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SINGAPORE – As the threat of contracting the coronavirus loomed on public transportation and in densely populated office spaces, employees around the world said goodbye to their workplaces and huddled at home to work.
The lights in the office towers went out and the business districts fell silent. Office desks were traded for makeshift studies at home and meetings were replaced by teleconference calls.
These work-from-home arrangements were mandatory in Singapore for most workers, except those in essential services, when a circuit breaker was imposed from April to June.
Although restrictions on returning to the office have been gradually relaxed since then, many companies have continued to adopt flexible work arrangements.
But not all coped well with the unexpected transition.
In a survey of 1,407 respondents conducted from May to June by the National University Health System Center for Mental Science, 61 percent of people who worked from home reported feeling stressed, compared with 53 percent of those who worked from home. workers on the front lines of the pandemic.
The change affected women more, a higher proportion of whom reported feeling stressed at home. One possible reason was that they continued to take on most of the housework and parenting tasks, even though men did more housework and childcare than before.
As a consequence of the unequal burden, women’s mental health and job performance were affected, some studies found.
Living 24 hours a day with family also exacerbated tensions for many.
The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), in a June presentation to the United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women, noted that there was an increase in referrals and calls related to domestic conflicts and violence during the circuit breaker. .
Restricted personal space and privacy even forced some young people living with their parents to start making plans to move, said Asher Low, CEO of Limitless, a nonprofit that works with youth.
MSF’s Adult Protection Service and Child Protection Service also saw a 40 percent increase in the average monthly number of consultations between January and October, compared to the same period last year (2019).
MSF said that several of these calls were related to tensions in the family, as well as conflicts and marital disputes that did not involve incidents of violence and therefore were not investigated. Cases requiring more support were referred to community agencies for assistance.
The monthly average number of new cases investigated by the protection services between January and October remained stable at 120, similar to the monthly average of last year.
These were the dark clouds of living and working together at home. But there was also a silver lining for so many telecommuters. There was less load on the public transportation system and time and expense were also saved.
It also allowed for more family time, said Ishak Ismail, president of Families for Life, an MSF people’s sector council. “The families got closer because they saw each other more during the working day,” he noted.
Some Singapore companies could follow in the footsteps of global companies, such as technology company Fujitsu and social media giant Facebook, for which telecommuting could become a permanent cost-saving option for staff.
Fujitsu will halve its office space in Japan by the end of fiscal 2022 and encourage 80,000 office workers to work remotely for the most part, while Facebook announced that up to half of its workforce is likely to work. from home in five to 10 years.
In Singapore, eight out of 10 workers said in an October survey commissioned by The Straits Times that they prefer to work from home or have flexible work arrangements.
Several MPs and activists are also calling for flexible work arrangements to be adopted as standard practice, citing the positive experiences that have emerged from the pandemic.
Ms Shailey Hingorani, head of research and advocacy at the Women’s Association for Action and Research, also hopes that this can lay the groundwork for the Government to legislate the right of workers to request flexible work arrangements.
“(These) can go a long way in helping women balance work and caregiving responsibilities, and thus help close the gender pay gap,” she said.
At the same time, employees must be protected from common pitfalls, even as they reap the benefits of this new world of work, labor experts said.
A new tripartite advisory on the mental well-being of workers was published last month, who face increased mental stress and risk of burnout from juggling work and personal commitments while telecommuting.
One recommendation in the notice is that employers clearly state what after-hours work communication is allowed.
Ms. Hingorani emphasized that flexible work arrangements alone “are not a panacea for entrenched problems of gender role inequality in the home.”
Work is already underway to fix this problem. In September, the Government launched a comprehensive review of issues affecting women, with the aim of achieving a change of mind on values such as gender equality and respect for women.
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