With cities in lockdown because of the Global Pandemic working from home has become the new normal for many so what are the benefits challenges and will this change the way we work this is inside story. Hello welcome to the program im burnitz. The coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we live in just the last few months governments trying to hold the spread of the disease have imposed strict lock downs that means hundreds of millions of people are now working from home away from the office Video Conferencing services for example have experienced a huge boom but working remotely has created immense challenges for businesses and employees alike well bring in our guests in a moment 1st this report from alexia obrien. Its the same message across the world you must work from home if you can do it full swoop in houston where possible we should continue to work from home 2nd i do know what it is that i mean in order for society to work we asked you to work from home. From Small Companies to global bodies like the United Nations home is now the office as governments urge people to avoid commuting and going into crowded spaces take Companies Including zoom and microsoft have reported a huge spike in demand for their Video Conferencing software while its convenient Remote Working has its challenges kind of my work or were going to go ok its blowing the divide between home and Office Internet firm nord v. P. N. Found people are working up to 3 hours more a day than before and with many schools shut as well parents have the extra stress of looking after their children while conducting business so many people are in the house. And of same time people are preoccupied working and focusing on that as well as. Analysts are urging companies to be more flexible and we do anticipate during this period as Companies Invest in the infrastructure the software the policies around work from home that in the future there may be a larger swath of jobs that are able to work from home as and poors and employees demand it with countries extending lockdowns to stop the spread of covert 19 many people are unlikely to return to their Traditional Office anytime soon and the pandemic may forever change the way we work and conduct business and excel brian inside story. Lets introduce our panel in hong kong we have mabel chang shes a counselor and Research Officer at the university of hong kong in rotterdam in the netherlands ali thetic a professor of organizational behavior at Holt InternationalBusiness School in woodbridge virginia in the United States avis jones to weaver a career reinvention strategist welcome to you wall and one question for all of you know start with you mabel how of you had to adapt the way you work because of the restrictions imposed by corona virus actually its been quite hard but we have figure out ways to cope with this situation. As a psychologist i switch my practice to online so. My company developed on a platform for me to see my patients but a spend difficult because a lot of kids or sometime later dont know much about how they used at knology and on on the other hand for my research job were able to work from home but not as efficient as the new person at alli what have you had to do to adapt to the new way of working. I have to say that the patient has being fairly easy you know being a professor or a university we you know disseminate knowledge and only that happens in the classroom but now its happening online and i think oh for a lot of universities that has to make the switch to go from offline to online and so far its been very exciting and for me at least being the its made me see that there is a i guess a big audience you can speak to to a weapon are so the transition has being i would say a very exciting one but it has been challenging a little bit too to be able to deliver the same message with the same impact in the same way so but overall its been very positive positive for you ever since to avis as well what do you have to do have you learnt anything from it well you know i am an relatively speaking a fortunate position because not from your part of my business on the very beginning had been online. It has always been a strategy of my business was sure that i had an online aspect and so i am work for others who are sort of delving into the play for for the 1st time now however i shall in hans not the client who are having to make this transition right now and they are experiencing problems with the city theyre experiencing problems with focus they are experiencing problems with that how do you manage people remotely i mean is a very different thing than if youre right not all of them dont want this so for those who are just now beginning to make this transition from how they do business and how they lead me on this can be a rather significant transition so it is what rules do we set for ourselves what ground rules do we now have to set when working from home. For me i think its very important that we teach my clients to specifically delineate where you want to work and that will be your work day like for example in an office right now and what i find is that for people who are just making the transition they might be in front of the you know t. V. You know the out they might be in there and they might be here and there and the problem with that is that it doesnt really train your brain and really engaged in work when in the same way that if youre really a one that is that it also creates a state where you arent able to really cut it off i mean if you are bringing your laptop in then you where do you get a place to eat and so its really about being able to live he a. Physical they that you dedicate your working hours there are so that you can make a better transition and delineation between your professional obligations and still your personal responsibilities and away with your family and work and so all of us what boundaries would you say people should should set how do you separate work and family time and how best to manage all of bot. Well i like what eva said physical boundaries are absolutely important and the reason behind this is because work and private life can easily blur where you start to work from home and a lot of us have not learnt yet or develop effective habits of how to work from home i think id like to add here that not just physical boundaries but i also think we have to have mental boundaries to help us to to make this you know the clear cut between work and private life in the work space so what do i mean with this physical boundaries means sorry psychological boundaries are our mental boundaries are those that we can kind of you know our routines and daily schedule e. Or our approaches and habits these are really important because we have to be mindful of the fact that not everyone has a physical space to go to work i for example i do i actually dress up as you can see right now i do this because i want to create also mental boundaries so when i finish my work i finish at 6 oclock or 7 and i physically or kind of mentally also leave and go back into my private life so more than what i would do when im working in the office when im working at home i ensure that i really live up to my schedule so i have my morning routine as my afternoon routines and when i have a hard stop i really stuck with work and i actually get changed to put on other clothes so that i dont need a move away from the physical environment but i also move away from the mental environment and the reason for this is that we have different