In this era of speed, it’s no longer a secret that social media is a tool that we frequently use in&nbsp;our everyday life. We use it to keep in touch with our loved ones, post vacation pics, buy&nbsp;different stuff online, or… find out news about professional relationships.Recently, Zaid Khan,&nbsp;a young engineer based in New York used TikTok to bring to the attention of the wider public a concept that has been made famous by Generation Z: Quiet Quitting. According to recent&nbsp;statistics, approximately 50% of the US workforce experiences Quiet Quitting.<h3>What is Quiet Quitting?</h3>Despite its name, the analyzed concept does not have to do with an employee’s decision to&nbsp;definitively leave the job, that is, quit. Simply put, Quiet Quitting rejects the idea that the&nbsp;professional activity of a person matches their entire existence and in order to receive&nbsp;acknowledgments or a raise the employees should put in extra effort, basically taking on a lot&nbsp;more activities that the ones specified in their employment contract.Embracing the principle “I don’t only live for work”, this new trend sees the employees stick to&nbsp;doing strictly the tasks specified for a certain position and… not much more than that.&nbsp;Consequently, the employees will keep showing up for work but they will establish certain limits&nbsp;between their work and their private lives. Practically, no tasks or contacting the employee&nbsp;outside working hours.<h3>Where does this concept come from?</h3>According to NYPost, Quiet Quitting presents characteristics that are similar to those of the&nbsp;movement called “Lying Flat”, also known as “Tang Ping” from China. The Asian nation is&nbsp;globally known for its strict work ethic and for the improper treatment of its workers.&nbsp;Also, in the case of the Lying Flat movement, social media has played an important role in&nbsp;getting this ideology viral. Everything started on April 2021 with a post where the author talked about the negative connotations of the traditional mentality which saw one’s life completely&nbsp;taken over by work. Later, more and more Chinese employees, especially young ones, started&nbsp;to reject the „996” work schedule (9 am – 9 pm / 6 days a week) and the unpaid overtime, Lying&nbsp;Flat enjoyed an ever-increasing popularity throughout this last year.<h3>How to spot Quiet Quitting among employees?</h3>There are several behaviors that can indicate that an employee has the intention to „quiet quit”,&nbsp;but here are some of the more popular signs:<ul><li>Employees will only perform their specific, assigned tasks</li><li>They will strictly adhere to the work schedule without spending even one additional&nbsp;minute at the workplace</li><li>Employees are not willing to work overtime</li><li>Employees do not manifest any interest in doing tasks or taking on responsibilities that&nbsp;are not specified in their contract</li><li>The team members will only perform the tasks mentioned and detailed in their contracts</li><li>They will become isolated from the rest of the team</li><li>They will not get involved in conversations or activities that are not related to the job</li><li>They will participate in meetings but will not bring in any input</li></ul><h3>How can remote work help prevent the Quiet Quitting syndrome?</h3>The changes brought by the pandemic on the labor market have determined most employees to say „No more!” to the lack of acknowledgment and financial compensation for the overtime&nbsp;they frequently put in. Consequently, more and more people have become aware of syndromes&nbsp;such as burnout or even <a href="https://pluria.co/blog/boreout-at-work-what-does-it-represent-and-how-can-we-prevent-it/">boreout</a>, choosing to concentrate instead on activities that can&nbsp;compensate for the stress caused by the job.On the other hand, even if Quiet Quitting is focused on maintaining an emotional balance while&nbsp;performing the professional activity, many HR specialists consider that it might be a precursor of&nbsp;presenteeism, that is, work that is carried out as a mere performative action with clear negative&nbsp;effects on the productivity.Managers can directly influence their employees’ experience at the workplace. When managers&nbsp;lead through empathy and trust, the employees get involved, feel supported and&nbsp;appreciated by their superiors, having a full picture of their role within the company and the&nbsp;possible advancement chances. At the same time, a leadership style that is people-oriented&nbsp;unlocks the so-called discretionary involvement, that is that 10% of additional effort can&nbsp;have a significant impact on both the business and employee sides.Thus, in order to limit the manifestation of Quiet Quitting among employees, it is recommended&nbsp;that organizations implement a modern management strategy, which can be either <a href="https://pluria.co">remote or&nbsp;hybrid</a>, with the purpose of offering employees a work environment characterized by&nbsp;inspiration, involvement, and motivation.In the long term, is it possible that Quiet Quitting might negatively influence an employee’s perception of his/her professional responsibilities?a

Quiet Quitting - The Trend That Began On TikTok

Is giving a presentation in public a real challenge for you? Are you in trouble when you ask for support from a colleague? Does interacting with other people make you feel uncomfortable? Are you oftentimes tired of crowded places? If you answered yes to the above questions, there is an increased chance that you belong to the introverted employees category. Don’t worry, it’s not just you in this situation. According to The Myers-Briggs Company study, about 56.8% of the global population is formed of introverted individuals.But have you stopped at least once to think about why it’s so difficult to be an introvert in modern organizational culture? Currently, the workplace is built around ideas and activities that encourage brainstorming and teamwork. Such extroverted characteristics are often the very foundation of the current professions, causing difficulties when integrating introverts in companies. Because people are different and diversity has its own set of benefits, as an HR specialist or manager, it’s helpful to know certain practices that can positively influence the experience of introverted employees at work.<h3>What is introversion?</h3>The terms introvert and extrovert were introduced to public opinion by psychiatrist Carl Jung in 1921. The main goal is to make a distinction between people who are deeply connected to their inner thoughts and feelings and those who focus more on the outside world.Later, in 2013, Harvard Law School graduate Susan Cain, a former lawyer, and negotiator published her bestseller, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. Through this writing, Susan documented situations from her professional experience, namely her calm and reserved nature, often understood as a disadvantage. But as she began to explore introversion as a personality trait, she realized that the distinctive note that most people perceive as a weakness is actually an asset.Thus, Susan Cain defines introversion as the preference for quiet, less challenging environments compared to extroverts who crave a high degree of stimulation.<h3>What characteristics do we encounter in introverted employees?</h3>Over time, specialists in the field have researched introverted personalities, reaching a common ground on certain fundamental elements.Consequently, the introvert:<ul><li>Prefers to spend time alone, and needs alone time to recharge.</li><li>He or she is not a follower of stimulating activities. For example, going out with a friend is generally a good way to relax compared to a party.</li><li>He or she tends to have strong concentration skills.</li><li>Doesn’t like small talk, but often researches topics that he/she finds interesting.</li><li>Think before they speak, often characterized as a good listener.</li><li>Feels tired from attending group meetings where he/she has to be “active” for long periods of time. Their energy for social activities is usually limited.</li></ul><h3>How can we improve the experience of introverted employees at work?</h3>With the popularization of concepts such as “personal branding”, brainstorming, and open spaces, we can easily say that many work environments are modeled around extroverted personalities. Contrary to this, in the right environment, introverts are confident, innovative, and can hold leadership positions. Therefore, in the upcoming paragraphs, we have presented some recommendations with a positive impact on the experience of employees who are prone to introversion.<h3>Encourages the occasional need for solitude</h3>With constant noise and other frequent distractions, working in an open-space office can be overwhelming for an introvert. In this context, employees should be able to work outside the team occasionally, if they feel that their productivity can increase in this way. This is especially important for tasks that require deep concentration or creativity. Why not, you can opt for the implementation of a <a href="https://pluria.co/blog/how-to-provide-a-sustainable-hybrid-workplace/">hybrid work system</a> that involves a mix of interaction with other colleagues and individual work.<h3>Provides time and space for generating ideas</h3>Usually, introverts like to analyze the topic in detail before presenting an idea. These types of personalities also tend to gather information from multiple sources to support their decisions. In other words, introverted employees will always appreciate the processing time between a request for an opinion and its transmission. At the same time, they can choose to communicate various issues during individual meetings or through a written message. All things considered, many introverts prefer to express themselves in this way.<h3>Distribute tasks according to the typology of each employee</h3>Depending on the nature of the activity carried out, daily tasks should fit into the skills of each employee. In general, people with introverted traits tend to enjoy tasks that can be solved<a href="https://pluria.co/blog/7-qualities-when-working-remotely/"> independently</a>.<h3>Don’t forget about feedback</h3>Extroverted colleagues feel at ease when they share opinions freely. For some introverts, this can be a difficult task. To ensure that you receive feedback from all employees, try to implement different ways of communication/<a href="https://pluria.co/blog/how-to-offer-and-receive-constructive-feedback/">feedback</a>.As an introverted employee, in what kind of environment do you think you can do your job better?<ul><li>At the office</li><li>Remote</li><li>Hybrid</li></ul>

How to Establish a Suitable Work Environment for Introverted Employees

In the more recent years, workers have become more aware of the importance of mental health in their work. Therefore, job satisfaction is a crucial element for employee well-being. However, the opposite of this notion has been felt in the labor market very often. For example, <a href="https://pluria.co/blog/burnout-new-solutions-to-an-old-problem/">burnout</a> is one of the most common health and safety issues at work because it affects both people and the organization itself. On the other hand, nowadays most employees know how to identify the occurrence of a burnout episode, but few people recognize the notion of boreout at work.<h3>What boreout at work is?</h3>To begin with, having various tasks that are not very complicated and consequently, not doing too many things at work is an ideal situation. On the other hand, things are different in reality. Being forced to follow a work schedule without a clear purpose can lead to demoralization. Moreover, HR experts point out that the boreout syndrome can trigger the so-called “presenteeism“, i.e. the act of employees who continue to work as a simple performance measure, despite low levels of productivity or negative consequences.Identified by Philippe Rothlin and Peter R. Werder in 2007, the syndrome is the opposite of work-related exhaustion, being in fact characterized by “chronic boredom.” Basically, <a href="https://pluria.co/blog/burnout-new-solutions-to-an-old-problem/">burnout </a>and boreout are two sides of the same coin, which can negatively affect the health of employees.For example, according to a study conducted by Udemy, approximately 43% of employees who perform “office work” in the US are bored at work. At the same time, the same study highlights the fact that boreout affects women more than men (48% -39%), and millennials are twice as likely to experience the boreout at work compared to baby boomers.<h3>How does this syndrome manifest?</h3>According to the same authors, the boreout syndrome is characterized by the following three behaviors:<ol><li>Heavy and repetitive, monotonous tasks. Fulfilling professional tasks without a certain purpose generates the feeling of being overlooked, i.e. the feeling that you can offer more within the company, an opportunity that is denied to you,</li><li>Boredom, defined as a state of reluctance, apathy and doubt, because the employee does not know what to do with his spare time during the working day,</li><li>Disinterest, due to lack of identification with the work done.</li></ol>Also in the book “The New Boreout Work Syndrome” published in 2009, Philippe Rothlin and Peter R. Werder discuss the causes of boreout syndrome, including:<ul><li>The employee is overqualified for the job</li><li>The employee carries out an activity that does not meet his expectations</li><li>Lack of planning or superficial definition of corporate position, leading to role ambiguity</li><li>Assign interesting tasks to superiors or colleagues with more experience, leaving repetitive tasks to other employees</li><li>The organizational structure that prevents workers from participating or developing their potential within the company</li><li>No pay rise and lack of stimulation or recognition from superiors, work effort not being associated with the results achieved</li></ul><h3>How can organizations limit the emergence of boreout among employees?</h3>Boreout syndrome results from a lack of care and <a href="https://pluria.co/blog/attention-as-a-connecting-tool/">attention </a>towards the well-being of employees, with significant consequences for the company’s development. Even if there is no “recipe for success”, employers can consider the recommendations below.<h3>Mix work tasks</h3>To prevent the development of boredom with professional tasks, choose to distribute them throughout the entire team. For instance, employees could work in shifts to ensure a steady stream of new projects.<h3>Promotes work-life balance</h3>It’s vital that you lay the groundwork for a workplace that is balanced between professional and private activities, both for the mental health of your team and for your well-being. In order to encourage this you can use a few simple ways to put it into practice:<ul><li>Make sure employees do not work longer than necessary</li><li>Sets out clear but also motivating tasks</li><li>Respects the “right to disconnect“</li></ul><h3>Adopt a flexible work schedule</h3>If you notice that your team is tired and or lacking in motivation, talk to them to find a flexible solution that works for all.<h3>Meetings have a role to play</h3>Many organizations have easily adapted to the remote or <a href="https://pluria.co/blog/in-search-of-the-right-hybrid-work-model-for-your-organization/">hybrid working model</a> in the last two years. Even if you do not meet face to face, maintaining regular contact with employees can have a positive effect on their well-being. Therefore, it’s more than essential to organize regular check-in meetings with each team member.<h3>Listen to your employees</h3>Not paying <a href="https://pluria.co/blog/attention-as-a-connecting-tool/">attention </a>to the needs of your employees can affect the company <a href="https://pluria.co/blog/productivity-is-about-the-system-not-just-people/">productivity</a>. To avoid this, it’s recommended that you ask for feedback to find out exactly how employees perceive their work and possibly what you can do to stimulate their motivation and professional development.

