OPEN UNIVERSITY ISCED

Department of Human Social Sciences

Degree in Human Resources Management

Challenges of working remotely (out of office/ online) during the COVID-19 lockdowns

Otília Mateus Banze – 31220389

Xai˗Xai, May, 2022

 OPEN UNIVERSITY ISCED
Department of Human Social Sciences
Degree in Human Resources Management

Challenges of working remotely (out of office/ online) during the COVID-19 lockdowns

Field work to be submitted at the

Coordination of the Licentiate Degree in
Human Resources Management at
UNISCED
Tutor: Flora Simão Chihururu Tereso

Otília Mateus Banze – 31220389

Xai – Xai, May, 2022

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 Index
1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1

1.1. Objectives ........................................................................................................................ 1

1.1.1. General Objectives ....................................................................................................... 1

1.1.2. Specific objectives ....................................................................................................... 1

1.2. Methodology.................................................................................................................... 2

2. Challenges of working remotely (out of office/ online) during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
3

2.1. Remote working .............................................................................................................. 3

2.2. Who is classified as a Remote Worker? .......................................................................... 3

2.3. Challenges of working remotely (out of office/ online) during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
4

2.3.1. Individual ..................................................................................................................... 4

2.3.2. External ........................................................................................................................ 4

2.3.3. Opportunities ............................................................................................................... 5

2.3.4. Psychological Well-Being ........................................................................................... 5

3. Conclusion........................................................................................................................... 6

4. References ........................................................................................................................... 7

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 1. Introduction

CoVID-19 changed the working topography enormously. It affected the economy because of
the lockdowns, so many organizations had to reinvent themselves in other to accommodate the
new reality imposed by COVID-19 pandemic. Staff also had to work hard in this new form as
they were the most affected ones, as they ran a risk to be fired from their works as a result of
non- entry of money caused by lockdowns. Working from home is now buzz the world across
the globe.

In Remote work, the staff or professional works beyond the traditional office settings, not
necessary from a particular location. Several organizations across the globe irrespective of the
type of organizations asked their employees to work from home wherever possible. Lockdowns
were imposed in several counties which significantly affected the economies.

The organizations allowed the employees more flexibility to work from home and have their
schedules. The organizations are flexible even to modify the policies and procedures to get
adjusted to this new environment. Eventually, the working class also adjusted to the Covid-19
pandemic environment and tried their best to deliver their respective outputs to meet the
objectives of an organization balancing his/her requirements. It was reported that there remote
working yielded much more productivity saving the commuting time as the employee have
reasonable control and plan their activities in such a way that employee’s personal and
professional life existed peacefully, where he/she can work in full potential and personal
satisfaction.

The subject matter of this paper is Challenges of working remotely (out of office/ online) during
the COVID-19 lockdowns.

1.1.Objectives

1.1.1. General Objectives

 Analyse the challenges of working remotely (out of office/online) during the COVID-
19 lockdowns.

1.1.2. Specific objectives

 Define remote working;

 Identify the classification of the remote worker;

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  Analyse the challenges of working remotely (out of office/ online) during the COVID-
19 lockdowns;

1.2.Methodology

This research focused on bibliography research whereby many works of renowned scholars
were consulted.

2
 2. Challenges of working remotely (out of office/ online) during the COVID-19
lockdowns.

2.1.Remote working

Remote working embodies at least 18 terms which covers working outside of the main
organization building using information and communication technologies (ICT). Telework
appears to be the preferred academic term for remote working, while home working is a
common term applied by governments during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

2.2.Who is classified as a Remote Worker?

Having researched reports into labour trends (such as Euro found European Working Condition
Survey 2019) from around the world there is no clear definition. The ILO in their 'Issues Paper
for the Global Dialogue Forum on the Challenges and Opportunities of Teleworking for
Workers and Employers in the ICTS and Financial Services Sectors (Geneva, 24–26 October
2016)' identifies that a remote worker should be defined by the time spent working away from
the main organizational building rather than the type of role.

Remote working can be identified as 'work, which could also be performed at the employer's
premises, is carried out away from those premises using ICT on a regular basis'.

Remote working appears to be seen within many organizations as a perk of certain roles and as
such is not appropriately managed. This may appear controversial; but research identifies that
around 90% of remote working is undertaken without formal contractual arrangement, is not
properly risk assessed and little or no support program provided to the remote worker, this is
susteined by the reason that it is related to the lack of regulation and what regulation covers
remote working.

The EU has developed EU Directive 91/533/EEC 'on an employer's obligation to inform

employees of the conditions applicable to the contract or employment relationship'.