identities the dad but also the lets say the manager and i think we also mentally have to switch identities to be able to make this transition work effectively mabel in hong kong we have you have People Living in tiny apartments often mum and dad grandfather and children how do your how do you tell people in hong kong to manage working from home in such very challenging environments. Or to be on this basic cause this sense i mean physical space has been a great challenge for us i think this one of the reason why its been hard for us to cope with working from home and many people actually looking forward to going back to the office because the house is packed and people like the school space i know a lot of parents they have to work in the night because during the day time to have to take care of their kids and to do their kids dont have school right now and they spend a lot of time holes wearing. Their kids so its been hard for us to set the boundary avis before a lot of us were forced to work from home people like the idea of it but it doesnt always work does it one of the limitations for productive activity for companies when people are working from home and not physically in touch with each other. Right i mean i do we you know as you mentioned for many years people have been pushing for more flexible not only Work Schedules but being able to have that ability to work from home in the area and i do think that it is a good option for some people for some companies and something employees but in this particular scenario where everyone has and has to make the abrupt shift it has become more difficult for a sub manager to really be able to maintain that the environment that youre free to create when everyone is physically in front of them yes they can have offered you know meetings and all of that but is still not the same sort of. Emotional maybe even and professional conduct and that you have to be seeing them safe to say but on the other end the them there are some folks who are now overwhelmed and is never right and theres a lot there always a 2nd call of their manager now you know texting them an email and then want to do a you know a Video Conference at 9 pm et cetera you know between the regular office hours and so on the one end of the spectrum there are some there have been difficulties that maintaining levels of productivity and then there are some who i believe are taking advantage of this relation and in fact have employees that are at their beck and call 24 hours a day 7 days a week olesen most creativity and innovation done when people together banging bouncing ideas off each other come we compensate for that when were all stuck at home thats yeah you know there is actually if we look back in history we actually see that there is when people were put into solitude also because of viruses and other issues that were happening that some people really rise to the challenge and so what happens is that there is actually a lot of power in solitude our ability to be creative in a lot of creative works where actually created by people when they were put. Into isolation were had to self isolate because of external circumstances so its not unusual to see a heightened level of creativity happen when people are kind of isolator self isolating them from home and the reason behind this is because in our day to day business when we were in the business of our work we are kind of in a in an automatic state of mind our habits drive a lot of our behaviors more than 80 percent so we dont really get to tap into that part of the mind that is the most creative part of that and so this is the beautiful thing about now and this is another way of looking at being self isolated a lot of people be now writing theyll be trying trying out new hobbies or actually picking up old hobbies and theyll find that theyre actually pretty good at that so i would say that there is a you know theres other sides of the spectrum of working from home is that it does heighten the abilities creative abilities of individuals really because you wouldnt have things created like the i phone wouldnt have been done by an individual obit needed collaboration it needed people to Work Together didnt it as one innovation it does look yes look at this and i have to say this 2 ends of the spectrum innovation never happens alone right so innovation does happen through collaboration and the example that i just gave here was much more of our abilities to actually heighten our own individual behaviors but youre completely right i mean in terms of when it comes to like Product Development a new idea or generation you know more is better than want especially when we can bounce off and leverage different perspectives and again from an internal like an individual perspective theres an opportunity to once we do are freed from the fear and uncertainty of working from home we can absolutely start to embrace this solitude and therefore also be more creative but at the same time the collaboration is can still work because we have technology we have to vices that help us to facilitate. Collaboration across the board mabel what are the Biggest Mental Health challenges for people working from home youve either got people lonely and isolated or youve got people trying to cope with kids and work at the same. How do you how people live. So on one hand i see people have more time to connect with each other i see love online as to going on and some people do have more time to rest and connect to each other but on the other hand in hong kong here as i mentioned we have the housing problem so i restamp last up and cry or worry about some late dynamics people tend to be annoyed by their family members parents grandparents as we mentioned with the limited space they tend to feel a little stressed because they dont have their own room to study and parents were unable to work at home so that would be the downside of working from home. Avis weve seen a lot of people having to turn to the gig economy for work as more people lose their jobs and join the unemployment lines will more people be tempted to join the gig economy and will more people have to work from home because theres no option will they be more vulnerable to working in the gig economy how do you help people lie about exactly. This moment we knew we arent going to step in and to where the labor demands are and so yes for some people that we meet in spring the good economy which can take place in several several levels doesnt just mean for example you know looking at other sort of you know being someone who delivers groceries for example people homes they could be if you are a professional skill these can go online to a you know an Online Outlet that provides license for this if we like that one or do you like the services for a you know per gig or thing that you do it all so it could be a great place for innovation i mean i also work with austin or people who are using this moment even people who themselves have been laid off or one of their family has been laid off when theyve had a sizable that theyve done for many years and now they want to ramp it up for example one of my clients is a Fashion Designer but right now hes using very beautiful very very you know well fabric. That he permit and insist illtreat match hes had this whole new thing that hes doing to drive revenue in for this moment of innovation and most of them critically for the moment at that pace and the challenge is to figure out where your yields are talents. Your interests my interests that were where the