The Rise of Working From Home in the Pandemic Age

The Rise of Working From Home in the Pandemic Age

By Jason Inocencio

Traditionally, the notion of working or reporting for a job in the Philippines entailed leaving one’s home, getting into a car or using public transportation, going to an office from 9:00 a.m. and heading back home by 5:00 p.m. This whole concept, however, was turned on its head in 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic enveloped the world and companies had to explore other means of getting productivity from their employees while also lowering the chances of spreading the virus through social distancing. This suddenly made working from home the standard across most industries.

As with education and schooling, employees going to an office was just not feasible the moment COVID-19 forced the national government to impose a nationwide lockdown in March of last year. Rather than see the economy suffer further and their companies to die slow deaths, many industries turned to a work from home setup to continue to keep themselves afloat. With internet connectivity a major concern, apps like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams became necessary for managers and company presidents to stay in touch with their employees as well as their clients and partners.

It’s no secret that in the Philippines, traffic has often been cited as one of the main causes for low productivity. A Japanese study from 2017 pointing out that Php3.35 billion in productivity a day was lost due to traffic.[1] Seventy percent of commuter trips in Metro Manila were by public transportation and only 30 percent by car. The work from home setup effectively eliminated that hindrance to productivity, something that also allowed the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to experiment with their bus lanes.[2]

From the perspective of an employer, Stewart Butterfield, CEO and co-founder of the work communication app Slack, said that, “If we can move past decades of orthodoxy about 9-to-5, office-centric work, there’s an opportunity to retain the best parts of office culture while freeing ourselves from bad habits and inefficient processes, from ineffective meetings to unnecessary bureaucracy.”[3]

A Future Forum research conducted by Slack notes that of 4,700 knowledge workers found the majority never want to go back to the old way of working. Only 12% want to return to full-time office work, and 72% want a hybrid remote-office model moving forward.[4]

Aside from taking traffic out of the equation, several factors that are perceived to slow down productivity in a workplace have also been eliminated by working from home. In a survey conducted from July to August 2020 with 161 CEOs in the fields of professional and business services, financial services, technology, manufacturing, as well as transportation and logistics by the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) and PwC Philippines, 73 percent said that even after the effects of COVID-19 ease up, they will likely continue a work from home policy.[5]

In the case of these businesses, savings were noted in office utilities, supplies, staff activities, conferences, transportation, and representation expenses. That same survey noted that 87 percent of the CEOs believed that the culture of their respective organizations empowered their employees to work effectively from home should the need arise. Among the companies surveyed, 50 percent were from large firms, 34 percent from medium-sized businesses, 10 percent from small businesses, while 6 percent were from micro enterprises.

Republic Act No. 11165 or the Telecommuting Act was signed into law in 2019[6] and was authored by Sen. Joel Villanueva, but the senator never envisioned that it would be so significant in such a short amount of time since its enactment. To keep employees from mingling with each other within the walls of an office or even during down time in the office pantry, the Telecommuting Act (also known as the Work From Home Law) has become a necessity although some legislators are already looking to amend it based on lessons learned last year.^[7]

“Work from home is one of the ways to ensure continued productivity and operations, as we have learned today in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Villanueva said in an interview with the BusinessMirror.^[8] “It may not be for everyone, but businesses in general should consider transforming their operations to ensure business continuity with very minimal disruptions in case of an unexpected event like the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Sen. Villanueva also acknowledges the infrastructure challenges that the Telecommuting Act faces, including the previously mentioned slow internet speeds that the Philippines is infamous for. As of November 2020, the Philippines is ranked 110 out of 139 in terms of mobile data speed according to Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index.[9] In terms of mobile internet speed, the Philippines has an average of 18.49 megabits per second compared to the world leading speed of the United Arab Emirates with 170.30 Mbps.

With the pandemic still raging and the projected slow rollout of the vaccines to combat the coronavirus, the reality of work from home is part of what has been popularly been termed “the new normal” as much as face masks, temperature checks, alcohol dispensaries everywhere, and social distancing. Sen. Villanueva has emphasized that the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) must work continuously with various government agencies, including the local government units, in lessening the requirements and process cycle time for the grant of permits for the construction of cell towers and other related telecommunication structures.

For his part, Deputy Speaker for Finance Luis Raymund L. Villafuerte, the principal author of the Telecommuting Act in the House of Representatives, said that, “this is probably the time for our companies to give RA 11165 a chance by pilot-testing or trying out this alternative job arrangement of allowing their employees, if possible, to work in their homes instead of reporting to their respective offices until this new viral outbreak subsides.”[10]

As a matter of safety more than convenience, a work from home setup has become a necessity in light of the current global situation. Though it is not an ideal time for the law to be implemented, the good news is that there is a law to assist employers while also protecting employees who are working under this setup. Even as the world patiently waits for things to go back to what was once perceived as “normal,” the implementation of the Telecommuting Act as well as the need to improve telecommunications infrastructures around the country have given employees who can work from the relative safety of their homes an alternative means to keep doing so despite these challenging times.

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About the Writer:

Jason Inocencio is a freelance writer for leading advertising and marketing agencies in the Philippines and has contributed to investigative publications on various topics including healthcare in the country. His Komikon engagements reflect how he is a geek at heart with written works focused on his hobbies ranging from sports, comics, movies, to anime.