Several Ugandan employees who are lucky enough have been forced to work from home since early March in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19 following the president’s lockdown directives. Though today’s forced remote culture has been an adjustment for many, some day they would still look forward to the possibility of working from home more often even after the pandemic subsides.
One of the Urban based Techjaja readers we spoke to said; “To me, it sort of takes the edge off of the second shift, I can start the washing machine in the middle of the day or I can put out the chicken to cook for a later meal.” She adds that for her, working remotely has been a huge advantage as a parent. Other parents have had a different experience as a lot of distractions from the children doesn’t allow them to be more productive.
ALSO READ: CODIV-19: How Ugandan company leaders should guide their teams on Working Remotely
Some others are hoping to make their home office more of a permanent workspace in the future. In fact, over 80% of full-time Ugandan employees say they want to work remotely more often even after the economy has reopened, according to our ongoing Tweeter survey. There was totally a different discussion on our ongoing Facebook poll survey over 54% of voters so far voters said they would like to go back to work from offices. Bringing mixed reactions from both polls. Some say that they have currently bored with the monotonous video calls and what to get back to good old ways of having a face to face discussion with their workmates. (FYI both polls are still ongoing)
Will the pandemic force some companies to think of ways in which they can make their current flexible work program more accommodating? Before the pandemic, very few companies especially software-based companies like Andela had the option to work remotely. Due to scheduling and business demands workers in some companies will always be needed in the office multiple days a week. The new way of work will force some companies to flip the paradigm and ask, ‘What’s the day that we all want to be in [the office together?’” This way, if they select one in-office day for in-person meetings and activities, then employees have the rest of the week to work from home if they choose.
One of the biggest reasons why employees prefer to work remotely is because they get to save time on their daily commute and endless traffic jam. The time people would normally spend on commuting has now been used to spend more time with their family during the lockdown.
While the current pandemic is certainly unprecedented, its impact has only reinforced a lot of the changes we were already seeing. E-commerce was already a big thing. Home food and grocery delivery was already a thing, and working from home was already a thing [for a few]. It’s just that we’ve encountered ten years worth of change in five weeks and that can be a little bit jarring for many.
You can still contribute to the our ongoing polls on our twitter and Facebook pages and have your say.
