One thing is what technology allows to do and another very different what we really do with it. For example, telecommuting in Spain sounds more like Chinese than the coronavirus. And being able to be treated from an application by a doctor in video consultation or access from the mobile phone to the clinical reports without stepping on a health center, only the people who pay for medical insurance will ring.
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Then the coronavirus arrives and Vodafone sends 2,200 workers to work at a stroke. So, overnight. A great strategy, I think. Because it will be a lot in the media with an excellent brand image and will demonstrate its technological power. Other companies such as BBVA, Iberdrola or Endesa have already taken note of the move (and the virus) and are about to launch measures. And the rest? Are we prepared in Spain to work from home? Almost 100% of companies have Internet in our country but nine out of ten workers do not work even one day a week from home.
Luckily the coronavirus has come into our lives to sign a new labor agreement with the invisible ink of fear. Because if we have to wait for political will or business culture, we already know. That teleworking is possible and effective is more than demonstrated in the European context - where we go to the tail of the queue in this matter - and in all the studies carried out in this regard. That working from home 20% of working hours improves reconciliation, productivity and sustainability is also known and proven.
Now what do we do with what we know? Moreover, what do we do with what we can? Well, at most some expert appears from time to time to say that here it is very difficult because we are dedicated to tourism and construction. Come now. It is clear that not all jobs are viable to work from home. But the main reason why teleworking is not implemented where it could be is because our work culture is face-to-face. Companies are still obsessed with the physical control of the activity and telecommuting does not prosper due to distrust of workers and their capacity for self-management. They will not tell me that it is not funny that it is precisely a Chinese virus that comes to improve the working conditions of the West. Global life is also this.
Also thanks to the coronavirus they say that the same thing is closed by universities and colleges. Well, this should not be a problem in a context where e-learning is triggered and its millionaire turnover does not stop growing year after year. If classroom classes close, don't we have a parallel system to continue from home? Does this mean that if a university student becomes ill in a public university, he or she can lose the course because they cannot physically go to the classroom? In 2020? This in business schools has not happened since 2000. But of course, some are poor students and other distinguished clients. The same thing happens with voting. Voting by mail requires more specific terms for carrier pigeons than for citizens who pay with their cell phones in the supermarket. And the adaptation of democracy to the possibilities of participation that technology allows is still an unexplored field. With health, the most sensitive issue of the moment, we are in them. Yes, it is the best in the world. But video consultations are a fact in private healthcare while in public the digital transformation is not done. Can't the doctors who are at home quarantined these days telework? Again the same problem, technology only gets batteries when there are consumers and always gets worse when we are mere citizens. And the worst part is that it seems normal.
In this sense, a good thing is going to have the coronavirus: it will do a free worldwide audit of the state of digital transformation of the different countries. In Spain we will suspend. But we are not going to search for lack of technology but for lack of citizenship in the deep sense. We invest little or nothing in adapting our political and social culture to the possibilities of the century that we have lived. And we are going to pay dearly for the gap between our technological power and the adaptation of that technology to our political and social development. Because the price of this lag will be paid in populist votes, preferably from the extreme right, who are the ones who convert the weaknesses of citizens into votes. And now also in infected we could have avoided.
Another thing, teleworking should not be improvised and also requires a Wi-Fi connection and a management system of a certain work culture. In the end, it's always the same, technology without culture is useless. So hopefully this virus serves at least for us to find out at once and take action. Thank you coronaviurs for putting us to study. It's something.
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