Containment accelerates and multiplies the practice of remote work, which had already experienced phases of acceleration with the strikes of the end of 2019.
For the past two weeks, millions of people have been providing services, producing content, organizing meetings, classes, etc. from their homes.
The particularity of this remote work is that it is not chosen; it has been set up in a hurry, without any real preparation, and it places many employees in a radically new situation.
The novelty also lies in the fact of working remotely on a full-time basis, whereas many teleworkers used to do so occasionally. It is also due to the conditions of this remote work: at home, with one's family nearby, in spaces that are not designed for this and with equipment that is not necessarily adapted.
Rather than true telecommuting or remote work, what these home-based workers experience is more akin to what might be called "confined work."
Between 20% and 34% of the working population would work from home
According to the second wave of the IPSOS survey for the CEVIPOF, conducted among 2,000 respondents on March 23-25, 2020, provides an overview of the situation in terms of employment.
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While 39% of respondents report that they have stopped working, 27% continue to work outside the home: 34% of them work from home.
The situation of senior executives contrasts, for the moment, with that of all other professional categories: 66% of them work at home
Confined work would only concern 15% of the self-employed, 34% of intermediate professions, 30% of employees and 5% of workers.
According to another surveyAccording to another survey, carried out from 25 to 30 March 2020, among 3,000 people confined by Odoxa-Adviso Partners for franceinfo, France Bleu and Challenges, 20% of working people would now practice telework full-time.
"While executives have been able to keep their jobs and work comfortably from home (57%), working-class people have either lost their jobs or are forced to work from home.
According to this survey, 4% alternate between telecommuting and being at their usual place of work.
This survey highlights important differences between regions: 41% of the working population would telework in Ile-de-France against only 11% in Normandy.
Business recovery: towards upgrading employees' digital skills?
A analysis notepublished by France Stratégie, proposes an unprecedented typology of jobs in the crisis in five groups. With the recovery of the activity, an increased tension for the teleworkers
- The professions that can be described as "traditionally vulnerable" combine the difficulty of working at a distance with an often precarious status (one in five is on a fixed-term or temporary contract). These 4.2 million workers, mostly men, craftsmen and workers in industry and construction, are traditionally faced with difficult living and working conditions.
- The "new vulnerable" (4.3 million jobs) are facing an unprecedented crisis linked to the very exercise of their profession, which brings them into contact with the public. Their activities are slowed down, or even prohibited, and their status makes them vulnerable (31% of intermittent contracts or self-employed solo).
- The 10.4 million professionals directly or indirectly on the "front line" are those whose activities appear essential in this crisis. These are all the occupations in health, education, cleaning, food and its distribution, and the professions of government. Among the most poorly paid and more often occupied by women, these professions are exposed to an intensification of work.
- Many intermediate professions or qualified employees (4 million jobs), most often in partial inactivity, are protected from short-term dismissal by their status. But their difficulty in teleworking exposes them to risks of distancing themselves from the professional sphere and de-socialization.
- Fifth group, the teleworkers, mainly executives (nearly 4 million jobs). "In addition , the number of teleworkers is increasing, and the number of teleworkers is increasing, and the number of teleworkers is increasing, and the number of teleworkers is increasing. Telecommuting is more difficult for those who live in apartments in large cities, which are more cramped on average due to the price of land, and who have the full-time responsibility, due to school closures, of at least one child under the age of 15.
38% of executives already usually work from home, compared to 20% in all professions). Their employment status (nearly 90% are on permanent contracts or self-employed with employees) allows them to continue to carry out their professional responsibilities.
While executives in the public service and in banking and insurance have had to deal with the direct effects of the containment on public health and the financial and banking system, executives in industry and commerce are now preparing the modalities for the resumption of their activity.
"The difficulty of organizing this collective effort from a distance and the trend towards hyperconnectivity in order to respond to emergencies are exposing executives to a deterioration in their working conditions, aggravated by the difficulty of reconciling family life and professional life. Yet these professions already have the highest work intensity and mental workload in France. Even before the confinement, 81% of executives and up to 86% of transport and logistics executives said they had excessive workloads, compared with 64% for all professions. They were also nearly half as likely to report having to work under pressure (50% versus 34% for all occupations)."Towards upgrading employees' digital skills
According to France Stratégie, the acceleration of organizational transformations and the diffusion of digital technologies induced by confinement will require, with the resumption of activity, "adaptations to take into account innovations, to reposition tasks and hierarchies disrupted by social distancing" as well as an upgrading of the digital skills of employees.
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#Remote working: a platform collects testimonies and initiates the debate
The CFDT, three think tanks (Terra Nova, Metis and Res publica) and the firm Management & RSE are jointly launching a platform, #Montravail àdistance, to collect testimonies and lead the debate between participants.
The goal of this initiative is to "transform the experience of confinement into an opportunity to transform work. According to the partners, it is a matter of "making each of us an actor in this new work that is being built, sometimes in a highly anticipated organization, often in the adjustments and tinkering that we invent as we walk".
The initiators of the #RemoteWork It will undoubtedly increase autonomy and accelerate the movement towards a management style based more on adhesion and support. It will highlight the irritants in the workplace: infobesity, meetings of questionable utility, etc.".
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