LETTER: With the flattening of the Covid-19 curve, Malaysians are gradually returning to their workplaces.
Three months ago, when the Movement Control Order (MCO) was imposed, the majority of us were compelled to work from home.
We started travelling via www links and checked in at home. Thankfully broadband and teleconferencing kept us connected at the time of crisis.
For those in the private sector with work-from-home (WFH) arrangement in place, telecommuting may just be another day at work.
However, for those in the public sector, working from home on a daily basis represented a new routine. In transitioning to the new norm, the first few days proved to be cumbersome.
If you found yourself juggling between office schedule and domestic affairs, figuring out teleconferencing apps, converting a corner of the home into a workspace or looking for the most professional backdrop to conduct video calls, you were not alone. Unsurprisingly, at least 136 countries acted swiftly to draw up telecommuting guidelines for public officials as part of their Covid-19 response.
One of the most evoking WFH experiences I had during the MCO was conducting a series of interviews for a study scholarship organised by the Human Capital Division of the Public Service Department (PSD). I joined hundreds of public officials and academics to interview thousands of scholarship applicants online.
This was an unprecedented step for all, including the secretariats, interviewers and interviewees. I was both excited and worried, knowing that a small glitch may turn the interview sessions into a fiasco.
But the secretariats' extensive preparations and hard work paid off, and everything turned out well. PSD took the bull by the horns in adapting to the pandemic and made virtual connectedness a success.
The shift to telecommuting during the MCO signals a window of opportunity to transit to telework post-MCO. With the workload delegated online, telecommuting provides significant savings in terms of time, energy and cost of operations, as well as increased productivity, performance and job satisfaction.
On the flip side, a study revealed that WFH could also result in increased absenteeism and self-isolation, reduced motivation and morale, poor career development, security risks and cybercrimes. Furthermore, not all work processes can be logistically accomplished remotely and as effectively. Whether telecommuting is an advantage is not an issue worth adjudicating since it is sector-and context-specific, and could be a boon for some and a bane for others.
Here is the beef: with WFH experience under our belt, we now have evidence of how remote working can be rapidly implemented in the public sector during crises. The Covid-19 pandemic lays the cornerstone for public service emergency preparedness, gives new impetus to resilience and a fresh perspective for digital governance.
Although the advantages of telecommuting outweigh the drawbacks during the MCO, the prospect of extending it beyond post-crisis needs to be carefully considered in terms of law and policy, infrastructure readiness and digital literacy, among others. The last thing we want is pursuing a short-term gain brought about by teleworkforce by compromising on delivery excellence.
In hindsight, the virtues of the teleworkforce should be dissected over the productivity paradox, specifically in the public service context. Going forward, one issue worth exploring is how the public sector can boost service delivery to improve digital governance.
In facing the impact of the pandemic and the subsequent economic fallout, public officials' agility will be continuously tested. Whether we are working from home, in the office or on-site, let us give our best to navigate our beloved Malaysia out of this crisis.
DR ZURINA MOKTAR
PUTRAJAYA
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times