Teleworking in pandemic

The worldwide Covid-19 pandemic is a total and global social event, and given this situation, the effect of the pandemic is that every dimension of social life has been affected, from casual interactions to geopolitical dynamics. Since travel restrictions were put in place to prevent the spread of covid-19, companies have had to devise emergency solutions to enable their employees to work from home. In this adaptation to the new normal, some experts predict that this modality is here to stay.

Teleworking, which emerged in the United States in the 1970s, was a term coined by NASA engineer Jack Nilles. This arose as a response to the fuel shortage that occurred in the United States in 1973 due to the oil embargo decreed by the Arab exporters to the countries that supported Israel in the war of Yom kippur. That is to say, the telework arose in another historical crisis, and apparently it arrived to install itself in a rigorous and massive way.

Due to the world situation, many people and companies have adapted little by little to this new normality of working from home. In that sense, in Chile on April 1 of this year, the law that regulates telecommuting and teleworking came into force, establishing a period of three months to adjust to this law. This will allow workers to change their work modality from face-to-face to remote work, being able to work from home or any other place agreed between the parties. Law 21,220 provides that the equipment, remote materials and tools, including personal protection elements, must be provided by the employer to the worker. It is clarified that workers rendering services under this work modality will enjoy all individual and collective rights and will be covered by Law No. 16,744 on work accident and occupational disease insurance.

This law allows establishing a working day with a fixed schedule, according to the general rules, or -if applicable- the parties may agree on the free distribution of the worker's working day in the schedules that best suit their needs. In this case, the maximum limits of the daily and weekly working hours must always be respected, considering the right of workers to have a period of 12 consecutive hours of digital disconnection.

According to some studies that have been conducted since the pandemic began, it is sometimes the case that people start working very early in the morning or continue until much later in the evening and/or divide the working day into smaller segments, interspersed with breaks for childcare, housework and home education.

According to the OECD, teleworking allows people to save time and combine their work and personal lives. On a social level it could generate effects on the long-term management of the workforce and by providing solutions to potential everyday problems, families may be able to share and live together more, without having to spend time commuting. Mothers raising children alone may also be able to spend more time with their children, although all this positive situation is subject to improvements, such as: the space in which one works and the organization of the day-to-day work and family life. 

The negative consequences of teleworking for companies and workers are limited social interaction and isolation, which can reduce productivity and even damage the health of employees. This cost to the social capital of workers is quite high, companies are quite unique spaces in the spontaneous formation of social ties; ties that are important in the professional growth of people. 

Also, the increase in work pressure and unlimited working time, when there is a lack of planning, plus the excess of free time can also make it difficult for employees to organize their working time. Therefore, the most obvious cost is the possible overloading of work by workers and the adaptability of time at home. We used to talk about not taking work problems home with us, but... how is this possible if we work in the same space where we live? Homes are designed for living, not for working, and space is fundamental.

Likewise, the South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han says that teleworking brings as a consequence the disappearance of rituals and common spaces, it exhausts the lack of social contacts, the lack of hugs and body contact with others. In his book "The Disappearance of Rituals" he formulates that today we have lost fixed temporal structures, even the temporal architectures that give stability to life. Moreover, rituals generate a community without communication, while what predominates today is communication without community. Social media and the permanent staging of the ego exhaust us because they destroy the social fabric and the community. Here again, the thesis that the virus is the mirror of society and exacerbates its crises, the virus accelerates the disappearance of rituals and the erosion of community, is confirmed.

According to John Kotter's theory of organizational change, one of the first steps for any change is to create community and a sense of urgency. To generate a deep and significant change in the organization should not appeal to the rational logic of the collaborators but to the eyes and heart, and for this it is necessary to know the emotions that workers feel, from this premise in Chile was conducted the survey "Telework and Emotions" (Brinca, 2020): which showed that teleworking is performed with a burden of stress and emotional discomfort important for social, health and economic uncertainty, and at the same time, competes with housework, the overload in Internet connections, and the lack of technological systems or digital platforms for management and implementation.

There are many edges that are generated around teleworking, both negative and positive. In the current global context it is of utmost importance that telework experiences in each company contribute to improve the conditions of workers at home. Having a good internet connection, having adequate furniture for the health and comfort of the worker and delimit working hours are some of the conditions that should be fully resolved by each company.  In conclusion, it is a practice that undoubtedly is here to stay and time will generate more information about this social phenomenon.

  

                                                                                                                           By Ro Gálvez.