Workers must also make adjustments in their daily activities, including wearing high heels again to go back to the office and heightening vigilance over hacking risks during remote working.
By
PANDU WIYOGA
·5 minutes read
On the 26th floor of a skyscraper in Singapore, Bee Kheng Tay was seated in a corner of a meeting room. That Wednesday afternoon (18/5/2022), she wore a sleeveless shirt with a pleated skirt and high heels, all in black.
She looked elegant in her work attire, but her face could not hide something that made her uncomfortable. In the narrow chair, she changed the position of her legs repeatedly.
Tay is president of Cisco Southeast Asia, a technology company that provides internet networks, cloud computing systems, and cybersecurity. Cisco has just completed a survey on the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on employees’ working habits in Southeast Asia.
"I've been sitting in a corner because I’ve felt comfortable standing for too long. This is my first time putting on high heels after more than two years of the pandemic," she said, walking awkwardly into the middle of the meeting room.
Some workers around the world may have an experience similar to Tay’s when returning to the office. For more than two years, white-collar workers have worn formal or casual work clothes only to look proper in virtual meetings. The two-year pandemic has shaped a new way of working.
This is my first time putting on high heels after more than two years of the pandemic.
Tay’s experience is a just one example of how the pandemic has prompted major changes to the way most people work. Work performance is judged by what employees do, no matter where the work is done.
Tay said 65 percent of the 6,000 respondents in Southeast Asia were able to increase their work performance in terms of productivity when working from home (WFH). The Cisco survey also showed that 80 percent of respondents said they could still perform as well at home as in the office.
On the other hand, WFH made workers prone to negative effects, such as severe stress or burnout. More often than not, WFH caused workers to spend too much time in virtual meetings that overtook break times.
Working from home also meant missing out on interacting socially with coworkers. In fact, direct in-person interaction between individuals in conversations and casual discussions is important to help spark innovative ideas.
To stem the lack of socializing among coworkers, some companies have adopted a hybrid working pattern that combines WFH and working at the office. This pattern is preferred by workers, according to The Economist (10 April 2021). The hybrid model is believed to help workers be more productive, innovative, creative and, no less important, happy, because they can maintain work-life balance.
According to Tay, hybrid working can improve workers’ quality of life in terms of their emotional, financial, mental and physical health, as well as social aspects. Improved quality of life was acknowledged by 6 out of 10 respondents from a sample of 1,050 workers in Indonesia in the Cisco survey.
The survey also showed that 74 percent of Indonesian respondents said hybrid work saved them up to four hours each week. In addition, 87 respondents said they saved up to Rp 8.57 million per year in transportation costs.
Hybrid barriers
Anupam Trehan, senior director of human resources and community at Cisco Asia Pacific, said 84 percent of Indonesian workers preferred to stick to hybrid work. Only 14 percent preferred WFH and 3 percent preferred work from office (WFO).
However, as many as 63 percent of respondents complained about micromanagement under the hybrid working pattern, which Trehan said showed supervisors’ lack of trust in their subordinates. “It is a common obstacle," he said.
He noted that flexible and elastic leadership was crucial for hybrid work to succeed. Post-pandemic working patterns required corporate leaders to listen more and build empathy to make fair decisions.
Another common obstacle in implementing hybrid work was technological readiness. According to the Cisco survey, 67 Indonesian respondents said they often experienced internet connectivity problems during WFH.
It is a common obstacle.
This obstacle was unavoidable because internet speeds were relatively slow in Indonesia. Referring to the Speedtest Global Index, which provides detailed information on internet performance worldwide, Indonesia had the second slowest internet speeds in Southeast Asia.
Data gathered in October 2021 showed that median download speeds over cellular networks in Indonesia averaged 16.16 megabits per second (Mbps), while the average upload speed was 9.85 Mbps.
Indonesia was only slightly ahead of Cambodia, which averaged an internet speed of 14.48 Mbps. The region’s average internet speed was 31.34 Mbps, compared to 28.61 Mbps globally. The figures showed that the quality of internet connectivity in Indonesia still lagged behind.
Cyber hacking
Cybersecurity director Juan Huat Koo at Cisco Southeast Asia said cybersecurity should be taken into consideration when implementing the hybrid working pattern. Unfortunately, only 69 percent of Indonesian respondents in the Cisco survey felt confident that their workplace was aware about cybersecurity threats.
“Because we are highly dependent on [digital] technology, the question is no longer whether we will be hacked, but when we will be hacked," Koo said.
In line with the new norms developed over the pandemic, workers must also make adjustments in their daily activities, including wearing high heels again to go back to the office and heightening vigilance over hacking risks during remote working.