Coronavirus: Working from home a new, occasionally frustrating, experience for Hongkongers used to rhythms of office life
- One civil servant is learning how to get the job done at the dining room table – when his kids aren’t commandeering the computer
- Working remotely, flexible schedules already a reality at growing number of Hong Kong businesses
At 9 and 7 years of age, Mr Wong’s children can be forgiven for not quite grasping that their civil servant father is actually working on the laptop they see open on the dining room table these days.
Originally asking employees to stay out of the office between January 29 and February 2, the government has since extended the arrangement to February 9. Numerous private sector employers have followed suit.
Speaking candidly – and anonymously, Wong, who has little experience working from home, admitted it was a somewhat less productive environment.
“Many documents are confidential, and I won’t have any access to them outside the office. So my work is restricted to non-confidential work at home,” he said. “And I have to watch out for the little fingers of my children, who do not know I am working and try to close the document files I am working on for their favourite YouTube and Netflix films.”