Tag: employee

  • The pitfalls of remote working at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic

    The pitfalls of remote working at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic

    The outbreak of the still ongoing pandemic occurred a year ago. Back then remote working or teleworking was allegedly the ideal solution for our protection from Covid-19 infection. Office workload was continued from home. However, one year on, the perception has changed, sensibly. Mental exhaustion or the so-called burnt-out syndrome has taken its toll, to a increasing extent, to a growing number of employees. As of late, the worrying occurrence of the burnt-out syndrome has prompted specialists to link the syndrome to work from home. Research studies have already been published internationally. As for the specific, national-level research, such an endeavor is also in progress. With details on that, here is psychologist and pedagogue Dragos Iliescu.



    “Statistical data are mainly provided by the focus groups created at the University of Bucharest and the Western University in Timisoara, in the field of occupational health, especially targeting the issue of the workplace stress. Figures have literally shot up, just as expected, actually. As for the burnt-out syndrome, it is not caused by overworking, just as we have thought so far. Apparently, we dont seem to work too hard at the time of the pandemic since we spend most of the time at home, schoolchildren are a case in point. Notwithstanding, exhaustion is not caused by work alone, that is common knowledge already, but by other issues, which are rather circumstantial. And what leads up to the burnt-out syndrome is not necessarily stress as such, but the prolonged or chronic stress. Unfortunately, chronic stress alters people and these days were speaking about chronic stress, it is about those things we do constantly and which sometimes entail excessive work, or emotional or cognitive demands and suchlike. They alter you if they get chronic. “



    Scientific studies on occupational stress have revealed that people perceive they work more, even when at home. The workload has even increased by 40%, or thereabouts. We do not know, objectively, if thats how things are, actually, or whether the perception we have on that is purely subjective. Yet in the long run, perception really matters in this case, since people react according to their own perception of events.



    Dragos Iliescu:



    « In earnest, the boundaries between private life and life at work have become completely fuzzy. You have the feeling you work day in day out, with no break. You stop for a while to grab a bite or cook for the children, then you get back to work. Quite a few people go have been going through that, you feel you work harder and the balance simply breaks, between the family and the professional life. And that usually goes with the sense of insecurity caused by the pandemic, since you dont know what is going to happen. All these factors are stressors and, given that they do not disappear so that you may have time to recover, they become extremely harmful. “



    Boundaries separating private from professional life no longer exist, and that has become something obvious for specialists as well. Petru Pacuraru is a Human Resources expert offering courses taught by the HPDI professional training company. Company manager Pacuraru tells us how his clients have described what they go through, since they are employees working from home.



    Petru Pacuraru:



    « In plain language, that means I didnt even realize the day was over, What I saw was light, and then dark, I didnt get up from my chair for four hours, I didnt have a lunch break.. The pressure I feel is constant, I cannot get rid of it even at the weekend. I have a headache, I am insomniac and I put on weight. (…) The burnt-out syndrome comes with a whole package of nasty things, also depriving you of having a better communication and of the time you may spend with your nearest and dearest. I think it is surprising and counterintuitive. We thought working from home was supposed to help us, but in fact it deprives you of a great number of things if youre not that keen on separating the professional from the private sphere of your life.”



    Children are also affected by exhaustion because of the online schooling and the prolonged exposure to digital screens. They have the usual symptoms of this condition and the cause of their exhaustion is the same as in the case of their parents. Nevertheless, were we to speak about a specific trait of childrens exhaustion, it is caused by the fact that stressors are school and the lack of socializing with friends. In such a case, parents need to seek specialized help and try to be as close to their children as possible, through communication and understanding. Actually, the mechanisms of efficiently managing such a mental condition ought to be developed for youngsters but also for adults since it will not disappear too soon, since remote working will not stop once the pandemic has stopped. And why is that?



    Petru Pacuraru:



    “Broadly speaking, around 20 per cent of the employees across Romania perform remote working. Yet in the big cities, since there is not very much industry and employees work in offices, most of them, teleworking touches around 50%. For instance, we work with people employed in the banking system, where 80% of the employees perform teleworking. In the IT sector, such a ratio reaches 90 %. So it is clear that in the coming years, three to five years, we will have a hybrid working system made of remote working and working at the office. So my intimation is that, in the years to come, we shall succeed to manage the burnt-out syndrome that goes with remote working. “





  • January 10, 2021 UPDATE

    January 10, 2021 UPDATE

    COVID-19 Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the total number of coronavirus infections in Romania has passed 671,000 and the total death toll has reached over 16,600, after over 3,000 new cases and 62 deaths were reported on Sunday. 1,065 people are currently in intensive care. The largest number of cases, 825, was reported in the capital Bucharest. Since the start of the vaccination programme in Romania on December 27, more than 100,000 people have received the anti-COVID-19 vaccine. Mild and common side effects have been reported in 350 cases, mostly headaches, muscle pain, fever, asthenia or rashes. The next stage in the vaccination campaign, addressing the elderly and chronic patients, is scheduled to start at the end of next week. The Government is to pass an emergency order granting bonuses to the personnel involved in the anti-COVID National Vaccination Programme, the health minister Vlad Voiculescu announced. Family physicians, who are regarded as a vital element in the immunisation campaign, will also be paid.



    FILM colectiv / “Collective, the Romanian documentary by Alexander Nanau covering a journalist investigation into the corruption in Romanian healthcare, won the award for best foreign-language film of the US National Society of Film Critics. The documentary colectiv is Romanias nomination for the 2021 Oscars in the “best international feature film, previously known as best foreign film. This is the first time that Romania submits a documentary in the competition for the Academy Awards.



    BANKS As of Monday, all banks in Romania are to submit to the National Tax Agency (ANAF) all data on the accounts held by private individuals and business, under an emergency order which transposes a European directive. The new legislation is designed to help the authorities fight against money laundering and terrorism financing. An electronic tax registry will become operational, containing banking and payment accounts identified by International Bank Account Number. The Agency will thus be able to monitor money circuits in Romania and to identify money laundering attempts.



    SCHOOLS Romanian students resume online classes on Monday, for the last 3 weeks of the first half of the academic year. A one-week vacation follows, and the second semester, beginning on February 8, might bring Romanias 3 million primary, secondary and high school students back into schools. This is one of the options considered by the authorities, depending on the latest COVID-19 developments. Another option is for only pre-schoolers and primary school students to resume face-to-face classes, while in a third scenario 8th and 12th graders might also get back to school.



    EMPLOYEES 1.25 million people were working in public institutions in Romania in November 2020, over 64% of them in the central public administration. According to the Finance Ministry, nearly 600,000 of these jobs are entirely funded from the state budget. The largest number of jobs is reported in public education (almost 300,000), followed by the Interior Ministry (125,000). Local public administration units had 450,000 employees in November, more than half of them in jobs fully financed from the state budget.



    COMPLAINTS Almost half of the complaints filed in 2020 to the European Consumer Centre in Romania concerned the transport sector. People were unhappy with the services received from air, road, railway and naval transport companies, as well as from car rental companies. Other complaints concerned clothing and footwear, restaurants and hotels, as well as entertainment and cultural activities, the National Consumer Protection Authority says.



    WEATHER A code yellow alert for heavy snowfalls is in place until Monday afternoon in the south and south-west of the country and the capital Bucharest. A layer of 10-20 cm of snow is expected in these areas. Snowfalls, glaze and temperatures of up to 2 degrees Celsius are forecast in Bucharest for the next 4 days. (tr. A.M. Popescu)