There has been clear communication that advocates two opposing views adopting cloud based (remote) working for the quality of life: a firm should stimulate remote working versus a firm should stimulate offline working. According to C. Jalagat and M. Jalagat (2019), remote working can be defined as performing work – from any location where Wi-Fi is present and Cloud Computing is adopted by the company – other than the location of the employer. I believe that adapting cloud computing is beneficial for our daily life. Even after the Covid-19 pandemic as well (see Figure 1).
The first benefit of remote working is that the sickness rate is 0.5 lower among people who work remotely compared to those who work in the office (PWC, s.a.). PWC hypothesizes that remote workers can give more attention to their children, their stress levels drop significantly, and burnout problems are prevented. The second benefit is that remote working via cloud services – most of that eco-friendly generated – increases air quality and protects our climate; in city of Phoenix it resulted in 1.3 million fewer miles driven, which equates to over 47,000 pounds less air pollutant emissions each day (Irwin, 2004). Higher air quality is correlated with a longer average life span, and therefore, it is important that we ensure our own future and the future of today’s youth.
There are also two disadvantages. The first disadvantage is that companies that encourage remote working deliberately expect their employees to be available at all times (Bijen, 2021). She argues that remote workers are continuously busy with finishing their notifications after work hours; it disrupts daily routines such as eating or raising children (Manocka , 2020). The second drawback is that remote working contribute to the disappearance of many management positions. Current technology is capable of continuously tracking and assessing employees for productivity, thus, companies are experiencing a lesser need for managers to make decisions on behalf of their employees (Morse, 2020).
I believe that our health and prevent air pollution is central to the quality of life. Quality of life is subjective and is complicated to measure. However, what is our life worth if we experience health issues, or if in five years’ time it is determined that we will not meet the Paris Agreement? One could argue against my position that health can be maintained without remote working. While people are indeed capable of taking personal responsibility for maintaining their health, we must remember that people cannot tackle this problem individually. There is also concern that remote working may mean that companies expect us to sacrifice our free time for work. However, the Dutch government is working on a bill that would give homeworkers more rights to remain unreachable after work (Bijen, 2021). As a well-known saying goes, “Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important in life”.
References:
Jalagat, C., & Jalagat, M. (2019). RATIONALIZING REMOTE WORKING CONCEPT AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY. Global Journal of Advanced Research, 95-100.
PWC. (z.j.). The costs and benefits of working from home. PWC.
Irwin, F. (2004, Januari). GAINING THE AIR QUALITY AND CLIMATE BENEFIT FROM TELEWORK. Retrieved from http://pdf.wri.org/teleworkguide.pdf
Bijen, M. (2021). Wetsvoorstel: thuiswerker moet recht krijgen onbereikbaar te zijn buiten werktijd. Retrieved from Het Parool: https://www.parool.nl/nederland/wetsvoorstel-thuiswerker-moet-recht-krijgen-onbereikbaar-te-zijn-buiten-werktijd~b88e4da5/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
Morse, J. (2020, December). Amazon announces new employee tracking tech, and customers are lining up. Retrieved from Mashable: https://mashable.com/article/amazon-aws-panorama-worker-customer-tracking-technology-smart-cameras/?europe=true
Manocka, I. (2020). Covid-19: Teleworking, Surveillance and 24/7 Work. Some Reflexions on the Expected Growth of Remote Work After the Pandemic. Political Anthropological Research on International Social Sciences (PARISS).