Boreout at Work &#8211; What Does It Represent and How Can We Prevent It?

The United Arab Emirates is a federation of seven emirates along the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Representing one of the most important financial players in the world today, the state is now moving toward a growth-oriented economy, environmental sustainability, and the latest technologies to improve business operations. However, this action does not only concern financial elements, but also social factors, especially the working environment.In December last year, representatives of the emirates announced that the working week would be reduced to four and a half days. As a result, students and public sector employees will benefit from a long break, thus having sufficient time for rest and various leisure activities. The local authorities pointed out that changing the work program was meant to facilitate the country’s competitiveness in relation to Western economies.<h3>Increasing social productivity&nbsp;</h3>The new workweek plan was officially announced less than a week after the 50-year anniversary of the nation’s founding as an independent state (2 December 1971). Initially, until 2006, the United Arab Emirates imposed a “Thursday-Friday” weekend on its citizens. Subsequently, in accordance with the religious norms, the state went to rest on Friday and Saturday, the private environment following this change.Currently, according to an official statement, the extended weekend is part of the United Arab Emirates government’s efforts to ensure a work-life balance, while increasing the state’s social productivity and economic performance. In other words, the weekend will start Friday at noon and will end on Sunday. During the week, the working hours will be 9 hours per day, respectively 8:00 – 17:00, Monday to Thursday, and 4 hours, namely 8:00 – 12:00 for Friday.<h3>Change in religious activities&nbsp;</h3>As the work schedule became mandatory for public sector organizations at the beginning of the new year (1 January 2022), it replaced the federal statute that established Friday as a day off for Muslim prayers. In this context, Friday prayers will take place after 13:15 throughout 2022.Even though the state news agency characterized the new work week as the shortest in the world, highlighting the many advantages that this practice can generate, there were also opposing views.For example, 22-year-old Rachel King from Britain, who has been working in the hospitality industry and has been living in Dubai for six months, said she preferred the previous option because most people were delighted to have Friday off to fill time with various recreational activities. At the same time, Ahmad Bilbisi, 34, a bank employee, has the same opinion, claiming that, for the time being, working on Friday seems a little bit…strange.In this context, Sharjah, an emirate neighboring Dubai, has found a simple solution: mandating Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as a three-day weekend.<h3>Business sector reactions</h3>According to a survey conducted by Mercer Middle East, which involved more than 190 companies in the United Arab Emirates, a relatively small number of companies will adopt the 4.5-day work week that has already been implemented at state institutions.Therefore, most companies (57%) would prefer to switch to the new weekend. However, only 23% of respondents said they could successfully implement the four-hour program on Friday.Moreover, the organizations that started the transition process to the Saturday-Sunday weekend want to adopt a hybrid working model. In principle, employers considering taking an extra half-day off on Friday said the work schedule for the rest of the week would not be increased, nor would the pay be affected.“Employers in the UAE must continue to offer staff flexibility, particularly for parents given that schools will operate a half-day on Friday, and to accommodate religious needs. Offering staff the choice to work from home, or to work flexible days and or hours, will support talent attraction and retention. Overall, the shift to the new working weekend in the UAE has strong support from the private sector, but the companies that will thrive as employers of choice will be those that continue to stay attuned to the needs of their diverse workforces. At the same time, the results of the survey show that 84% of companies believe that the new weekend will have a positive impact on international transactions. On the other hand, 37% do not consider that the extended weekend formula would in any way influence the activities in the Middle East.”, said Ted Raffoul, Mercer’s Career and Workforce Products business leader, MENA.Nevertheless, survey results show that 84% of firms believe the new weekend will have a positive impact on international transactions. On the other hand, 37% do not consider that the extended weekend version would in any way influence activities in the Middle East.At this time, private sector companies are not legally required to switch to a 4.5-day work schedule, but the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation has recommended to the business community to reschedule weekly employee days off to align with the new weekend format.&nbsp;Thus, several companies, including Galadari Brothers Group and Active Digital Marketing Communication, have already announced the transition to the new working week, with a flexible schedule for Friday.

The United Arab Emirates is experiencing a 4.5-day work week

<h3>Before the pandemic broke out, the number of people working away from the office was already increasing. However, the phenomenon mentioned has developed even more since then. Employers have noticed that employees in certain fields can work partly or fully online. Therefore, it’s expected that <a href="https://pluria.co/blog/in-search-of-the-right-hybrid-work-model-for-your-organization/">hybrid work</a> will be widely adopted. Even so, this fact generates various legal concerns, especially about workers’ rights.</h3>Recently, a German court ruled that a man who fell while walking from his bedroom to his home office was actually injured at work, and therefore, will be compensated under his employer’s workplace accident insurance policy.&nbsp;<h3>The context of the workplace accident</h3>In a ruling issued in December last year, the German Federal Social Court agreed to the claims made by a sales manager who suffered an accident in 2018. Usually, the man started his day with work-related activities. Thus, as he headed to his home office, he slipped on the spiral staircase in his apartment, breaking a thoracic vertebra.According to the court documents, it was decided in the first instance that the plaintiff’s walk to his home office was not a matter to be covered by the work accident policy, but rather “an uninsured preparatory act which only precedes any insured risks”. Finally, the employee went to a higher court.In his complaint, the employee argued that people who work from home should not receive less legal protection in the event of possible work accidents compared to those who work on-site. He also pointed out that, during the current pandemic in Germany, a significant percentage of people chose to work from home, facing similar situations.<h3>The motivation of the court</h3>The Federal Social Court agreed with the worker’s claims. The court stated that, in exceptional cases, if the insured activity takes place in the household of the insured person or in another location, the insurance policy provided by the employer will take effect in the same way as when the work is performed at the company’s premises.Moreover, according to the court, there are additional factors to be taken into account relating to the objective tendency of the insured person. In other words, the employee wanted to perform an activity in the service of the employing company, which in practice led to the accident.At the same time, the decision took into account the legal framework for teleworking, respectively, the law applies to “telework stations”, i.e. “computerized workspaces that are permanently arranged by the employer in the private area of employees.”<h3>Why this decision is important</h3>The case raises a number of essential questions about the culture of teleworking. When an employee’s home is also his or her workplace, what rights and obligations do he or she have? What happens if you get injured while working at home? It’s considered a workplace accident?First of all, it’s necessary to mention that people who work from home, <a href="https://pluria.co/blog/5-workplace-trends-in-2022">either remote or hybrid, may also suffer various accidents</a> related to professional tasks. In principle, the safety measures that normally could be observed in the workplace are completely missing at home. There are relatively few home-based offices that comply with the rules for a <a href="https://pluria.co/blog/diana-moldoveanu-the-office-of-the-future/">well-designated workspace</a>. Moreover, not all workers benefit from technical facilities from the employer for work from home, such as desks, ergonomic chairs, and monitors, proper lighting, etc., plus other basic elements for a workspace that limits the occurrence of accidents.For example, about 28% of all families in the United States reported various home injuries in 2020. The vast majority were due to a fall or injury with a sharp object. Globally, experts have seen an increase in spinal cord injuries, lumbar disk pain, or carpal tunnel syndrome.<h3>The culture of hybrid work in Germany</h3>As the Covid-19 pandemic seems to be spreading indefinitely, more and more companies are realizing that “hybrid” forms of work may become the new norm. Hybrid work involves a flexible mix of office attendance on some days and remote work on others.In principle, the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sector in Germany, also known as the “Mittelstand”, was particularly skeptical about the adoption of the remote working model, criticizing the authorities’ decisions to force employees to work in this way. But nowadays, according to the latest data provided, employers are amazed at how well their staff is doing.

Germany: Bed To Home Office Injury Represents Workplace Accident

The Earth’s surface is marked by a constant phenomenon: change. In recent years, the “Blue Planet” has faced unprecedented challenges in terms of the environment and climate, which pose a threat to our prosperity and even our very own existence. Even if the subject is a sharp one, we can still limit some negative actions.For example, the EU has committed to achieving climate neutrality by 2050. Reaching this objective will require a transformation of Europe’s economy, which will need to be cost-effective, and socially balanced. Besides that, the European Commission plans to update its rules on worker safety to reflect the anticipated digital and green recovery.Therefore, the world is actively making an effort to be more sustainable, and the business environment should not be an exception. As the New Year will be <a href="https://pluria.co/blog/work-for-healthier-environment">characterized by the implementation of the hybrid work model</a>, below we have gathered a few easy steps that you can follow to start the conversion process to a circular economy and a sustainable hybrid workplace.<h3>1. Set up a recycling program</h3>Even though it is the easiest practice that can be adopted at the organizational level, recycling is often neglected. A relatively simple action, such as placing baskets for selective collection, can have a significant lasting impact.If your office has a kitchen, it would make sense to add a sealed compost bin for residential waste. In principle, the idea is to have as many areas with recycling options as possible, so that employees can easily choose eco-friendly solutions.<h3>2. Use less paper</h3>Because the hybrid work model also involves on-site employees, in such situations, most office waste is typically paper. As we have already seen, we live in a time when work can be successfully done digitally and not all specifications need to be printed.By using less paper, greenhouse gas emissions will be drastically reduced. At the same time, there are various technologies, which have been created precisely to eliminate and replace large amounts of paperwork. Moreover, as hybrid work is taking the labour market by storm, it’s in the best interest of any employer to encourage written communication within their company.<h3>3. Use decorative plants in interior design</h3>Plants produce oxygen, which helps to compensate for any chemicals released during the work schedule. The result: cleaner and purified air, which improves the health of employees and has a direct link with increasing productivity.&nbsp;Some sustainable hybrid workplaces incorporate various natural elements in their set-up, such as living plant art, plant walls, or vertical gardens, both from the desire to have a special design piece and to provide better air quality. At the same time, such components contribute to sound absorption that is a plus for loud open spaces.<h3>4. Measure office power usage</h3>In general, there is no reason why any source of electricity should be left turned on overnight. For example, many companies use sensors so that the lights turn off automatically when no motion is detected. Simultaneously, the standard light bulbs can be replaced with LEDs, because they consume 75% less energy for the same power.Natural light and light-coloured wall painting are also excellent solutions that ensure lower energy consumption and increase employee productivity. Depending on the operational budget, organizations may consider green energy sources such as solar, hydraulic or wind energy, biomass, etc.<h3>5. Choose a flexible working model</h3>Depending on the nature of the business you run, you should most likely ask yourself, “is it really necessary for every employee to come to the office every day?”.Currently, various alternatives ensure real-time collaboration of employees regardless of their geographical location. A significant percentage of professional tasks can be performed efficiently in the remote or hybrid system also reducing the carbon footprint at the company level.At the same time, organizations should explore offering a flexible work policy if this is a viable option. Employees may also be encouraged to choose eco-friendly transportation such as bicycles, electric cars, or public transport.The sustainable hybrid workplace promises to have a positive impact on the environment. With fewer employees coming to the office every day, the need for huge workspaces is significantly reduced. Smaller offices imply lower maintenance costs, but also less pollution.

How to Provide a Sustainable Hybrid Workplace

The global pandemic has led organizations around the world to focus on digitizing internal processes in order to continue their work properly. As a result, 2021 can be easily classified as the year of reinvention. Subsequently, teleworking was widely adopted, making companies interested in modern approaches to employment relationships.Put in another way, if 2021 was a period of recovery and resilience from the business environment, 2022 will be the year of growth and innovation. Hence, professionals are ready to start the New Year on a positive note, keeping in mind, of course, the latest changes in human capital.Therefore, in the following article, you will find some of the essential trends in the workplace for 2022:<h3>1. Hybrid work</h3>As organizations moved back to on premise operations in 2021, not all employees were thrilled with the idea of returning to the conventional work mode. On the contrary, several companies have reported an increase in overall productivity for remote workers. On top of that, remote work allowed professionals to maintain a better work-life balance.These certainties have led to the emergence of a new concept in which work teams include both remote employees and ones working internally. Hybrid work represents a flexible approach to modern work that offers workers many benefits, including employee satisfaction, more opportunities for continuous learning, improved collaboration and work relationships, better outcomes for employees’ mental health, low financial costs etc.<h3>2. Gen-Z is entering the labour market&nbsp;</h3>Young people from Gen-Z (born between 1997 and 2012) are ready to enter the corporate world, but they have a unique approach in terms of work. In principle, they aren’t willing to work with traditional tools that involve manufacturing to complete a professional task. At the same time, this generation has acquired a native competency in technology and digitalization.Therefore, companies need to change their perspective when it comes to integrating the above-mentioned category into the team. Creative, idealistic, and yet independent, the Gen-Z employees are unwilling to confine themselves to the standard work schedule (9 to 5) being much more attracted to the flexible work culture.<h3>3. Centralized communication</h3>The emergence of the hybrid work model has increased the need for centralized communication within an organization. Practically a mix between remote employees and those working on-site, it is crucial to make sure everyone is in accord at all times.On the bright side, companies have a wide range of technological tools to use in such situations. Collaborative platforms such as Skype, Zoom, Google Meet, Slack, or Microsoft Teams allow employees to communicate in real-time. From group chats and video calls to sharing important documents, these apps help you to maintain a clear line of communication at a business level.<h3>4. Focus on skills development</h3>Skills are essential because they play a fundamental role in overcoming certain challenges in the workplace. Roles, on the other hand, refer to how each employee relates to a particular organizational structure or general hierarchy.&nbsp;Focusing on skills, companies believe that these elements are the key to boosting innovation and success within corporations.On the other hand, from the employees’ perspective, skill development (rather than simply performing a role) ensures them a better start for future career opportunities. This shift in focus from roles to skills will most likely be a major trend for both organizations and workers in 2022.<h3>5. The employee mental health</h3>The pandemic has been a rough time for most people, regardless of the industry they belong to. Moreover, there have even been situations in which experienced and dedicated employees have lost their jobs, as companies have reported low turnover amid the economic crisis.These circumstances significantly affected the employee’s mental well-being. In this setting, organizations have focused on providing a stimulating and encouraging work environment through various initiatives. Recognizing good work, promoting a healthier lifestyle, and providing regular feedback can positively influence employee engagement.

