Office workers tired of remote work

Apr 22, 2021, 07:42 am

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Office workers taking the rest in Seoul/ Source: Yonhap

AsiaToday reporter Woo Sung-min & intern reporter Park Wan-joon

Many office workers suddenly went remote during the pandemic and now growing number of office workers are complaining of fatigue accumulated from working from home. This is because a boundary between work and regular life is blurring.

A new survey by job portal Incruit found that 24.5 percent of 835 office workers are working from home. In particular, 51.1 percent of employees at large conglomerates are found to be working from home.

Working from home was an attractive form of work for office workers last year when it was introduced in aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic. However, more and more office workers claim they are feeling distressed as they have been working from home for more than a year. This is because a lot of them are working longer as they aren’t limited by time, and some of them are even suffering from excessive labor as they have to do housework.

Besides, it’s not certain how long the workers should work from home as the number of daily cases is surging despite vaccinations. For those office workers who cannot change the working environment, only hope that the pandemic will end as soon as possible.

“When you work from home, it’s ironic that you have to work and do housework at the same time,” said a 37-year-old worker engaged in retail business. “Sometimes you have to work longer than your working hours,” he said. Another office worker said, “I wanted to work from home in the past, but now I want to go to work, but I can’t. I just hope for an end to the pandemic.”

Some complain that working from home is less productive than working in an office. “Communication with team members is important for developing programs, but communicating with team members via phone and text messenger is delaying work,” said a 27-year-old office worker engaged in gaming industry.

The gap in working from home rates between large conglomerates and SMEs is wide. There are still many office workers who have never worked remotely but wish to work from home. “My company has not allowed its workers work from home,” said a 27-year-old office worker who commutes to Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. “Nobody is safe from the pandemic, but only small companies keep their employees work in the office. I experience polarization,” he said.

“The working-from-home system has been was implemented without being adjusted in situations where various types of working are required. The government will have to work on improving working environment for small companies so they can allow its employees to work from home,” said Sung Tae-yoon, a professor of economics at Yonsei University.

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