Depending on where you are, you might be on lockdown for over a month now or just recently started. Your lockdown might be very strict with penalties and police checks or it could be more of a “please stay at home” request as it is in Japan.

Either way, many of us have moved to a “work from home” set up and have had to get used to the new normal.

Here in Japan, the COVID-19 outbreak was slow but started picking up which is why Prime Minister Abe announced  a state of emergency on April 7th but only for 7 major prefectures. He then further extended it nationwide on April 17th. We have been seeing how other countries failed to act quickly but failed at the same time to prepare ourselves here in Japan.

How are companies coping?

Now you see many companies speak about Business Continuity Planning trying to cope with the situation. However, what we have seen is that neither companies nor individuals were prepared for the situation. But that is exactly what BCP is all about. You plan ahead and ensure you have plans in place for different scenarios. In most cases, what we are seeing now is not BCP, it is simply reacting to the situation as it happens.

What is preventing people from working from home? That could be the nature of their work such as retail workers, health care professionals, construction workers and factory workers. In theory, every white collar job can be done remotely. But that is only the theory. For some people it is the company that is holding them back due to a lack of proper infrastructure or IT equipment being provided. They might have desktop PCs but no laptops that they can easily take home. Even if they have a laptop, they might not be able to access the necessary data and systems remotely. Lastly, the company’s processes might be very paper-based.

In Japan 27.9% of people are working from home now according to a Persol study. That does not sound like very much and many people have been bashing Japan for its paper-based culture including seal stamping and faxing. While those practices are indeed not necessarily state of the art technology, the US the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that only 29 percent of Americans can work from home, not much different from Japan.

That being said, if there was ever a perfect timing to move from a paper-based system to an e-signature system such as Adobe Sign or DocuSign, that time would be now.

Any other kind of document such as invoices, should also be sent as PDF. Even if the company still sends invoices via mail, who is there to receive it?

How are the individuals coping?

Even if the company enables their employees to work from home, it’s not easy for everyone. Some people do not have enough space in their apartments to set up a proper work station. Others might only be using pocket wifi and do not have a fast enough internet connection that allows them to do their job. If you have more than one person, being stuck at home for an extended period of time has also led to an increase in domestic violence. To avoid that, Malaysia’s women’s affairs ministry issued advice for women on how to avoid domestic conflicts during the partial lockdown by not nagging their husbands, not being sarcastic and still dressing up and wearing makeup – needless to say they apologized shortly after that.

We have already seen an increase in divorce rates in China and can expect the same in other parts of the world.

Lastly, despite being able to work from home, it appears that many people miss the daily face to face interaction with their teammates, colleagues and clients. We are social creatures and no matter how advanced technology is, Slack, Teams and Zoom will never replace all face to face meetings. For now, however, the focus has to be on reducing face to face interactions and using existing technology to support.

What we have learned

We may not be even close to being through this yet, but there are already a few lessons we have learned:

1. Companies that did not allow work from home, flex-time etc. all of a sudden were capable of allowing it more or less overnight. The question is, will it be challenging for companies to force their workers to the office now that they they have experienced the benefits of working from home?
2. Governments were able to create emergency funds and move quickly. In Germany, usually very bureaucratic, provided financial support for people financially impacted by COVID-19. From receiving the application to paying the person it takes less than one week. That is impressive! It also shows that governments can move quickly and with determination if they have to. Decisions can be made, and funds made available.
3. We are still far away from a scenario where everyone is working remotely as it was predicted when personal computers were first introduced. However, the recent events hopefully moved us to a more flexible work environment situation. Rigid rules such as working from time A to time B from Mondays to Fridays at a specific location might be the right approach for factory workers or other professions that actually have to be physically in the same location. For the majority of white collar workers enabling flexible work arrangements is certainly the more progressive strategy.
4. None of us were prepared neither as businesses nor as individuals. Let’s plan ahead and prepare for realistic scenarios. If you run a business, what will you do differently next time? How will you prepare better? What are your lessons learned? For you individually, what will you do? Premeditatio Malorum.

Lastly, this is a tough time for a lot of us and it is very stressful. Let’s not forget we are in this together and we will get through this together. Let’s remind ourselves that we cannot control our environment and there is no point stressing about things outside of our control. At the same time, showing compassion and empathy for everyone we still interact with | Sympatheia.