Workers in the pandemic: technology that annoys

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A new tool every day: some home office workers are overwhelmed with it

Photo: Rawpixel / iStockphoto / Getty Images

Every fourth employee in Germany feels badly protected against infection with the coronavirus at work.

A third thinks that the measures to protect against infection have made their work more difficult, and a third also feel that they are burdened by increasing digitalization.

The technology should help to do the job better - but that doesn't always work, many don't get along well with the new tools.

This is shown in a survey by the German Trade Union Federation (DGB), which was published on Tuesday and for which 6,400 randomly selected employees from all industries, occupations, income and age groups, regions and company sizes were surveyed from January to June 2021.

Almost a third of them worked frequently or very often in the home office during this period.

The survey once again shows that the world of work is divided into two large groups: Those who have a lot of personal contacts because of their work and cannot work from home understandably fear for their health - this applies, for example, to educators, of whom almost 60 percent are to be very worried.

People who work hard physically suffer from infection control measures that make the job even more arduous.

Home office: The employer doesn't feel responsible for heating

In particular, all the people "who have brought us through the pandemic in systemically important professions for almost two years" often do not have the opportunity to do their work from home, said DGB boss Reiner Hoffmann. "We should all be concerned that they suffer disproportionately from the deficits in operational infection protection." The health of employees must also have the highest priority in the fourth wave of pandemics. "That is why it is right that the occupational health and safety regulations have been extended and 3G introduced in the workplace."

Those who sit in the home office, on the other hand, have to struggle with other problems: Factors such as childcare and unsuitable work space in their own apartment are troublesome for this group.

Almost half have to do without their own study.

In more than 90 percent of cases, according to the results of the survey, rent, heating and electricity have to be paid for by the employees alone.

And the technology, which is actually supposed to make work easier, often turns out to be an additional disruptive factor if there is insufficient training and support for it.

For almost a third of those who work from home, work there represents an additional burden;

47 percent complained about a lack of technical support for new devices, 44 percent complained about a lack of training.

The chairman of the Education and Science Union (GEW), Maike Finnern, called for "good, sustainable framework conditions" for the increasingly digitized world of work - such as IT support, advanced training and, above all, the right to be non-accessible.

IG Metall board member Hans-Jürgen Urban demanded a legal framework for mobile working from the legislature.

Home office should not become a »occupational safety-free zone«.

mh / afp