needs are today and shift in that direction. But davis own people some of the most vulnerable this particular ethnic minorities as well who may have before. To the gig economy to working from home the more vulnerable of an awful exploitation process less protection in those jobs oh absolutely absolutely less protection. You dont have in the not for example you dont have access to Health Care Coverage there are definitely there are no guarantees there in many ways but the bottom line is theres no guarantees in the regular Employment Situation either i mean in that situation you know in the regular Employment Situation in america your life really is that the whim of a Balance Sheet and thats why were having millions of people being left you know being let go in this nation week after week after week and so there unfortunately is no 100 percent i believe that the idea though is that in this moment there will have to be shifts into how you are able to bring income into your family for some people that might mean taking for example their real jobs that are hiring but they might be very different than what you built that is or you might need to look at other ways of getting into the online economy starting or growing your business intersect with a need that going on right now being at the moment it needs to be one that met with creativity and i swear opportunity to be the biggest challenge that were thing in terms of the increased death rate in america as relates to Community Color it are separate the whole lot of other disadvantages that have impacted that Community Life environmental racism that is left of things like increased prevalence of asthma for example were going the black community and we know that is one of the things that it increases your morality rate so there are so many issues that underlie this but the bit of optimism that i want to give people is less think about what do you have the option if you do have that x. That you have and less figure out where that intersects with the needs that do still exist in this. So that we can you know how you can fill that need and still be able to bring home on some level and thats. Ali we were told 2025 years ago at the dawn of the internet by now wed all be working from home but it took this pandemic to give that idea a boost why did it never really take off and so will it enjoy when we can try and return back to normal whenever that time might be i think 1st of all the way back to normal is almost in a sense its like in denial of whats happening today and we can see this already happening with the transition with whats happening with people now working more from home to developing new habits of how to work for more more effectively but not everyone can do it and that will be definitely people that you know definitely go back to working from home or working from the office because they really want to and theyre not used to working by themselves but i think to address this question is lets be cognizant of the fact that. 2 thirds of jobs 2 thirds of jobs in the industrialized. Markets such as the u. S. And even in the europe are you know theyre not able to facilitate working from home setups this means that just because of the nature of their work so this means hospitals schools but people are basically hospitals people who work in factories who work in retail who work in restaurants theyre not able to work from home and so i think we need to be conscious of the fact that the transition can be made to a certain extent but not for everyone however building up what was said before is that now because were now becoming more were realizing the fact that you know we have to be more resilient we have to be more innovative we have to be more adaptive and only those companies in those organizations are able to weather the storm lets say we are going to be able to think about how to become more resilient and coming back to that its like looking at all Business Models looking at our structures looking at our management responses only after kogut 19 are we going to go back and say if we made it through what worked and what didnt work and on the basis of what didnt work we might want to think of what we can do to therefore be much more resilient and responsive to the future and that also actually means that you might see businesses that did not make that transition yet maybe now think of other ways of doing business that will facilitate and allow them to wear the super potential crisis moments in the future mabel do the people youre dealing with in hong kong want to get back to the office of a novus about working from home nervous about what they might be missing out on. Yeah i think all. All come people. Know last workaholic i guess we are so sucky has a car that fast paced and people do look forward to going back to work not only because they used to to work out on but also because of the space us well and people also worry about the unemployment issues so weve been doing lots of things to try to keep everyone together so as some as far as i know some employers they would choose to come down a salary but allow most of their employees to keep their job so at least they would have a certain amount of income at avis do you see any changes the been forced on us by by this pandemic and joining when if they have a do as weve already suggested if they have a to return to some sort of normality. Right you know i do believe i agree at the rate its going to be a neutral i dont think were going to go back 100 percent where it used to be i believe that some of those things that we used to do will no longer exist. And just in terms of certain in my sample certain for example movie theaters may not be there that used to love a certain restaurant that you so love to go to may not be there i think dont be a little a lot of think will be different. But in terms of how. You know company things i do think that companies will take the time now to think about really what they learn from this experience and i believe that that will lead to more remote experiences for people i think that they will have more online opportunities not just for meeting but for conferences and really being able to figure out you know its really neat why across the country to have this meeting are kind of the do you know a Virtual Meeting i think that the way that business is done will things i also think on the unfortunate side of things that you know we were already moving really quickly towards an autonomy that was beginning to a lot more and more on official intelligence and i wonder what this will mean in terms of. Those critically those jobs that are lower paying or what degree are we going to see an escalation of people being where clay but that maliki and wondering if this particular situation will actually accelerate that and even faster path than it was previously so it will be a new reality and i think that there might be some positives but unfortunately my negatives associated with that. We are out of time for the moment but thank you to all our guests to mabel chang to ollie fenech avis jones to we have a thank you too for watching you can see the. Again any time by visiting our web site al jazeera dot com for further discussion go to our Facebook Page facebook dot com forward slash a. J. Inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter a. J. Inside story from a bird its my entire team here in doha. Save humanity i really really not getting anywhere near. Subzero temperatures stream altitudes. 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