5 Workplace Trends in 2022 and the Necessity of Hybrid Work

Not so long ago, we were talking about the long-term viability of the gig economy, given the protection that companies should provide to all people, including those who choose this type of work. However, the analysed topic brings into discussion another controversy: worker misclassification. Treating workers as independent contractors instead of employees is a consequence of the legal gaps being forced to contend within the modern economy.We probably all know the Uber case, in which the U.K. Supreme Court ruled, in early 2021, that Uber drivers should be treated as employees, not independent contractors. The decision came as a result of a five-year lawsuit initiated by two former Uber collaborators, who asked the court to recognize their right to a minimum wage and paid leave.&nbsp;Over the last decade, the use of independent contractors has increased dramatically, with recent estimates suggesting an increase by almost 40%, going from 6.9% of employment in 2005 to 9.6% in 2015. Moreover, according to a United States Government report, an overwhelming percentage of these contractual relationships did not pass the “judicial interpretation test”, and in fact represent misclassifications of workers.<h3>What is worker misclassification?</h3>In principle, it stems from a basic but decisive distinction in labour and workplace laws. Those who work for a particular company are employed in accordance with the legal provisions in force. Broadly speaking, the difference between the employee and the self-employed refers to the responsibilities assigned through concluded contracts.Therefore, independent contracting (usually, through a collaboration agreement) implies that the party that will provide certain services exercises its independence in this contractual relationship, regarding the pay rates, how and where he/she will fulfil the tasks, deadlines, opportunities for future projects etc.On the other hand, under employment, the hiring party basically calls all the shots, such as work tasks, how the employee will perform them and when he or she does so, what he or she is allowed to do or not, what performance is considered acceptable and, of course, the salary.<h3>Why is right classification important?</h3>The classification is relevant when we talk about employee rights in the workplace. In other words, a person who is considered an independent contractor does not benefit from the same protection offered by the law as employers do, regarding fundamental elements, including the minimum wage, paid overtime, social contributions, unemployment benefits, the possibility to be represented by a trade union in accordance with national laws, etc. A independent contractor is responsible for paying all state payroll taxes (personal income tax, social security). Failure to comply with this rule will entail certain penalties (usually fines).<h3>What are the indicators of a potential problem?</h3>There are several indicators of potential misclassification. To this fact, behaviours to consider include the following:<ul><li>Independent contractors go through progressive discipline commonly used in employment relationships if there are performance issues, including written warnings, disciplinary investigation, lower fees, or unilateral termination of a collaboration contract for workplace misconduct.</li><li>Independent contractors receive specific employee benefits, such as company car, holiday or shopping cards, meal vouchers, private health insurance, etc.</li><li>Contributors use the same equipment as the rest of the team. This practice may cause some confusion, as they should use their own devices.</li><li>Independent contractors report to a manager. This is a problem because reporting to supervisors would undermine the contractor’s independence. The more control a company exercises over individuals’ work, the less likely they are collaborators.</li><li>The contributor was told to sign a non-compete agreement. Here is another problem. On the other hand, nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) are accepted.</li></ul><h3>How can you resolve this?</h3><ul><li>Talk to your boss</li></ul>First, you can try to talk to your employer to see if the company will review your classification and reclassify you as an employee. Explain why you think you were wrongly classified as an independent contractor. In case of a negative answer, you will get at least an explanation as to why the company believes that you should remain a collaborator, and not a full-time employee.<ul><li>Involve state institutions</li></ul>If the first option does not work, you can contact the competent authorities. Workers who believe that they have been wrongly classified as self-employers may report this to government agencies that have the capacity to resolve such situations.

Employee or Independent Contractor? Consequences of Worker Misclassification

Teleworking has quickly become the “new norm”, especially in the IT sector, digital marketing, or customer support. In fact, it is estimated that approximately 73% of teams will have remote employees by 2028.&nbsp;Thanks to advances in technology, most work software is accessible from anywhere on any device. As long as there is a stable internet connection, remote workers can perform their tasks (almost) anywhere.So why not replace the classic office with various unusual locations, which could really stimulate your creativity? You will find below some places to consider when you need a new perspective on work:<h3>1. In the middle of the forest</h3>The Finnish city of Lahti, also designated the European Green Capital in 2021, has taken the concept of remote work to a whole new level: setting up a number of outdoor offices to remind its citizens of both the beauty and calming effect of nature.The design itself evokes Finnish traditions. Named Viita, they are unique from a creative perspective and differ from traditional camping tables due to their functions, specially designed for remote work.&nbsp;At the same time, Finland is known to be a pioneer in terms of flexibility in the workplace and employee well-being, even before the pandemic. Lahti also encourages other organizations to set up workstations in nature for common use.<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/w4WAUwI5GY6IeHyOaYQGgE6fqy_0k8Zp7sa6a_0PJNeFdTDg4GvqXM2G5q2O6vagP1nl3h1iwh3JW8tn46tIgBXd3IomKK2bwpVfebuYWwgyp5gt1rTPwRaMc9FA7RVG6plYV7qU" alt="">Viita workstations<h3>2. A tent</h3>When you want something else, even a tent can improve your productivity. The Japanese railway company Tokyu used, for example, three special tents and tarpaulins in order to offer its employees the opportunity to work in a different environment to increase the contribution of original ideas, outdoors.<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/nUCqxaZI64symymP-MPm1J99ODp6PtNys-EV5ZlkQs_xV7aw2VbVpRsI1WqBi4cpAySmFS_vganAprWoecJGB60mxN44dX6mTbEtEj77IwcJwgELTC43JItfb3xu58eDsktFXJFm" alt="">Meeting rooms on the banks of the Tama River in Tokyo<h3>3. At the Museum</h3>The Katsushika Hokusai Art Museum in Japan launched its first coworking space earlier this year. In Europe, a French film producer plans to open a hybrid space in Brussels, both for remote work and for the presentation of his private art collection.This type of initiative is not new: in 2017, the Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest organized a private coworking event, to which about a hundred people had access.<h3>4. In shopping centres</h3>A significant number of such centres have everything you need to consider them an interesting workspace for a few hours, such as free Wi-Fi, meals, cafes, hot and cold food bars.Moreover, one of their advantages refers to being located in accessible public areas, thus making it easier to get to them or use them as a benchmark for client meetings.<h3>5. The gym</h3>Many gym chains also offer “lounge” zones where people might work together. In addition, it is well known that exercise improves mental health. Why not reward yourself with a little movement before or after your workhours?For example, at Brooklyn Boulders Somerville, members carry out their professional tasks surrounded by various sports equipment, finding here a combination between a climbing gym and collaborative workspace. The facilities provided by the location include free Wi-Fi, a lounge area with couches, a common workspace, vertical offices with built-in pull-up bars and some recreation areas.<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/qyF2XjQQyHEzOl-Xm1-XyDbOA3qP06Qd2o2hpFAjP7DBerzfiL0rpdeJWyxtbQGkZdU7NAF_xdbVk_MKgh_Go9khg7AjwkOv9az_ev0jgtE6Ewl_nrOK6cwOFSDsqvXOibxKc4DP" alt="">Brooklyn Boulders Somerville<h3>6. On the stadium</h3>A unique partnership involving the famous Paris Saint-Germain football club has resulted in the arrangement of coworking spaces at Parc des Princes, the legendary PSG stadium, in September 2021.To make this possible, several boxes and stands, and even a portion of the lawn were turned into offices, meeting rooms and dining areas. During the event, about 500 people used the innovative workspaces.

6 Unusual Places for Remote Work

Starting 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has led to the massive implementation of remote work globally. In order to limit the possible occurrence of legal problems, in many countries, this issue has been resolved by trying to apply the existing legislation.For example, in California, according to the Labour Code, employers are required to compensate employees for all necessary expenses that are a direct response to the performance of their duties (frequently discussed in the context of remote work).However, when we talk about other states, governments have introduced special laws to regulate remote work due to the growing popularity of this concept. Therefore, the following article presents the key elements of the new provisions on remote work adopted by two countries sharing a common history: Spain and Colombia.<img src="https://pluriastrapistorage.blob.core.windows.net/strapi/assets/Spain_legislation_for_remote_work_1024x683_1530a9392b.jpg" alt="Spain legislation for remote work" srcset="https://pluriastrapistorage.blob.core.windows.net/strapi/assets/Spain_legislation_for_remote_work_1024x683_1530a9392b.jpg 1024w" sizes="100vw" width="1024" height="683"><h3>Spain</h3><h3>What is the definition of remote work in Spain?</h3>According to the Royal Decree 28/2020, remote work involves providing services from home, or another place, at the employee’s choice. At the same time, work-related activities must be carried out in this way for at least 30% of the working hours, over a three-month period.<h3>Can the employer force staff work remotely?</h3>The above-mentioned normative act states that the answer is no. Despite the fact that teleworking might be enforced by separate laws and decrees in the future, for the time being, remote work agreements are entirely voluntary.<a href="https://pluria.co/blog/digital-nomad-visa-spain">Read more here about the Spanish digital nomad visa.</a><h3>What are the main rights that remote employees have?</h3>In principle, remote employees have the same rights as the employees who choose to work from the office. In other words, the very purpose of the remote Spanish law is to ensure that the employment labour rights are properly applied in the remote environment, including freedom from discrimination and equal employment opportunity.<h3>The remote work agreement</h3>Central to the new law is an obligation for both parties to conclude a written agreement setting out remote work conditions. Also, a copy of this document shall be deposited at the Labour Office. In addition, the agreement comes up with some mandatory clauses, including:<ul><li>the location of work tasks (for example, does the employee have the right to work part of the day from a cafe / in a coworking space or from his/her home office only?);</li><li>the contract duration;&nbsp;</li><li>the agreed working schedule and when <a href="https://pluria.co/blog/is-it-ok-for-companies-to-monitor-their-remote-employees">the employee will be available;</a></li><li><a href="https://pluria.co/blog/is-it-ok-for-companies-to-monitor-their-remote-employees">employee control and/or monitoring</a> (for instance, will remote monitoring software be required?);</li><li>the employee’s right to” disconnect” at a certain time of day;</li><li>health and safety in the remote workplace.</li></ul><img src="https://pluriastrapistorage.blob.core.windows.net/strapi/assets/Colombia_legislation_for_remote_work_1024x577_b0698d2c77.jpg" alt="Colombia legislation for remote work" srcset="https://pluriastrapistorage.blob.core.windows.net/strapi/assets/Colombia_legislation_for_remote_work_1024x577_b0698d2c77.jpg 1024w" sizes="100vw" width="1024" height="577"><h3>Colombia</h3>Initially, in Colombia, remote work was provided as a temporary and transitional arrangement allowing people to work this way without all the legal requirements associated between employers and employees. Subsequently, the authorities considered it appropriate to regulate a remote legal framework.<h3>What are the obligations of Colombian employers?</h3>According to Law 2121, when we discuss remote work arrangements, employers must cover the maintenance of equipment, internet connection, programs, and energy costs.&nbsp;At the same time, employers have a duty to provide the technical equipment that workers need to perform their work tasks. However, as an exception, the parties may agree for computer equipment to be supplied by the employee.<h3>What are the key legal issues?</h3>The legal framework drafted by the Colombian administration sets out specific requirements for the conclusion of remote employment relationships, hence:<ul><li>the option for remote work must be agreed upon by both parties;</li><li>the working method will be maintained throughout the entire employment contract;</li><li>the regulation applies to Colombian residents, individuals, or legal entities (including foreign companies that hire people of different nationalities);</li><li>the manifestation of consent requires the use of a digital electronic signature, through codes, passwords, biometric data, or private cryptographic keys, which identifies a person (the technology must be provided by the employer);</li><li>the law does not establish a specific place of execution, nevertheless, the employee’s workspace must have a permanent internet connection and must be established by mutual agreement and approved by the Occupational Hazards Administrators (ARL).&nbsp;</li></ul>If working in the Iberian Peninsula or in Latin America seems like an experience to be tried at least once in a lifetime, Pluria Spain and Pluria Colombia offer you a multitude of coworking spaces. You can find here all the necessary resources to boost your productivity and carry out your work in optimal conditions.

