The UN Economic Commission for Western Asia had warned last month that the coronavirus pandemic threatens to wipe out more than 1.7 million jobs across the Arab world this year.
The GDP of Arab nations is expected to shrink by at least $42 billion in 2020, hit by plunging oil prices and virus-linked shutdowns.
YouGov recently did a survey where they found out that an increasing number of people in the UAE and Saudi Arabia are concerned about job losses or salary cuts. However, one question that remains is once we come out of this, is remote working going to be the thing of the future?
Gallup has found that employees who spend three or four days a week working remotely produce better results than their traditional counterparts.
Gallup has also found that the most talented employees desire policies that embrace flexibility and adaptability.
As we’ve seen now, the technology to make this a reality is already in place although it may not be perfect.
Zoom, Teams, Drive, and Citrix what I use that gives me access to my work system remotely.
But. There are some concerns too.
Nuno Gomes, head of career at Mercer MENAT, told Arabian Business: “Although working from home allows for employees to spend more time with their families, it often becomes difficult to differentiate between working hours and personal time when an employee is spending the entire day in the same location.
More importantly, one thing we all miss right now is human interaction. The exchange of ideas, physical meetings, office banter.
Of course, some sectors such as hospitality, retail and manufacturing can’t offer the chance of working from home but for the others, is it really going to become the norm? Or are we looking at a more hybrid system of working, as Reda Raad put it. He says, Maybe after all of this is over we’ll come together in parks and in coffee shops rather than in meeting rooms and office canteens.
(Source: Arabian Business YouTube channel)
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