert Sorin Faur:<\/span><\/p>\n
\nabout technology, it’s about mindset, perspective. Speaking of management, its
\nrole in remote communication is critical. There are additional tasks to manage,
\nwhich were previously implicit, because we were together, sitting close to each
\nother, often sharing the same office, a common area. We could see each other
\nand read our non-verbal language, we were aware of our peers. Conversely, a
\nteam of say 15 people who each works from their home will have zero contact. It
\nis here that the manager’s role changes fundamentally. He becomes a
\ncommunication hub.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nMircea Kivu believes there are pros and cons to telework, and we need to be on
\nour guard with respect to the latter:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nsocial beings. They crave interaction. The need to interact not just on Skype
\nor on their smartphones. They need to be close to other people to be a team.
\nThere are benefits to teamwork that have been underpinned by HR studies over
\nthe course of decades. Unfortunately, by shifting most of the workload to
\npeople’s homes, many of these benefits are lost. There’ve been experiments,
\neven prior to this pandemic, when large enterprises thought of getting at least
\npart of their employees to work from home. While this was physically possible,
\nand the business kept operational, they noticed that after a while the workers
\nfelt the need to work together. So I think we need to consider how to defend
\nourselves against the downsides of this system. And I’m thinking those managers
\nwho keep their employees at home for weeks should maybe organize team-buildings
\nor other activities every once in a while.<\/p>\n
\nuncertain. What we do know, however, is that Bucharest is the best-suited city
\nin the world to work from home, according to the Remote Working Index compiled
\nby Broadband Deals in the UK. 50 of the world’s largest cities have been under
\nscrutiny for this survey, factoring in aspects such as average Internet speed,
\navailability of food delivery, the number of remote working jobs available, the
\nprice of a laptop and the cost of living.
\nHuston, Las Vegas and Atlanta in the United States and Budapest in
\nHungary follow Bucharest in the ranking of cities deemed optimal for remote
\nworking.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nV. Palcu)<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"