Spain and Colombia are adapting their legislation to remote work

Over the last two years, we have been able to easily observe how the pandemic has fundamentally transformed the way we work nowadays. “Work from the office” was quickly replaced with the possibility of working from anywhere in the world, a goal that some time ago seemed difficult or even impossible to accomplish.In this context, there is a lot of confusion about the way taxes should be paid, while the most frequent question sounds like this: is this procedure carried out in the origin country of the employee (our example, Romania) or in the country where he/she works?&nbsp;In order to answer it, we present below some of the main points regarding the taxes applied on foreign income.Which country can request tax declarations from you?The rule says that the country where you are a resident for tax purposes can tax your total income no matter in which part of the world you obtained it. Thus, the term income includes wages, pensions, benefits, receipts from property or any other sources, or capital gains obtained from selling goods.At the same time, each country has its own definition when it comes to residency for tax purpose, but usually:<ul><li>you will be considered a resident for tax purposes in the country where you spend more than 6 months a year;</li></ul>Example 1: your home country is Romania,<a href="https://pluria.co/blog/digital-nomad-visa-spain"> but you spend 10 months a year in Spain</a>. It turns out that you are a resident for tax purposes in Spain.<ul><li>your home country will be considered the place where you are a tax resident if you spend less than 6 months a year in another EU country.</li></ul>Example 2: your home country is Romania, but you spend 3 months a year in Spain, so Romania will remain the place where you are a tax resident.Therefore, we can observe that the tax residence is not related to the residence on the identity card.<h3>What does dual residence entail?</h3>In some cases, you may be considered a tax resident in two countries at the same time, and consequently, both may require you to pay taxes on your income. To avoid such unpleasant situations, especially for taxpayers, most states have double taxation agreements, which set out the rules used to determine which of the two countries could consider you a tax resident.Most of these bilateral agreements state that taxes paid in the country where you work will be deducted from the tax due in your country of residence. On the other hand, other agreements mention that income earned in the country where you work can only be taxed in that country, thus you will not pay other taxes in the country of residence.<h3>But what about fictitious tax residence?</h3>Under the double taxation treaties, the country where you get all or “almost all” of your income must treat you as if you were a tax resident, even if you do not live there. Some countries offer this fictitious tax resident status to cross-border commuters.In accordance with EU law, each member state is free to determine what percentage of your income represents “almost all”.<h3>Posted workers or jobseekers</h3>If you are a posted worker or you are looking for a new job abroad, it will be considered that you are a tax resident in your home country. Therefore, the tax will be paid in the above-mentioned country, even if you live abroad for more than 6 months a year.&nbsp;The fundamental condition is to maintain permanent residence in your home country and, at the same time, to maintain close personal and economic ties with that state.<h3>Who needs to declare the foreign income?</h3>According to the Romanian law, the residents of the country and non-residents who must meet certain conditions will submit to ANAF the taxpayer registration if they have earned foreign income from independent activities, copyright, or rental.&nbsp;Thus, non-residents who meet at least one of the following residence conditions will submit the mentioned-above declaration:a) the vital interests (family, properties, etc.) of the person are in Romania;b) the non-resident stays in Romania for one or more periods exceeding a total of 183 days, during any interval of 12 consecutive months by the end of the calendar year, and he/she also gains foreign income which needs to be declared in Romania (from independent activities, copyright, dividends, etc.).<h3>What categories of income do not have to be declared in Romania?</h3>According to the law, the income from dependent foreign activities paid by a non-resident employer is not taxable in Romania; it is not declared and is not subject to the foreign tax credit.Each country has created its own legal framework for taxation. Therefore, consultation and understanding of specific provisions are essential, along with the analysis of the agreements concluded between Romania and other states regarding tax laws.

Do you work remotely for foreign companies? The taxation of income earned abroad

Over the last few years, the gig economy (translated as “economy on demand”) has become a fairly well known segment of the labour market, expanding considerably since the pandemic began due to the widespread adoption of remote work.&nbsp;Moreover, the current situation has fundamentally changed the traditional „9 to 5” program, leading many workers to pursue various “gigs” to supplement their wages or even to make this form of work the main source of income.For example, it seems that around 11% of the EU workforce (24 million people) have used specific platforms to find gig jobs at least once. While 3 million people do this to obtain their main income, 9 million persons treat these jobs as a secondary source, and almost 7 million to earn an occasional income.Thus, as the world begins to fully embrace this new way of working, which will be even more popular after the pandemic ends, companies must take into account this inevitable change and find new ways to support workers and to ensure the long-term development of the gig economy.<h3>What does the gig economy mean anyway?</h3>Etymologically speaking, the term “gig” is a slang word for a job that lasts a specified period, being typically used by musicians. Briefly said, we are talking about a limited-term contract.&nbsp;Therefore, this type of economy actually involves the possibility to offer customers the desired services, at a certain moment and for a predefined period. Moreover, one extremely popular sector that has developed from this type of work is the sharing economy (for example, the services of Airbnb, Uber, Lime etc.).The notion of gig economy refers nowadays to an online market where demand meets supply – where service providers/freelancers meet with potential future customers. Examples of gig employees in the workforce could include work arrangements such as freelancers, independent contractors, project-based workers, and temporary hires.As per current stats, about 35% of the US workforce were contributing to the gig economy in 2020, up from 14-20% in 2014. Moreover, these figures are expected to go beyond recent reports, and some will say that self-employers will represent more than half of the American workforce by 2027.<h3>Flexibility at work – a necessary benefit</h3>Obviously, flexibility is the main advantage offered by the gig economy, both in terms of working hours and the available roles that workers can receive.In this regard, pre-pandemic, about 70% of gig workers said that one of the reasons they chose to try the new form of work is that it gave them more flexibility and, often, more money, compared to a full-time job.Gig work allows people to focus on the key aspects of their lives, and at the same time to carry out their work tasks when and where it suits them.The way this trend could influence “traditional work” is not yet clearly defined, but companies will have to adapt to this, <a href="https://pluria.co/blog/best-practices-for-workplace-flexibility">offering more flexibility even to full-time employees</a> who have become accustomed to such arrangements during the pandemic.<h3>Workers’ rights is not an option&nbsp;</h3>The global health crisis we are living through has placed even greater emphasis on the rights, benefits, and the protection that companies offer to their workers, also known as social contributions.While the majority of those who opt for “gig” jobs choose a more flexible lifestyle, with no full-time employment in mind, questions are being raised about the benefits and protection that companies should offer to all workers, including project-based ones. Therefore, the long-term viability of the analysed work concept is debatable if these protections are not provided.&nbsp;The gig economy has become an integral part of the global workforce, a trend that has been accelerated mainly because of remote work. Nowadays, millions of employees decide to pursue a working arrangement that is better suited to their lifestyle compared with, in most cases, what a full-time job can offer.The gig economy brings many benefits to both parties involved. Workers have the opportunity to choose projects that best align with their interests and goals and to obtain financial gain from several sources. Companies also prefer this type of economy because it meets the requirements of seasonal projects, eliminates recruitment costs, and allows organizations to remain competitive.

How &#8220;the gig economy&#8221; influences the labour market

The widespread adoption of telework in 2020, due to the pandemic context, has revealed numerous legal gaps in this regard in most European countries. On the other hand, nowadays, it’s easy to see that remote work is no longer just an exception to the rule. Thus, governments face the urgent need to formally regulate the concept of work from anywhere.Prior to the pandemic, a relatively small number of states had already established remote work regulations (telework) specific legislation or collective agreements. However, no real updating of labour law takes place in all European countries.<h3>Which European countries intend to adopt specific remote work legislation?</h3><ul><li>France</li></ul>From the perspective of the frequent changes in the labour market, France is famous because, since 2016, it has implemented certain mechanisms to create boundaries between professional and private life through the so-called “right to disconnect”.&nbsp;Even if remote work is not implicitly mentioned in job descriptions, French employers must come up with a good reason to refuse an employee this benefit.<ul><li>United Kingdom</li></ul>The UK’s plans to regulate remote work are not yet clear enough. As reported by The Guardian, the office of the British Prime Minister announced in June 2021 that it plans to adopt specific legislation so that remote work becomes the default option, practically giving employees the right to request it.<ul><li>Iceland</li></ul>As well as Finland and Luxembourg, Iceland has the highest percentage of remote employees on the continent. In other words, over 20% of the employed population are still in jobs that offer the opportunity to work remotely. Therefore, the government of Iceland intends to adopt a hybrid work model plan for the relevant industries by 2022.&nbsp;[<a href="https://pluria.co/blog/how-to-reduce-your-workweek-to-four-days-in-romania">Read more about the 4-day workweek – a pilot program successfully implemented in Iceland</a>.]At the same time, all public service workers will be encouraged to spend up to 20% of their time outside the office. There will also be new rules according to which organizations will buy safe and appropriate equipment for those who choose to work from home.<ul><li>Russia</li></ul>At the moment, Russia is mainly considering providing financial support for remote employees. Therefore, employers have an obligation to provide the equipment and means necessary to fulfil the work tasks properly. At the same time, financial backing may include reimbursement of certain expenses, such as software, ergonomic chairs, and desks.<h3>Which states have already adopted remote work regulations?</h3><ul><li>Portugal</li></ul>Portugal was the first country in Europe to explore a legal regime for teleworking. However, the legal provisions will take effect as long as the state of emergency is considered necessary, respectively by the end of this year.Provisions that have been in force since January 2021 include compulsory remote work and the employer’s duty to provide the equipment necessary to get the job done.Violations of the mentioned normative acts are considered “very serious misconduct” and can attract fines between 2,040 and 61,200 euros, regardless of the size of the company.At the same time, the Portuguese Parliament has recently adopted new provisions, thus introducing additional measures to protect employees working remotely.Therefore, companies should not contact staff outside of working hours, unless there are exceptional circumstances. Also, at least every two months, in order to limit the appearance of isolation, superiors have the obligation to organize face-to-face meetings with the rest of the team.<ul><li>Germany</li></ul>Germany is the only country in Europe that has officially regulated the notion of remote work in the long run. In January last year, it became mandatory for organizations to offer staff the opportunity to work remotely, as long as there are no “compelling operational reasons for not doing so”.Local authorities may contact non-compliant companies in order to explain their reasons for refusing employees this option. An important aspect: the German law on remote work states the obligation of employees to record their work schedule but also clarifies that it is intended as a form of protection for them.<ul><li>Austria</li></ul>A remote working law that took effect in Austria on April 1, 2021, clarified certain issues, such as the definition of remote work. The law also requires employers and employees to negotiate such an option and establishes the arrangements for providing work equipment or compensation payments. Moreover, it allows remote work agreements to be negotiated by union representatives.Thus, if employees use their own devices or internet connection, employers will be obliged to pay a lump sum compensation to cover the necessary costs. Furthermore, remote employees are subject to normal working time laws, including rest periods, and they must record their working hours. Employers and employees may agree to adjust work schedules.In less than two years, remote work has become the “new norm” for millions of Europeans. Most companies would not have survived the effects of the pandemic without the help of online digital infrastructure. Therefore, questions are now being asked about the laws that organizations should abide by when it comes to remote work, given its growing popularity in some industries.

