A typical day begins when you cross the threshold of your workplace and say good morning to your colleagues. This was the case until BC, that is, before Coronavirus. Change of plans. The spread of coronavirus has brought an inevitable necessity; working from home.
Finally, (for now) good mornings in person. We say goodbye to the traditional way of working, the new “good morning” will come by email.
But is Europe ready for the so-called “remote working”, in other words “teleworking”?
The kings of the economy, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook have set the example first, inviting their employees to work from home unless their presence in the offices is “essential” for the company to continue operating.
However, managing the workforce in several countries is difficult as they are not ready for the implementation of teleworking.
How many Europeans have worked remotely at least once? How many have the corresponding equipment to be able to work remotely? Is the internet fast enough, in all homes, to cope with working from home?
Critical questions that Europe is called upon not only to answer but also to implement immediately.
The OECD found that 6 out of 10 citizens in the European Union had never worked from home in 2018. Also characteristic is the example of Italy, which has been quarantined due to the coronavirus and only 67% of employees have never worked remotely from the office, less than a quarter have access to fast internet, while Greece reaches 61%.
According to Eurostat statistics, the percentage of people working from home has been increasing from 7.7% in 2008 to 9.6% in 2017. In 2017, only 5% were recorded as having worked from home, with the Netherlands leading the way with 13.7%, followed by Luxembourg with 12.7% and Finland with 12.3%, while Bulgaria with 0.3% and Romania with 0.4% are in the last positions. It is worth noting that Greece, with just over 2%, comes in 6th place from the end in the 15-64 age group.
A general conclusion is that in addition to the lack of culture, a problem is also created by the lack of access to high-speed Internet. Greece continues to occupy one of the last positions among 37 countries, with 0.16%. The percentage of South Korea is impressive with 81.65%, occupying the first place.
It is a fact that the need for teleworking found Europe unprepared. However, some countries have structured their economies in such a way that they may depend more on workplaces due to the structure of their economies. For example, a factory with production, it is impossible for its employees to work from home.
Also noteworthy is the statement of Bloomberg economists who characteristically report that home is an emergency solution for many businesses “however, for more than 17% of Europeans employed in manufacturing, 7% in construction, 14% in trade and 5% in hotels and restaurants, this option will not be available”.
It is a given that the need for remote work is an unprecedented situation for many businesses that are called upon to manage it, as we are moving into uncharted waters worldwide.
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