While this defines the contractual obligations of the employer it does not set any health and
safety standard. The expectation is that employers will recognize their duty of care to reduce
the risk of ill-health.

It is widely recognized, both in regulation and reporting, that the risk of ill-health to those
remote working includes both physiological and psychological risks.

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 2.3.Challenges of working remotely (out of office/ online) during the COVID-19
lockdowns.

2.3.1. Organizational

To retain the best available talent and maintain low attrition rate is an important challenge for
most of the organization. Managing attrition is also important to address the needs of internal
and external stakeholders. The main challenge is re-skilling or up-skilling of the available staff
on war-foot in minimum time, else employee may become to the exercise of trimming the
groups. The lack of communication in the organization – lack of communication between peer-
subordinate, stakeholder’s results in delayed decision making and project overruns. The
organization should have all the necessary gadgets make available for better communication.
In several organizations staff work in teams cohesively to fulfill the project goals. In certain
projects, the team member’s activities run parallel, however, in certain cases a member’s
activity needs to be completed to carry out the next activity. There is some risk involved in this
arrangement during remote working which needs to be addressed. Workplace isolation is
another important factor that affects the employee's psychological well-being. The employee
will miss the fun during breakout, tea and lunchtimes in the workplace. This significantly affects
the employee's well-being because of boredom and missing the interaction with colleagues in
the workplace. The daily interaction of staff with the peer, with the team, adherence to the
policies, and organizational climate also affect the remote working.

2.3.1. Individual

At the individual level the employees need to handle family distraction, keeping good heal
habits, role overload, role conflict i.e. which role e/she should be given priority as
father/mother/wife/brother and sister. An individual should possess enough acumen to priorities
his/her work, working with minimal supervision, handling team pressures, and should be able
to withstand the situation should satisfy him/herself.

2.3.2. External

Adjusting to the different timing zones, lockdown restrictions, family fulfilment,

communication with the external stakeholders and interruptions are some of the external
challenges.

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2.3.3. Opportunities

On the opportunities side an employee has the advantage of social and family support, flexible
working hours, minimal supervision, absence of workplace politics and workplace pressures,
and absence of communication. However, the employee needs to invest some resources for
remote working on the internet and other technologies.

2.3.4. Psychological Well-Being

Several studies reported low psychological well-being of remote working employees due to a
lack of positive relations, autonomy, and personal growth. Workplace isolation is affecting
employee well-being.

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3. Conclusion

The remote working will continue and stay for some more years or forever. An employee needs
to adjust to this remote working and the benefit of it is the fact that an employee can choose to
work in a way that makes work-life balance perfect, by finding ways and means to accomplish
perfect communication using the latest communication technologies. Several organizations
have developed virtual recruitment practices, virtual meetings using above mentioned
communication tools. To support individuals who have or chose to work remotely, it is
important to not only risk assess the physical and psychological risks, but also to ensure that
the individual employee receives the appropriate information, instruction, training and
supervision for this new world in which they work.

There were several studies reported huge savings for the companies as the employee are
working remotely so the cost of infrastructure, electricity, commuting costs, and other indirect
costs are saved. Increase in productivity, work-life balance, avoiding the risk of accidents and
infection as the employee is not commuting daily to the office. An employee also could pursue
his/her long-standing hobbies, professional pursuits etc., which could not be fulfilled due to
time constraints or due to lack of freedom at the workplace to pursue them. Remote employees
are less stressed compared to in-office counterparts with decreased absenteeism and better
health and wellness.

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4. References

Anderson, A. J., Kaplan, S. A., & Vega, R. P. (2015). The impact of telework on emotional
experience: When, and for whom, does telework improve daily affective well-being?
European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 24(6), 882-897.

Felstead, A., & Henseke, G. (2017). Assessing the growth of remote working and its
consequences for effort, well? Being and work? Life balance. New Technology, Work
and Employment, 32(3), 195-212.

Hickman, A. (2019). Workplace Isolation Occurring in Remote Workers. Doctoral Dissertation.

Walden University.

Kristen Senz. (2019). How Companies Benefit When Employees Work Remotely. Research and
Ideas. Blog. https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/how-companies-benefit-when-
employeeswork-remotely

Melanie Pinola. (2020). The 7 biggest remote work challenges (and how to overcome them).
https://zapier.com/blog/remote-work-challenges.

Prasad, KDV., Rao, M., Vaidya, D. R., & Muralidhar, B. (2020). Organizational climate,
opportunities, challenges and psychological wellbeing of the remote working employees
during COVID-19 pandemic: a general linear model approach with reference to
information technology industry in hyderabad. International Journal of Advanced
Research in Engineering and Technology (IJARET), 11(4):372-389