Which European States Want to Officially Adopt Remote Work Regulations

<h3>Covering a perfect match between psychology, journalism, and design, Diana Moldoveanu is passionate and surrounded by "beauty". Feeling the need to create a space that inspires, by also adding a visible and lasting personal touch, she launched DesignTherapy.ro in April 2016.</h3>Her platform includes design and holiday recommendations, including spaces that stimulate creativity. In her project, she often refers to the ambiance and all factors that influence our life quality in general.&nbsp;Diana has experience in workspace organisation, promoting the "office therapy" concept in her work. This is also the reason for inviting her to answer a few questions, being eager to find out more about the office of the future and design trends in 2022.We live in a time in which workspaces need to be reinvented in order to meet current labour market needs. In this context, efficiency and design are two aspects of interest for both employers and those who benefit from the newly reconfigured offices.<h3>1. We have been working remotely for some time, and the future of work seems to be hybrid. Do you think that, with this change, people have become more aware of the importance of creating the right ambiance in their workspace?</h3>Our perception of living and working space has changed radically in the last year. We have certainly become more aware of the importance of workspace ambiance, especially since it is closely related to productivity and creativity.It is difficult to perform task after task when you work on the ironing board or when you set up your office in the bedroom, where the light is not so good for such an activity.&nbsp;I could say that, beyond the ambient, this year also brought us even more attention to the functionality and organization of the workspace.<h3>2. From a psychological point of view, how much does the workspace influence our professional life?</h3>Countless studies confirm what you are asking. From colour psychology, which tells us that a workspace should be chromatically decorated according to the specifics of the business, to feng shui theories.&nbsp;The TruSpace study, conducted two years ago in 16 countries among 7,600 employees, and aimed at measuring the biophilic design impact, showed that people working in spaces that included natural design elements reported 15% better levels of overall welfare. Moreover, employees felt 6% more productive and 15% more creative at work.If the interior office design takes into account aspects such as leisure spaces, social interaction, and private spaces, there will be an improvement regarding concentration, collaboration, confidentiality, and creativity.&nbsp;Another study, this time conducted by Herman Miller, says that when you are distracted from a task, it takes you 23 minutes to reconnect to what you were doing. If you work while your life partner uses the washer or your child turns on Netflix, it is probably hard to stay connected to what you are doing.&nbsp;Moreover, the same study shows that working in a friendly environment improves satisfaction by 50%. Therefore, if you don’t set up a functional and pleasant space, you cannot be productive.<h3>3. More and more companies are offering flexibility to their employees by choosing a hybrid work model. However, this decision also involves rethinking the workspace. How should an office look like to boost our efficiency and productivity?</h3><img src="https://pluriastrapistorage.blob.core.windows.net/strapi/assets/The_office_of_the_future_Office_desk_ideas_in_2022_1024x512_271da908b0.jpg" alt="The office of the future. Office desk ideas in 2022." srcset="https://pluriastrapistorage.blob.core.windows.net/strapi/assets/The_office_of_the_future_Office_desk_ideas_in_2022_1024x512_271da908b0.jpg 1024w" sizes="100vw" width="1024" height="512">Diana Moldovanu says offices in 2022 should have ergonomic chairs, monitor support and natural light.Workspaces are becoming more user-friendly, that is for sure. More and more companies are focusing on design, out-of-the-box perspectives and the integration of leisure and collaborative spaces. On the other hand, we are talking about a different work context, where safety must come first.An office should primarily support the employee's health. I would mention here the technical aspects: sufficient ventilation, natural light, height-adjustable desk, ergonomic chair, and monitor/laptop support.For example, Herman Miller has a chair featured in the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection in New York because of his scientifically proven qualities. The Aeron chair has been produced for decades with high adjustment for any user. In the same family of ergonomic chairs, there is also Cosm, which can be adjusted automatically and is suitable for meeting rooms.&nbsp;Regarding the workspace ambiance, it is ideal for employers to work with a specialist, so that the general design lines and elements, including chromatics, capture the company's culture, to transmit its energy and values. The Zitec or Nestle offices in Bucharest are two suitable examples in this regard.<h3>4. In the workspace reconfiguration, which elements of the “traditional office” structure can be kept, possibly modified, versus which elements will disappear?</h3>If we talk about the classic workspace, not the home office, the individual workspaces will remain. They will not be the ones we are used to though, but rather versatile spaces, which can be shared between colleagues and easily transformed into meeting rooms.&nbsp;On the other hand, organization is essential. In terms of health safety, personal items will be placed in confined spaces to reduce human interaction.Moreover, in the context of hybrid work, the desire of employers to recall their employees to the office will increase. As a result, the office design trends include attractive and high-quality materials that will create a cosy atmosphere. Also, workspaces with lots of natural light, colour accents, and natural plants are essential in new designs.Next year will bring another glorification of the personal touch and gamification elements. Put another way, we will see in the offices many fuss ball tables, climbing walls, basketball hoops- components that have not been taken too seriously in Romania so far although they have long been in the attention of international designers.<h3>5. How does the hygge philosophy translate into interior design? Do you think that the specifics of this style are better suited to the “office of the future”?</h3><img src="https://pluriastrapistorage.blob.core.windows.net/strapi/assets/Hygge_office_design_trend_1024x683_843483e16f.jpg" alt="Hygge office design trend" srcset="https://pluriastrapistorage.blob.core.windows.net/strapi/assets/Hygge_office_design_trend_1024x683_843483e16f.jpg 1024w" sizes="100vw" width="1024" height="683">Hygge means Finding Joy&nbsp;&amp; Magic in the OrdinaryAssociated with the concept of relaxation, tolerance, and gratitude, hygge has long been considered a part of the Danish national culture. Meik Wiking, author of The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets To Happy Living and CEO of the Copenhagen Happiness Research Institute, says that the true essence of hygge is the pursuit of daily happiness.Indeed, the office design trend in 2022 brings elements specific to this philosophy, such as natural light, plants, pastel colours, natural materials, even candles, and aromatherapy.<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/eYdTf7FSi2vBqCejxgqCzcDHGIPtYBVwmGWtbdYMI_L-Z-5eeFtF_W0oz0SyTuBqe-oDBPQK9XhV5s1ccfj4opWpoGFfBooZVWoS-DONSq42OtKfLQrm4Lx083dRRbyxLmah27U" alt="">But hygge is not just about ticking off a list of items but especially about feeling present. This leads to comfort and gratitude.From this perspective, we could say that hygge workspaces are productive, creative, and comfortable. That is exactly what we want from such a space.<h3>6. Following the platform you created, DesignTherapy.ro, the concept of “office therapy” caught my attention. Can you tell us what does it involve?</h3>When I started writing on DesignTherapy.ro, I wanted to have a therapeutic approach to design. In other words, I wanted to talk about how design influences and improves our lives in all its aspects, including our relationships with others.&nbsp;Just as we discussed about the psychological perspective of design earlier. The office has always been an important component of our lives, pre-pandemic.We are currently working remotely or in a hybrid system, but this option existed then only in exceptional cases. Therefore, under the concept of “office therapy”, I have gathered several offices that look spectacular, that practically celebrate the employee and offer him/her the necessary space for development and growth.&nbsp;I am glad that I found such offices in Romania and I hope to resume their presentation soon, since it was interrupted by the pandemic. I will also include coworking spaces, which seem to be a welcome and necessary alternative for those who often work from home. We are social beings and we need human interaction, and diversity.<h3>7. When does our office need “therapy”?</h3>Whenever it doesn’t make us feel creative, productive or comfortable. A quick upgrade, without a large financial investment, can really make a difference.<img src="https://pluriastrapistorage.blob.core.windows.net/strapi/assets/Diana_Moldoveanu_Interview_about_the_office_of_the_future_and_workspace_designs_in_2022_1024x699_59befc49b1.jpg" alt="Diana Moldoveanu Interview about the office of the future and workspace designs in 2022" srcset="https://pluriastrapistorage.blob.core.windows.net/strapi/assets/Diana_Moldoveanu_Interview_about_the_office_of_the_future_and_workspace_designs_in_2022_1024x699_59befc49b1.jpg 1024w" sizes="100vw" width="1024" height="699">Diana Moldoveanu is the founder of DesignTherapy.ro, Business Designer, and PR Strategist. Together with Diana Mihaila (Master Professional Organizer), Alina and Claudiu Ciobanu (media entrepreneurs), she launched a niche publication distributed exclusively online to an audience of over 100,000 people. OrDeLi talks about “Organization. Design. Living”, including workspace design along with products and services that encourage modern and sustainable living.

The Office of The Future and Workspace Design in 2022 [Interview with Diana Moldoveanu, Founder of DesignTherapy.ro]

To take full advantage of the explosion of remote jobs accelerated by the pandemic phenomenon, Spain wants to launch a special visa for digital nomads. The aim is to attract talented people from around the world, increase investments and become an important global business centre.Therefore, under the new “Startup Law”, recently debated in the Spanish Parliament, people working remotely for foreign companies will be able to live in the country without needing a full work visa. At the same time, it’s expected that the new authorization for teleworkers will be officially adopted shortly before the launch of the European ETIAS tourist visa in 2022.<h3>Who can obtain a digital nomad visa in Spain?</h3>The new Spanish authorization for remote workers targets in particular foreign citizens from countries that are not part of the European Economic Area (EEA). On the other hand, people with EU passports or arriving from Schengen countries can work remotely in Spain for a maximum of six months a year without the need for an official registration.Thus, for those arriving from non-EU countries, the new Spanish digital nomad visa will allow candidates to apply if:<ul><li>they are employees of a foreign company&nbsp;</li></ul>or<ul><li>they have an income paid by Spanish organizations, which is 20% lower than the average.</li></ul>Another benefit is that the new digital visa in Spain will also facilitate the process of applying for residence on arrival in the country. Currently, for this procedure, it’s necessary to register with local Government units within 30 days of settling in Spain.The digital nomad visa in Spain will be the perfect choice for those working remotely whether they are self-employed, entrepreneurs or even full-time employees.&nbsp;<h3>What is the application procedure?</h3>As the above-mentioned normative act is still under consideration by the Spanish Parliament, the procedure for obtaining such a visa is not yet clear. However, as the proposed authorization is part of the “Spanish national visa” category, it is very likely that you will have to attend a local consulate or Spanish embassy for registration and then obtain permission to work in the country.<h3>How long does a digital nomad visa last?</h3>The new digital nomad visa in Spain announced by the local authorities will last 1 year. In addition, according to the current proposals, those who are residents will be able to renew it for another 2 years if they continue to meet the necessary requirements.<h3>Can we use a tourist visa to work remotely in Spain?</h3>Most countries, including Spain, do not allow foreigners to work within their borders using a tourist visa. This is also one of the reasons why a special visa was created exclusively for digital nomads. Indeed, before the launch of this project, it was possible to obtain a non-lucrative visa to live in Spain. However, it was concluded that such practices limit the economic activity of workers and do not allow them to find jobs in the country.Moreover, in conformity with the “Startup Law”, newly set up companies can receive various tax benefits in order to encourage young entrepreneurs to relocate to places outside the cities. The main reason: rural development. The lack of employment opportunities in Spanish villages has left many of these places completely depopulated. Currently, these areas are ready to welcome digital nomads <a href="https://pluria.co/blog/5-reasons-why-remote-work-represents-the-future">who come to Spain to enjoy the benefits of remote work</a>.&nbsp;According to the Spanish authorities, the idea of ​​launching the “Startup Law” was also based on the consequences of the 2008 financial crisis. In Spain, there were massive job losses that mainly affected young people, the unemployment rate being over 55% during that period. The recovery also took longer than in most EU countries. Thus, the production basis of the country needed to be changed.Digital nomad or not, if I aroused your interest, find out that the “home of tapas and sangria” has quickly become one of the most popular destinations for digital nomads in Western Europe for several years now.&nbsp;Being a perfect mix between excellent food, year-round sun, and a surprisingly low cost of living, it’s no wonder that a lot of people choose to visit the country located in the Iberian Peninsula. Thus, among the places in Spain where you are most welcome as a digital nomad are Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Valencia, Alicante, Malaga, Tenerife, and last but not least, Granada.The new digital nomad visa launched by the Spanish government will create a new attractive opportunity for remote workers who will be able to experience the national culture while earning a steady income. The new authorization will also simplify the number of formalities required to live and work there.Those who will need a flexible space to work remotely will be able to use the services of Pluria Spain, having the chance to choose the right office for them from the network’s wide range of workspaces.Pluria Spain was launched in September 2021 at the largest conference dedicated to human resources professionals, the HR Innovation Summit.

