Coronavirus: a worldwide telework experiment.

A recently published book on teleworking tells that there is a very interesting evolution of this concept. At first there was talk of "home office", since the fact that we could have technology such as computers and the internet in the house opened the opportunity to work outside the company. It then moved on to the concept of "mobile office", as cell phones, laptops and tablets allowed telework not to have to be exclusively from home, but from anywhere there is an internet connection or a data network. The last stage of this evolution is the "virtual office", which expands the previous concept with the advent of smartphones and the ability to have information in the cloud. Today, everything we need to telework enters the palm of our hand.

Telework has been one of the most prominent topics in the context of coronavirus, as many companies have asked their employees to work from home. In this debate there are three fundamental aspects that reflect some of the advantages and disadvantages of teleworking: working hours, personal-professional balance, and productivity. First, although it gives greater flexibility of schedules, telework makes it more difficult to define what time at what time we work, being able to have negative effects on our mental and physical health. Secondly, although telework can be considered a tool that has positive effects on the balance between personal life and professional life, it can also end up having just the opposite effect if the boundaries between these two areas are erased (especially given that, as we said above, this time people are teleworking with their children at home). In terms of productivity, the effects of telework will depend on factors such as the agility of the company's information and communication systems, corporate culture, and the ability of supervisors to support the worker.

Telework has been one of the most prominent topics in the context of coronavirus, as many companies have asked their employees to work from home. In this debate there are three fundamental aspects: working hours, personal-professional balance, and productivity.

Telework is a concept with more and more acceptance in Latin America. One study found that, prior to coronavirus, Brazil was the country with the most employees working from home, with 12 million teleworkers, followed by Mexico (with 2.6 million), Argentina (with 2 million) and Chile (with 500 thousand). However, teleworking in the region shows that there is a clash between two worlds: that of technology, which allows many people to work from anywhere (as long as there is an internet connection), and that of labor regulations, many of them conceptualized in the nineteenth century (where there was no existed or dreamed of the technologies we have today). The fifth installment of the series The Future of Work in Latin America and the Caribbean, precisely, collects what is regulating telework in our countries and highlights that Colombia is the most advanced country in this topic.

Teleworking in the region shows that there is a clash between two worlds: technology and labor regulations.

Life before and after the coronavirus is not going to be the same. One of the great lessons that this experience will leave us is that many people can work remotely without problem with existing technology. In addition to efficiency, telework offers great promises in other respects. For example, it can give more flexibility for people – often women – who have family and personal commitments (e.g. child care or older adults) that prevent them from working outside the home during full or defined hours. It also allows for greater accessibility, helping to break down the structural barriers faced by people with disabilities to access employment. The fact that more people are working from home in the midst of the global coronavirus crisis will leave us with learnings that will undoubtedly mark what telework will look like in the future of work. If this global experiment is implemented effectively, it will demonstrate why telework can be a valuable tool for both the company and the worker.