Nandera -not her real name -had a lot of questions and wondered how possible she would deliver on her job when she was sent to work at home around May 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic peaked.

“My work requires close monitoring. I thought of how meetings would be held. I worried, what if VPN failed, what if my internet connection failed. But somehow I trusted that things would happen.”

“I also wondered how I would work with kids around, calling me left and right,” Nandera who is also a mother says.

She missed working in an office space. “The ease with which I would walk to a colleague for consultation or advice or anything was no more. This time around it had to be on call or WhatsApp.”

“Also, I missed the people, the laughter and little birthday celebrations. I also missed my office chair which supported my back and the desk which ensured a good posture. However, when I settled in at home, I did not think of an office,” she says.

Nandera worked more at home, than in the office.

Byamukama -also not real his names -says working from home has its advantages and disadvantages.

At home I could work anytime. I could start work as early as 5:00 am. I did not have to worry about wasting time in a traffic jam. I covered more of my duties,” he says.

“Work continued. It did not come to a standstill despite being sent to work from home,” he says.

Both Nandera and Byamukama say they were able to save on transport, meals and able to parent their children while working from home.

“I'm also able to have enough time to rest. I can attend a meeting before I shower,” Nandera says.

“I'm also able to manage my weight by ensuring that I eat healthy food rather than snacks, which are mostly the only option in the office. Also, when my maid is away, I find a way to manage without losing a whole day.”

But the disadvantages of working from home seemed to outweigh the advantages.

“Someone had to carry their computer home. I did not know if I would have sufficient network to stay online and work, data was expensive, getting assistance was hard,” Byamukama says.

“Technology disturbed, embracing online meetings, video calls and the like was difficult.”

 “At home, there was no one to consult. To find support one had to call. With no sufficient airtime facilitation from the employee, calling to consult on work being done became expensive.”

But that was not all, distraction and lack of boundaries from people at home also made working from home difficult. “They did not understand that one was working, that home had become a work environment. There were many interruptions to workflow,” Byamukama says.

Pushed home

In January 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of a new coronavirus disease in Hubei Province, China to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

To alleviate the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, countries across the world including Uganda, adopted measures including social distancing, self-isolation, institutional quarantine and travel restrictions.

The government suspended all forms of public gatherings, cross border movement of non-residents, schools closed, public transport means were suspended and at one point even private means.

These measures pushed people from the workplaces into their homes. Employers asked their employees to work from home, except for a few essential workers.

The crisis transformed into an economic and labour market shock, impacting not only supply, production of goods and services, but also demand, consumption, and investment, the International Labour Organisation said.

All businesses, regardless of size, faced serious challenges, especially those in the aviation, tourism, and hospitality industries, with a real threat of significant declines in revenue, collapse, and job losses.

According to Platform for Labour Action (PLA) a Uganda National Civil Society Organization, remote working only favoured employees in formal employment who could easily access and apply digital tools and technology which are not available to informal sector workers.  

According to the 2017 National Labour Force survey, only 19.5% of the labour force are in formal employment while 74.8% are self-employed.

PLA in its paper on the impact of COVID-19 on labour, noted that the nature of work done by informal sector workers cannot be performed from home.

As such, people working as waiters, security guards, drivers, porters, and machine operators among others were not able to perform their tasks from home. But, it was also not rosy for employees in the formal sector.

Byamukama missed the office space. “I was totally cut off from other people, the social capital was zero. I had no friends or colleagues to help with my duties. Unlike in-office where you are just a desk away and can consult with colleagues anytime.”

It even got costlier for Nandera. “As a matter of fact, I bought a generator to ensure stable supply of power at home, to reliably deliver on the job.”

Supporting the labour force

The national theme for this year's International Labour Day is: "Mitigating the impact of COVID-I9: Enhancing Productive Employment for improved livelihoods through Parish Development Model".

The Parish Development Model that was launched by President Yoweri Museveni in February is a new arrangement for improving household incomes and putting 39% of Uganda’s population currently in the subsistence economy into the money economy.

Byamukama will perhaps combine the Parish Development Model with his office job. He did not wait to be told to return to work from the office. He returned anyways and is working in office unofficially.

“The office environment is favourable for work. My laptop got spoilt and I had to return to office, and use the office computer,” Byamukama says.

Besides the convenience of working from home overall, it has been a difficult and hard experience for Byamukama and perhaps so many other employees. “Whenever power was rationed and switched off, I would lose all my work. At home, there is no CPU to retain power and prevent loss of work due to power cuts.”

He says working from home is more cost-effective for the employer but expensive for the employee.

“They do not have to spend on among other your electricity costs, internet or data costs, airtime or call costs. Instead, it’s the employee bearing all these costs which is unfair.”

He says employees should ideally be meeting all these costs which they do not and give sufficient support, to enable the employee to work from home under comfortable circumstances.

The uncertainties and hope

The Occupational Safety and Health Act, states that employers have a legal obligation to ensure the safety, health, and welfare at work of their employees.

It also provides that it is the responsibility of an employer to ensure the maintenance of the workplace in a condition that is safe and without risks to health.

However, Nandera fears the decision to ask employees to work from home due to COVID-19 will result in a world of people without emotional intelligence as a result of lack of interaction.

And of course, this will also have a bearing on general health.  She says of the future of the workplace: “I see a place where, although it might not be filled to capacity as previously was, I see people working in shifts; in other words, no permanent desks. People will be in and out of the workspace.”

Byamukama says managers will not fully exploit the potential of their employers, given they are not fully in a position to monitor them as they work from home.

He says: “working from home and being able to deliver needs a mature mind, and someone who is focused and won’t give excuses to execute their duties successfully.”