Spain is Launching a Visa for Digital Nomads from Non-EU Countries

<h3>In general, after graduation, the lives of young graduates enter a new phase, namely finding the right job. Since the job search process can sometimes be quite long, candidates discover many other opportunities, such as internships or volunteering, and often do not know what is best for their career.&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3>Because there are many preconceptions and opinions about each program, it is important to know the differences between internship and volunteering. Therefore, if you are not sure what option to choose, you will find below the main legal characteristics specific to internship/volunteering, so you can make the best decision.<h3>What is the legal framework for volunteering?&nbsp;</h3>Starting 2014, the Romanian law governing volunteer activities considers that volunteering implies „any activity of public interest undertaken in areas such as art and culture, sports and recreation, education and research, employment protection, health, social work, religion, civic activism, human rights, humanitarian and/or philanthropic aid, community development and social development.”The volunteer programs are usually conducted based on a volunteer agreement concluded between the volunteer and the host organization. Furthermore, it must be written and accompanied by a volunteer form and a volunteer protection document.At the same time, the volunteer agreement must contain the following information:<ul><li>identification data of both parties;&nbsp;</li><li>a description of the activities to be performed by the volunteer;</li><li>the time and period in which the activities will take place;</li><li>what rights and obligations both parties have;</li><li>establishing the professional requirements, social skills, development interests, health issues;</li><li>the conditions for terminating the contract.</li></ul>During the period of the volunteering activity, as well as at the end of it, the host organization, at the request of the volunteer, will issue a volunteering certificate to which an activity report is attached.<h3>How can volunteering help you?</h3>In addition to being part of humanitarian projects, discovering your passion or acquiring new knowledge, employers can give additional points to candidates who have volunteer activities in their resume, if two or more candidates who compete for a position get equal scores.&nbsp;Moreover, the law also establishes the fact that volunteer programs are considered professional experience, and NOT seniority in work, if they are related to your graduation degree.As you probably already know, volunteering is not a paid job. In this case, if you are at the beginning of your career, you might be wondering: “why choose volunteer activities if there are other, even paid, programs that can help me gain experience?”.Sure, the list of reasons is much longer, but keep in mind that, according to a study conducted by SEEK Australia, about 95% of employers consider volunteering to be worth as much as a full-time job in a candidate’s resume.&nbsp;<h3>What is the legal framework for an internship?&nbsp;</h3>Law no. 176/2018 allows those with an age of at least 16 years old (in some cases, 15 y.o.) to participate in an internship program within a public institution or private company. The main goal is to strengthen professional skills and abilities for a better adaptation to the practical requirements of the job and to gain experience and seniority in the chosen specialty.Thus, according to this law, internship involves “the specific activity carried out by <a href="https://pluria.co/blog/time-as-a-main-key-performance-indicator-in-remote-work">the intern for a limited period of time within a host organization</a>, who aims to deepen theoretical knowledge, improve practical skills and/or acquire new competencies.”On the other hand, the term “intern” refers to “the person who performs a specific activity based on an internship contract, within the organization, in order to achieve the purpose mentioned above.”An internship program can be carried out for a determined period of 720 hours during no more than 6 months, without being able to be extended later. The intern can work up to 40 hours a week and is not allowed to take extras.The agreement between the intern and the company must be concluded for a determined period. According to this, the intern has the obligation to train professionally and carry out a specific activity for and under the authority of the company. The internship contract will be concluded in writing.If, at the end of the program, the company decides to continue the collaboration with the intern, an employment contract will be needed.&nbsp;Upon completion, it is mandatory though that the intern will be evaluated by the person who guided him/her during the internship. The evaluation report prepared for this purpose must include information, such as: acquired skills, behaviour, if the performance objectives have been achieved, etc.<h3>Should the internship be paid?&nbsp;</h3>Even though there still is confusion about this, according to the law, companies are required to pay their interns with a monthly allowance of at least 50% of the equivalent of the gross minimum monthly wage.&nbsp;In other words, if the gross minimum wage is 2,300 RON in 2021, the allowance of an intern would be at least 1,150 RON. Of course, every company can set up entirely other financial policies. Put another way, an organization can offer 2,000 RON (or more) for an internship allowance, but not less than 1,150 RON.<h3>Do you think that an internship or volunteering program can boost your professional career?</h3>

Internship vs. Volunteering: Legal Aspects

The concept of “working from anywhere” is gaining more and more popularity every day. No wonder since a café or a beach restaurant is certainly a much more attractive environment than an office. The professional life of digital nomads, whether they are bloggers, entrepreneurs, or even full-time employees can successfully combine travelling and job-related tasks.&nbsp;But sometimes, “working solo” can be lonely and sedentary. Thus, if you are looking for a location that offers a stimulating social environment and, at the same time, the possibility to discover new things, Israel has some interesting opportunities for you.&nbsp;Omer Har-shai, a former Israeli digital nomad, has created Gather, a month-long program enabling groups with the same interests to work remotely while experiencing communal kibbutz life and enjoying recreational activities such as work-skills and fitness classes. Etymologically, the word “Kibbutz” means “gathering”, referring to the nature of the new business.&nbsp;“I realized that the kibbutz has everything remote workers need because there are communities where people live, work and play together. Everything is on-premises, such as a dining hall, grocery store, and laundry service. And there is the added value of the natural surroundings and agriculture.”, he said.&nbsp;In December last year, the first group of nomads tried the program created by Omer Har-shai. They were stationed at Kibbutz Kfar Blum from the Jordan Valley. Only 25 people out of several hundred online applicants from North America, Europe and Australia were selected to participate.&nbsp;The kibbutz movement is a uniquely Israeli cooperative living and working model with roots in agriculture. The first kibbutz, Degania, was established near the Sea of Galilee in 1910. Today, more than 120,000 people live on 270 kibbutzim across Israel.The Gather program offers a “digital kibbutz experience”. While participants may also engage in other activities if they wish so, the priority is to complete their work tasks in an unusual and motivational setting.&nbsp;For a fee ranging between $2,000 and $3,000 per month, digital nomads get simple accommodation, coworking spaces, and access to various facilities (swimming pool or tennis courts). Group activities may include hiking, yoga, lectures, and weekend trips to places including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.A third Gather location is planned in the Arava, the Northeastern strip of the Negev desert, where most of Israel’s agricultural activities take place. From an organizational perspective, each location will have a full-time community manager to ensure that everything runs smoothly.&nbsp;In the last years, Israel has been gaining momentum in the tech community and its thriving start-up scene and historically significant coastal cities have sparked interest from the international nomad audience. Therefore, if you think that working remotely from a kibbutz doesn’t represent you, Israel has many other opportunities not to be missed.&nbsp;Boasting a long coastline along the Mediterranean Sea, Israel’s coastal towns offer a laid-back atmosphere in an urban and economically developed setting. Most urban settlements in Israel offer convenient working facilities, a good selection of cafes and coworking spaces. The country does not boast high internet speeds but you will have a decent reliable connection and many free public Wi-Fi hotspots.Apart from Israel’s capital, Jerusalem (one of the most interesting cities in the world culturally), when we talk about working remotely, Tel-Aviv and Haifa are two other locations preferred by digital nomads.Forbes listed Tel-Aviv as one of the world’s six start-ups communities. Vibrant, modern, cosmopolitan, the city was nicknamed “The Mediterranean Manhattan” and “The Miami of The Middle East”. Moreover, Tel-Aviv is one of the first in the world to offer over 80 free public Wi-Fi hotspots across popular locations in the city. At the same time, the city hosts a good selection of working spaces and coffee shops where you can work.&nbsp;Last but not least, Haifa is not necessarily a digital hub itself, but rather a town to explore, which delights with many tourist attractions, including access to a beautiful Mediterranean beach, but also remote working facilities.&nbsp;With almost half of the annual exports from the IT industry, Israel has become one of the key players in the global technology market. The modern society and good weather about nine months a year ensure the Eastern country a safe place on every digital nomad bucket list.

How Israel Encourages Remote Work

<h3>Several studies, including the research of the Australian Government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency, have linked the notion of flexibility with improved productivity and increased revenues.</h3>Prior to this year, companies were slowly making progress. However, the enforced remote working brought on by the pandemic has illustrated that achieving these goals is important, especially in the long term.If your business doesn’t allow you to offer all employees the benefit of working remotely, you will find below a few steps that will help you create a flexible work environment.1. Encourage employee autonomy at workForward-thinking organizations have empowered employees to think creatively and negotiate directly with their teams and leaders for a flexible work arrangement that suit them. This practice starts from the fact that people have a different rhythm of life.At the same time, it would be a good idea to cut out the bureaucracy. As the pandemic took hold, most organizations were forced to abandon pre-existing approval processes for working from home. Many companies have seen the benefits and they will continue this streamlined approach going forward.2. Define clear job performance criteria&nbsp;Having a performance-driven culture will result in successful outcomes. Flex-work employees must know the level of performance expected and what metrics will be used to measure their work.The more information an employee has about the expectations and key performance indicators related to his / her work (KPIs), the more likely he or she is to thrive in a flexible workplace.3. Build accountability in the workplaceKnowing they will be held accountable for the results of their work will motivate employees to apply themselves fully to their tasks, regardless of where their workstations are located.Employees must accept responsibility for their specific jobs and know that others on the team will expect them to accomplish their part productively.4. Encourage and enable team flexibilityBecause the Customer Support department can successfully implement a remote work system, and the Logistics cannot, you should ask each sector of activity to define what a flexible program means to them. Thus, teams will embrace flexibility by creating their own set of rules and ways of working to achieve their goals.For example: meeting-free Mondays, no meetings over lunch or before 9 AM, and so on.Finally, it is all about allowing employees, team leaders and managers to find the right formula for each.In other words, if we are talking about mixed teams (working from office and remotely), in order to be sure that you respect the personal space of your employees, you should also consider the following aspects as well:<ul><li>Ask for attendees’ availability before scheduling meetings (avoid assuming people are free early mornings or late afternoons).</li><li>For virtual meetings, indicate whether the video is on or off.</li><li>Lock in meeting-free periods, such as the lunchtime.</li><li>During office meetings, appoint a moderator to ensure equal voice to all participants, especially those who are not in the room.</li><li>Schedule mainly virtual meetings if one or more team members are working from home.</li></ul>&nbsp;5. Provide technical support&nbsp;For many people, remote work is the main flexible option that suits their needs. During the crisis generated by Covid-19, the organizations supported the employees in the transition process to another working system with funds to set up and run a home office.In the future, make sure that people who choose to work remotely have a proper environment where they can work and have access to best-in-class technology and collaboration tools.By embracing current trends and investing in the right tools and people, you can be ahead of the curve and achieve a thriving flexible work culture that will attract the right job candidates, promote growth and ensure the long-term success of your business. &nbsp;

Workplace Flexibility: 5 Helpful Practices That You Can Use in Your Organization

<h3>The economic development has accelerated technological progress, paving the way for the concept of “remote work” as we know it today.</h3>Since the early 90s, companies such as IBM and AT&amp;T have started offering their employees the opportunity to work remotely on a daily basis.Enjoying a great success, the idea spread rapidly. Later, we also started to use project management tools, providing us a full experience from a teleworking perspective too.Therefore, we can say that the IT &amp; technology field is the “pioneer” of remote work, being the first compatible with this work system.On the other hand, nowadays, due to increasingly diverse procedures, many sectors of activity can choose to work from anywhere.We present you below five companies that choose flexibility. These multinational companies, without being part of “The Big Tech”, want to offer more flexibility to their employees in the future <a href="https://pluria.co/blog/workspaces-in-hybrid-models">by choosing a remote or hybrid model</a>.<h3>1. Deloitte</h3>Deloitte employees will be able to work wherever they want once Covid restrictions are lifted. Compared to others, the company’s staff doesn’t have to work from the office for a minimum number of days a week.About 15.000 Deloitte employees responded to an internal survey about the future of work. As a result, more than 80%&nbsp;of them said they expect to work from the office for two days a week or less.Around 90%&nbsp;of the Deloitte workforce said that “choice” and “flexibility” should be at the heart of how the business operates in the future.According to Deloitte senior partner and chief executive officer Richard Houston, people will have the possibility to choose which work model suits them, precisely in order to balance work and personal life.<h3>2. Generali Group</h3>The Italian insurance company Generali (GASI.MI) is considering a&nbsp;hybrid model for the post-pandemic era, by adopting a work style that enables employees to blend working from different locations: from home, other spaces or at the office.“The model will be hybrid. Our view is (that) a good balance would imply 60% in the office. We also believe that it has to be organized.“, said Philippe Donnet, CEO Generali, in a press statement.Thanks to the “Smart working in work” policy, before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company allowed members of certain departments to work remotely only a few days a week. For example, in France, employees have been able to work for 2/3 days a week since 2016. At the end of 2018, around 31% of employees chose this working method. Smart working has also been extended to the sales network.<h3>3. Ford Motor Company</h3>As CNBC pointed out, Ford broke many barriers, becoming the first automaker to launch a flexible work-from-home plan in the long term. According to official data, around 86.000 employees will be able to choose to work at least partially from home or wherever they want.Basically, the policy is aimed at office workers rather than factory workers whose tasks involve manufacturing. Therefore, the hybrid or remote working model strategy will depend on individual responsibilities.According to a survey conducted at Ford in June 2020, 95% of employees wanted a hybrid work system, while others felt more productive at home. In the future, the company will continue to learn and adapt to the employee needs, as well as to what health officials recommend.<h3>4. British Airways</h3>The UK company will allow its employees to split their working lives between the head office and remote, being another example of a globally renowned company that offers flexible jobs. The company is also considering the sale of its Waterside HQ, located near Heathrow Airport, where 2.000 people worked before the Covid- 19 outbreak.Stuart Kennedy, the airline’s director of staff, stated in an internal message that one of the few positive aspects generated by the pandemic was how well employees managed to cope with remote work.“We’ll want to consider what the ideal office layout for the future will be. Perhaps it’s less fixed desks and more casual meeting areas, and we need to consider colleague wellbeing, too.“, he said.<h3>5. Coca Cola India</h3>According to a new policy launched last year, Coca-Cola India has recently introduced an option for its employees to work remote permanently, even post-pandemic, if their physical presence is not required in the office. This strategy drafted by the beverage company covers the best interest and care of its employees.To emphasize this, the organization provides technical support to employees by sending ergonomic chairs to eligible ones on their request. Coca-Cola will also provide financial aid for installing power backup options like UPS. More than that, to facilitate a smooth workflow, the company will also bear the cost of monthly Wi-Fi subscriptions.On the other hand, employees who choose #workfromhome can receive monetary support to purchase office tables, headsets, lights, a webcam or an external microphone, and why not, coffee or floral arrangements.In the not-too-distant past, the concept of remote work sounded too good to be true. However, due to economic and social changes, an increasing number of companies offer flexible jobs nowadays, even in some fields that we wouldn’t think about initially.

