Before March 2020, remote work was a “privilege” accessible to a few positions, companies, and individuals.
A study by Adecco attributed 7.9% of the total employed in the fourth quarter of 2019 to remote work on average in Spain: 6% in the Canary Islands, 8% in Madrid, 9.3% in Catalonia, and curiously 10.3% in Galicia. Almost 80% of them were between 25 and 45 years old.
Many companies didn't even consider it; it was thought that many jobs could never be done from home, and remote work was considered a clear measure of reconciliation without hidden dangers.
Overnight, a huge number of people went to their homes, in many cases, not just to work, but to 'do whatever they could in a provisional manner.'
Some gave up and didn't even try; on Monday, they rushed to apply for temporary layoffs and government loans (ERTE and ICO), the new magic healing potions.
Others embraced the new, taking a leap without a safety net that saved many and surely changed them, although they had no idea how much or how at that moment.
Most of those who took certain precautions that Sunday (moving chairs, setting up communication protocols) actually had some experience with remote work, the high achievers in this race. Many helped clients and less experienced suppliers deal with the situation.
And it all started in an unreal environment like a science fiction movie where the imminent arrival of a meteorite that would devastate the Earth is announced. We were missing the U.S. president announcing the launch of a spacecraft with astronauts from all over the world ready to stop it.
There wasn't much that could be done for productivity in the first days and weeks. Even the most experienced remote workers found themselves nervous, worried, overloaded with confusing, contradictory, and constant information, and in many cases, coexisting in the workspace with school-less children, surprised and demanding attention. It's one thing to work remotely and a very different thing to be confined at home without being able to go out.
During the lockdown, we all experienced what can be called emergency remote work, even those who were already accustomed to remote work.
After some time and a return to a "semi-normal" state, working from home continued for many. That's when specific and particular remote work problems emerged: lacking suitable tools, not having proper training to use them, lacking suitable work methodologies..., and deeper, harder-to-see problems: being immersed in a culture of physical presence and rigid hierarchy that makes remote work difficult. The hallway-monitor type bosses started to despair.
And in the midst of all this, with more or less success depending on the company, many positions and individuals evolved, learned, and questioned some rules that until then were unchangeable. And some paradigms fell, especially these:
a) There are many more positions that can be done remotely than we had even imagined.
b) Remote work is not necessarily a privilege. Not everyone is comfortable with it, and the timing, the company, or personal circumstances don't always make it suitable. That's why it should be voluntary.
c) Remote work doesn't necessarily promote gender equality, just as reduced working hours don't either, and in general, none of the so-called reconciliation measures do when they only reconcile 'women.'
If there's one thing the pandemic showed us, it's that we are still far behind in what truly matters: shared responsibility. With both partners telecommuting, women took on a much larger share of caregiving and household tasks.
In fact, if some insightful minds hadn't halted and corrected the original draft of the telecommuting law, we could have ended up with a law that feminized and further precaritized remote work. A story that would lead us back to the 'superwomen' model capable of doing everything at once.
d) Productivity is compatible, and it can even improve with remote work. However, it's clear that this only happens when certain rules are respected, at the very least:
- Prefer to be dead than at the kitchen table with an uncomfortable chair. Comfortable table and chairs, light, silence, and a good internet connection are sacred.
- Even with some flexibility, the schedule should be reasonably regular for the worker's health and proper coordination and communication within teams. And one must commit to it: you stop working at a certain time at home just like you would when going to your company's premises.
- It's essential to have a methodology and specific tools for remote work and training to use them.
- They were already here, but the situation has accelerated the arrival of the new "facilitator" leaders: individuals who remove obstacles and create conditions for the team to work, very different from the hallway monitors.
- Remote work doesn't mean never seeing each other; putting a face and voice in person during certain moments helps with communication in day-to-day remote work. In fact, communication was easier among those who had met in person before remote work compared to those who had never met. Let's reintroduce some meetings (not necessarily all of them).
We hope that the days will soon return when we can gather without special precautions, whether we telecommute or not, and do so sometimes yes and sometimes no. It will be a very interesting moment, where we will need to recap on what has happened and take advantage of it to create a new, probably hybrid work model.
According to the law, we currently have two types of teleworking employees at a legal level, but with identical daily lives: the telecommuters who were already doing so before this happened or have agreed to regular telecommuting during this time (often because they live far from the workplace), and the "COVID telecommuters," those who started working from home due to the pandemic. It's difficult to distinguish this in their daily lives, but the truth is that the company has different legal obligations for each group.
What will happen when the COVID telecommuters disappear? To what extent and under what conditions will telecommuting continue, for how many and who? Will some do it and others not? What criteria and distribution will be used?
The studies being conducted point to a model that combines 50% in-person work and remote work as the favorite among those surveyed. What a huge challenge for companies! They will have to re-plan the available space in their workplaces, possibly change locations, and likely implement shift systems and/or attendance requests. One more thing for the employee portal.
According to the law, those who work up to 30% of their working hours from home are not considered telecommuters for certain company obligations (with the idea of respecting the day per week of working from home that some companies already allowed their employees without it being considered telecommuting). What should a company do with an employee who works remotely 50% of the time? Should they set up and pay for both home and office workspaces? This will require some consideration.
New times, new challenges, and complex matters with multiple situations to consider and balance. This is always the case when we talk about people.