”Good-bye, office!”- Five companies that choose flexibility

<h3>In the last two years, the Covid-19 pandemic and teleworking have generated significant changes, forcing employers around the world to adopt a new working style.</h3>Although initially, the remote work seemed like “unknown territory”, later it triggered strong reactions among people, who started to reconsider aspects such as family, commuting to work, hobbies, etc.Therefore, not everyone is pleased with the 9-to-5 jobs anymore. Thus, most organizations had to find new ways to balance the company’s needs and employee satisfaction. The solution for that: work from anywhere.If so far, the changes have been mostly dictated by the business environment, this time, the “wind of change” comes from the administrative sector, more precisely from Brussels.The European Commission plans to close half of its 50 office buildings located in the capital of Belgium by 2030. At the same time, the EU’s executive branch has made it clear that employees can work remotely after the Covid-19 pandemic ends.In this regard, European Commissioner for Budget and Administration Johannes Hahn stated that the institution is planning to significantly reduce the number of buildings over the next 10 years.Thus, despite closing a great number of buildings, the total space for the European Commission’s offices will only go down 25 percent, from nearly 780,000 to about 580,000 square meters, since the Commission will bring together several directorate-generals, into more spacious buildings.“Like all public and private organizations, we are now looking at the most useful balance between office and home working for the longer term… It’s the new norm. We made surveys and more than 90 percent of our staff is very much in favour of having two to three days per week of teleworking. Our office surfaces will be adapted to the generalized use of teleworking.”, said European Commissioner for Budget and Administration, Johannes Hahn.For an institution that collectively represents the second-largest economy in the world, it is an important shift in policy, while also signaling how much the pandemic has changed the expectations people have from their jobs.The new ideology also underlines the increasing coordination of environmental protection goals with management decisions. Besides that, we’re talking about one of the world’s most powerful institutions.In other words, according to a Commission spokesman, closing part of the buildings will help the administrative authority save money, reduce carbon emissions and work more efficiently.The office reorganization is part of a strategy crafted by the Commission’s Human Resources department with the aim of becoming a more flexible and attractive employer, considering the latest global reactions to remote work.This centralization of offices means that the Commission will need to move some of its departments to new buildings. Brussels’ Northern Quarter was mentioned as one of the options. The Northern Quarter is considered one of Brussels’ greatest failures in urban planning.In the 1960s and 70s, the city council demolished a residential area in order to build a new business district. The current government of the Brussels region has prioritized making the Northern Quarter more lively as well as diversifying the European Quarter, where many EU institutions are currently located, in order to ensure offices are not all clustered there.One of the major European institutions, together with the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, the European Commission has one representative office in each EU country.Main role: to promote the general interest of the EU by proposing and enforcing legislation as well as by implementing policies and the EU budget. The current president, also the 13th in the history of the European Union is Ursula von der Leyen, a former German government minister and physician.According to official data, the institution has around 32 000 permanent and temporary employees working as policy officers, researchers, lawyers and translators.Moreover, not only the European institutions allow public servants to work in a more flexible way. Recently, Malta launched the first remote working policy for civil servants, giving a significant number of workers the opportunity to work away from the office. This decision follows a pilot project that started in 2019 because of the pandemic.While the policy enters into force on October 1, there will be a transition period of 18 months to shift from the existing teleworking system to the new remote working policy.Therefore, employees whose performance and skills in the workplace, as well as the nature of the job, are suitable to be carried out away from the traditional office environment, may request to work fully remote. Thus, according to a Maltese government spokesman, about 6.000 employees are eligible to apply.Teleworking represents our response to the pandemic situation, which also offers the prospect of significant long-term benefits for employee health and productivity. The public and business sectors are both involved in this process and can share experiences, advice, empathize and address challenges for the same purpose.

European Commission to give up office buildings

<h3>One of the main reasons against remote work relates to the fact that it’s more difficult to welcome a new team member, especially a person who is at the beginning of his or her career. It may be easier for much more experienced employees, but in the current situation, there may be some concerns about how to train the new recruit while giving him / her a warm welcome. And, let’s not forget, you need to do this without interacting directly with him / her.</h3>No matter what your role is in your company, you will find below a list of recommendations&nbsp;that will make your work easier when you have to integrate a junior into a team that has adopted the remote model.<h3>1. Send the key information in writing</h3>Of course, each company has its own set of rules, both on interpersonal relationships and technical norms. If issues like the time off and working hours are easier to remember, when it comes to the practical aspects of a job, things are getting a little more complicated. In fact, any job involves a large amount of information at the beginning, which you must get to know soon enough.Organizing an online meeting can be helpful, but not always the right option. When it comes to virtual meetings, unpleasant situations can occur: when scheduled too early, people don’t feel comfortable because they haven’t drunk their coffee yet, the Internet connection is not so good, the working conditions aren’t ideal (there is noise or the delivery company interrupts you right in the middle of your discussion) etc.Based on the principle “Verba volant, scripta manent”, spoken words fly away, but written ones remain. Thus, written communication is the safest option.As long as the specifics of the job allow it, prepare a briefing where the new hire can find all the specifics regarding his / her tasks. This will help him / her to rapidly learn about the allocated job and return to the document when necessary.<h3>2. Use task management applications</h3>In the age of speed, with all kinds of tasks that we have to handle at work or in our private lives, a notebook is not enough for writing what you have to do. “To Do” lists have become so diverse that you often don’t know from where to start.Task management applications can run on both phones and computers and, with their help, you can organize your agenda, set deadlines or priorities.These software solutions are all the more suitable when it comes to newcomers&nbsp;because they allow you to visualize the tasks of each employee. In other words, a person could not claim to have forgotten what he/she has to do.Moreover, some of them offer us the possibility to follow the projects in real-time, which is good if you need to come up with suggestions or make changes.Among the most common application: Any.do, Evernote, ToDoist, Google Keep, Asana, Notion, Trello.<h3>3. Engage other colleagues in the ondboarding process of the newcomer</h3>Naturally, a management position involves a more complex, sometimes even chaotic program. Therefore, it’s easy to understand why you can’t always support the new employees as you would like.&nbsp;In order to optimize the process, you can assign this task to other colleagues. They don’t necessarily have to be senior employees in the traditional sense (ᐩ5 years on the job), but have the level of experience that allows them to understand the new role and offer the right advice.&nbsp;<h3>4. Don’t leave room for interpretations</h3>While having a face-to-face conversation, we can anticipate certain actions only by analyzing the body language of our dialogue partner. On the other hand, when communicating online, direct interaction between participants may be missing, especially when the communication is written.&nbsp;To avoid possible misunderstandings in this case, make it clear to your new employee what you expect from him or her.<h3>5. Create a welcoming atmosphere</h3>For most people, a new job brings many challenges, especially adapting to a new environment. New colleagues, new rules, new tasks… which is why the idea of “comfort” is certainly missing. Therefore, the last thing you want for the new team member is to feel like an “intruder”.This doesn’t mean that you have to organize a welcome flash mob on Zoom but you can use instead a number of properly written messages.For example:✔ (recommended):Hi,My name is … . I’m glad to meet you, at least online for the time being.Welcome to the team and we hope to have together a long collaboration.These are some of your taks to begin with:Task 1Task 2Task 3 etc.For any other questions, do not hesitate to contact me. If I’m not available, you can ask our colleague, .…., on anything related to your job or the company.Have a nice day!X (not recommended):Hi,Today you have to do the following:Task 1Task 2Task 3 etc.Let me know when you finish.<h3>6. Be patient</h3>When it comes to an environment characterized by the achievement of immediate goals, competitiveness, and deadlines, patience becomes an ingredient of endurance that increases the level of happiness in the professional field.Let’s not forget that every manager was a newbie at one point, who also needed time and understanding to get accustomed to his / her new job.Like the recruitment phase, the integration of a newcomer into the team is an important step. It is also essential for the development of future employment relationships. The process can be successfully implemented in the context of remote work by drawing up clear guidelines.&nbsp;

How to Integrate a Junior Employee into Your Remote Team

<h3>If you put your laptop on a stack of books while serving breakfast or complaining about the WiFi connection at the nearby cafe, you are not alone. Since restrictions were put in place to slow the spread of Covid-19, companies have found various ways to allow employees to work remotely.</h3>But for others, remote work is already part of their daily routine. In the Netherlands, many people benefit from the country’s culture of work flexibility.While the percentage of employees working remotely before the pandemic was around 4.7% in UK and 3.6% in US, 14.1% of the Dutch workforce usually worked away from the office.For a long time, the Netherlands “set the tone” for global changes towards remote work, being a benchmark when it comes to implementing this concept.<h3>A culture ready for remote work</h3>The results of a recent US poll suggest that 59% of remote employees would like to continue working this way as much as possible once restrictions on limiting the spread of the Covid-19 virus are fully lifted. Major international companies, including Barclays and Twitter, have already concluded that open space offices can be considered “a thing of the past”, while also planning long-term remote work strategies.According to Aukje Nauta, an organizational psychology professor at the University of Leiden, when we talk about introducing the work-from-anywhere trend, employers could look towards the Netherlands for inspiration, who understand how to successfully implement remote work policies and create virtual offices.Values ​​such as democracy and participation are deeply rooted in the Dutch working culture. In other words, so managers place more trust in their workers than elsewhere in the world.For example, ING (an influential Dutch company based in Amsterdam) is currently running a program so-called “unlimited holidays” for employees, who can take as many days off as they want as long as their work-related tasks do not suffer.On the other hand, there are other important contexts (economic, social, etc.) that enable remote work to grow in the Netherlands.Infrastructure plays an important role, and public and commercial facilities are plentiful. Libraries have been reinvented as modern and comfortable workspaces, while there are a large number of coffee shops that offer remote work facilities.Companies in the Netherlands also took the opportunity to reduce costs and increase productivity. However, their local strict sick pay legislation obliges employers to ensure that their workers have healthy working facilities at home.Furthermore, financially speaking, remote employees benefit from an exclusive bonus for this activity. Dutch civil servants receive over 440 euros/year for work from home. That means about two euros a day to cover their daily expenses: coffee, personal items and energy consumption. Separately, the companies provide them with all the technical conditions necessary for remote work.<h3>More trust in the workplace</h3>Many countries are struggling with a culture of “physical presence.” For example, 83% of UK employees have been pressured at work to “show up” regardless of whether their mental or physical health allows it.Moreover, in US, about 15% of all homes are not connected to a telecommunications network, and one in five employees say they feel guilty when they take days off, worrying that this could make them seem less dedicated to their job.Besides that, the Netherlands offers a mix of modern infrastructure, investment in the digital environment&nbsp;and a culture of trust in people. Thanks to this, the Netherlands is an aspirational archetype in terms of remote work, companies in other countries still have much to understand and adapt for a post-Covid-19 future.According to Dutch psychologist Bart Götte, due to the fact that remote work is present globally, we will emerge from this crisis better digitally prepared, aware that many of us are able to work remotely, with more autonomy and perhaps an aspiration to become more independent.Because of the context created by the pandemic, other countries are in a turbulent learning process, and people are rethinking their old policies, procedures, customs and values. When circumstances change so abruptly, we simply have to learn by doing, which is probably the most important lesson.<h3>The Netherlands ranked the seventh-best country for remote working</h3>In the past year, for most of us “work from anywhere” has become our new way of life. So, it is good to know that the Netherlands is voted one of the top ten countries in the world for remote work.Circleloop has published a list of the top countries when it comes to working remotely. Factors underlying the ranking include internet speed, the average cost of internet services, and the price of renting an apartment.Moreover, in addition to the benefits of internet speed and standard of living, the Dutch were ranked the fifth happiest country in the world according to the world happiness report.Since the beginning of the pandemic, many companies have found that in some cases the complete abandonment of the classic work environment has not been an easy job.With an ideal mix of technology and organizational culture, the Netherlands can be seen as an important player when it comes to remote work.

Remote Work: What Can We Learn from the Dutch Model?

<h3>Some time ago I wrote about a new trend that is gaining momentum both at the European and Western level: the reduction of the working week to four days.</h3>Recently, Iceland has even called this concept a ‘resounding success’, even though only public sector employees participated in the pilot program. Participants said they felt less stressed, which reduced the onset of burnout. Thus, the unions have renegotiated the labor contracts – currently, about 86% of the Icelandic workforce has switched to a shorter schedule.&nbsp;If you find the idea beneficial and you want to permanently implement it at your company’s level, find out that the legislation in Romania gives you this perspective as well.As an employer, the Labor Code gives you the opportunity to opt for a shorter working week.An important aspect: this procedure should not be confused with the temporary reduction of activity, which can only be achieved under certain conditions provided by law that justify the reduction of the work schedule, such as the existence of economic, technological or structural reasons, for periods exceeding 30 working days.In this respect, art.113&nbsp; provides as follows: “the distribution of working time throughout the week is, usually, consistent of 8 hours per day, for 5 days, with two days of rest. Depending on the specifics of the unit or work performed, one can also opt for an unequal distribution of the working time, respecting the normal working time of 40 hours per week.”In other words, if a company wants to introduce the four-day working week, it can resort to the existing legal procedure. At the same time, the employer should not overlook one thing, that the normal duration of work is 40 hours per week, so we will have ten hours of work/day distributed over four days/week.Moreover, according to the law, this new policy regarding the work schedule must be negotiated through the collective labor agreement at the employer’s level. On the other hand, if there is no collective agreement, the employer can establish the measure directly by introducing the reduced working week in the internal regulation established at the company level.In other words, if the introduction into the collective agreement involves negotiations, in the case of the internal regulation we can speak of a unilateral decision.In the same sense, art.116 of the Labor Code: “the concrete way of establishing the unequal work schedule within the 40-hour workweek, as well as within the compressed workweek, will be negotiated through the collective labor agreement at the employer’s level or, in his absence, will be provided for in the internal regulation. Uneven working hours can only function if it is expressly specified in the individual employment contract.”The modification of the individual employment contract involves the conclusion of an addendum with the role of implementing the work schedule adjustment into practice. Generally, this step takes place before the date from which the change will be applied.For example, if as an employer you want to modify the individual employment contracts of your employees in order to implement a reduced work schedule on September 1st, 2021, the addendum mentioned above must be concluded before this date.As a final step, the changes related to the program must also be highlighted by the monthly timesheet, since the Labor Code establishes the employer’s obligation to keep a clear record of the working hours performed daily, highlighting the start and end hours of the program.<a href="https://pluria.co/blog/work-week-4-days/">The benefits of a program reduced to just four days a week</a> are supported by the conclusions of international research. These include: improving health, increasing the motivation and productivity of employees, decreasing the unemployment rate, and possibly, registering smaller amounts of carbon. Moreover, some employees no longer label Monday as “depressing” because they “recharge their batteries” during the week.For example, the UK has adopted the option of a four-day and 32-hour working week, which does not involve a salary reduction. On the other hand, it is only natural that these practices remain open to deliberation and, as interest in the idea continues to enjoy a wave of positive reactions, debates about a reduced working system will frequently arise.&nbsp;It should be noted that the implementation of a shorter workweek can cause certain problems. Concrete example: France. A 35-hour work schedule demonstrated that a global approach is unlikely to suit everyone. There are some areas (health) that have not been able to adapt quickly enough, thus leading to increased work and staff declines.Even in the case of the existing procedure in Romania, a disadvantage can be observed. People have different needs and not all would like to add an extra two hours to the work schedule to earn a day off.&nbsp;&nbsp;The four-day workweek, considered a possible solution to economic problems by important players in the business environment, is a subject that requires a wide analysis before adoption, being a process not without its challenges.

How to Reduce Your Workweek to 4-Days in Romania

<h3>Managers frequently look for different methods to improve employee productivity (including their own). However, most of the time, this concern does not go beyond the training offered by the HR manager. Working in complex organizations involves establishing human relationships, and sometimes they make the difference when it comes to productivity, which, in the context of remote work, has raised many questions.</h3>For example, you can be a real “ninja”, juggling loads of emails, but with the explosion of incoming messages, on Twitter, LinkedIn, Slack, and countless other communication channels, you will never be fast enough to cope with all communications and tasks at the same time.Of course, holding the people responsible accountable is useful to some extent, but the most effective antidote against low productivity must be implemented at the system level, and not individually.If you are an employer, the following tips may be useful to you:<h3>1. Establish a hierarchy</h3>Most companies have set up a functioning system with a clear sequence of “escalation” for all the complications that arise. The first level, employees with an execution role, the next, consisting of team leaders, and finally managers, directors, vice-presidents, and the executive team. Thus, the problems are approached starting with the lowest step.If a decision cannot be made, the problem is practically “elevated” to the next level. This system improves the connection between leadership and front lines, accelerating decision making and, perhaps most importantly, improves productivity since an employee shouldn’t send dozens of messages chaotically whenever he has a question, which is especially useful when it comes to remote work, when the interaction is exclusively carried out online.<h3>2. Make your work “visible”</h3>In the classic version, the office, most of the workload is invisible, buried in many folders on the computer or in the minds of employees. As a result, it is difficult to know what part of the project each person is working on or if they are overloaded and cannot take on other tasks.Management software such as Trello, Asana, Airtable, Zenkit, etc., in which each task is represented by a card that specifies who manages it (and its condition) allows a more balanced distribution of work. It also eliminates “verification” messages, as well as the need to cover this topic in meetings.On the other hand, similarly, establishing “downtime” is equally useful. According to an analysis conducted at Harvard Business School, the implementation of “predictable free time” (for example, afternoons or evenings completely disconnected from any activity related to the job) led to increased productivity and ensuring a balance between private and professional life. In this case, “predictability” has the same purpose as “visibility”, allowing employees to see what colleagues are doing and act accordingly.<h3>3. Set a code for the alarm signal</h3>If you’ve watched Batman, you definitely remember that when there were disagreements, the police would call the superhero, using the image of a bat projected in the night sky. Thus, “the bat signal” was associated with times of crisis – for example, when the Joker was free and terrorized Gotham City.Unfortunately, most organizations do not have a similar way of indicating when a problem turns into a real emergency.Without an agreement on what communication channel is used in such a situation, employees are required to check all instant messaging platforms to ensure that “nothing escapes through the cracks.”This is harmful to productivity. Companies can simplify this if they establish distinct channels for urgent issues from the start and… not so urgent ones. Of course, the protocol itself is also important, but a well-established system is quite essential.<h3>4. Strike a balance between responsibility and authority</h3>The classic scenario: employees are responsible for tasks, but are not given the authority to make certain decisions. This practice leads to frustration, stress, and overwork.The rule is simple: if an employee is responsible for an outcome, he should have the authority to make the appropriate decisions, without being forced into an endless string of attempts to convince that it was necessary to do so.The W.L. Gore &amp; Associates company is a great example of an organization that has implemented this idea. The firm, estimated at $3 billion, largely distributes leadership responsibility throughout the organization, allowing employees to make their own decisions “above the waterline” (i.e., low-risk), only requiring approvals for “afloat” (high-risk) decisions. Gore has spent decades developing and refining culture, systems, and processes to support the organizational structure.Improving productivity at individual level is a “safe” practice that can generate the desired results. However, unless employees work independently outside of an organization in order to have a real impact on performance, there needs to be change at the system level.The question, however, remains: should productivity growth be addressed at the individual or global level?&nbsp;

Productivity Is About the System, Not Just People

<h3>It’s already been a while since Mark Zuckerberg famously announced that half the workforce at Facebook will work remotely in the next 10 years. A lesser known and at the same time less popular aspect of that announcement, is that in return for that “privilege” employees will accept a lower salary.</h3>There’s even more, according to Forbes, 44% of the people who participated in a study on Twitter stated that they would accept a 10% decrease of their salary in exchange for the opportunity to permanently work remotely. This leads both companies and employees to ask themselves, what is the impact that the work from anywhere policy is going to have on them in the future.At the center of the argument, one aspect: geographic location. Usually, highly developed technology hubs justify the high salaries they pay by the high living standards that have to be met in the areas where they have their headquarters. If in the post-Covid world remote work will not lose its glamour, Google maps dependent salaries will become the buzz-word.<h3>Factors that influence salary ranges</h3>In principle, the financial compensation offered by a company to its employees is an act of fairness. Among the elements that are taken into account when establishing the level of the financial compensation one might find:➔ Skills ➔ Education ➔ Demand ➔ LocationBut when it comes to remote work, things get a little bit more complicated both from the employers’ and the employee’s point of view. Whether the geographic location becomes a decisive factor varies according the policy each company decides to apply. The skills, the accumulated experience as well as the ability to clearly communicate with a team should weigh a lot more than geographic location when establishing the salary for a certain position.<h3>Is geographic location that important?</h3>The main reason why geographic location has been included as a variable that decides an employee’s salary is the fact that entrepreneurs want to make sure their employees are able to satisfy their basic needs out of the salaries they receive. In other words, they want to make sure that the employees can survive on the wages they receive. Of course, life in Cluj is a lot more expensive than in Călărași or Piatra-Neamț.Despite all this, placing that much emphasis only on the geographic location to the detriment of the necessary skills can mean giving up on the principle of meritocracy.Let’s take the following example: is a graphic designer living in Ploiesti less capable than a graphic designer living in Bucharest? If they both work remotely and the only difference in their salaries is made by their respective geographic location then we can safely say that there is an inherent problem in using geographic location as a financial differentiator.An employee’s “position on the map” does not have a lot to say about the value that that employee brings to the company. In our example, it’s possible that the employee living in Ploiesti might turn out to be more productive or the quality of their work might be superior even if they both have the same qualifications.There are lots of studies that concluded that people working remotely are more productive. Therefore, should people working remotely be paid more or less than the ones working on site? There is no correct answer or a set precondition. If the remote work trend continues to grow there is a big chance that we might see major changes in the employee payment and reward system. But when it comes to establishing financial compensation, skills and experience should be the deciding factors, not the geographic location.<h3>Remote work ≠ zero costs/expenses</h3>As we’ve already seen in a previous article, one of the advantages of <a href="https://pluria.co/blog/5-reasons-why-remote-work-represents-the-future">remote work is that it allows employees to cut costs</a>. If, as an employee you opt for the WFH regime, your costs will clearly be lower because you will not have to fill the gas tank as often, you will prepare your own lunch and even if you will not always work in pajamas, you will definitely be able to save a lot of money on your office wardrobe.Still, those working remotely do not live like hermits. They behave just like to the rest of the people: they go shopping almost daily, in the morning they ca be found at the closest café and they travel to meet clients or work colleagues, etc. Furthermore, depending on the industry in which they work, they might even have had to acquire specific equipment (new laptop, printer, etc.) that allows them to perform their daily tasks. Also, in most cases, the cost of the internet connection as well as the cost of the electric energy, which are essential to remote work, are paid by the employees.Therefore, even if the person choosing to work from home might significantly reduce their costs, it doesn’t mean that those costs go to zero&nbsp;and therefore, in principle, a reduced salary is not justified.On the other hand, from the point of view of the expenses, remote work doesn’t only benefit the employee. According to Global Workplace Analytics, US companies that implement a remote work policy can save each over 11,000 USD/employee/year.It will be very interesting to see where this trend is going and the impact that working remotely will have on the way we live our lives. But for the moment, as a manager, the only fair option is to value your employee regardless of where they work from.Would you accept to be paid less in exchange of the possibility of permanently working remotely? Please leave us your answer in the comments section.

Should Remote Employees Be Paid Less?

<h3>Living in these rushed times means that you always have to keep moving. Our daily agenda sometimes has an alarming number of tasks, more so than in the past. Therefore it is easy to understand why people are dreaming of a work schedule that would allow them to balance their professional and personal lives, even just a little.</h3>Some companies try to fulfil their dream by testing a shorter work program, from the standard of five days per week to only four working days. The measure helps the employees cope with the stress and also helps them make more time for themselves, which would hopefully lead to an increase in productivity.<h3>But how did the ‘classic’ work program appear?</h3>If sometimes you complain that your life is a total mess and on top of that you also have to deal with 8 hours of stressful work, you should know that in the past people had to deal with up to 18 hours of work per day, literally having to work ‘from morning to evening’.In order to increase productivity, the mandatory working hours in the factories varied between 10 to 18 hours per day, 6 days per week. The workers would then receive low salaries, despite the long working hours and the unsafe working conditions. The first to propose an 8 hour working program was Robert Owen, a British citizen. In 1817, Owen tried unsuccessfully to modify the labour law of Great Britain with the slogan “eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest”.But Henry Ford was the one who took a major step towards the adoption of the 8 hours program. In 1905 he reduced the working hours and doubled the salaries of all his employees. This measure taken by the American industrialist increased productivity to the extent that Ford Motor Company doubled its profit in the next two years. Numerous business men of his day noticed the good results and adopted this new method.However, there is a huge difference between the 1900s and the present. In the first half of the 20th century, the labour market was mainly dominated by industry. Although the manufacturing processes had changed greatly after the Industrial Revolution and had modernized to a certain extent, the central place was still held by manufacture. On the other hand, in the present times, technology follows us everywhere we go, while industrial or business automation helps companies free themselves from the ordeal of repetitive work.<h3>Is the shorter working week already in use?</h3>Up to now, globally, there have been some companies which have allowed their employees to have more free time. For example, Perpetual Guardian, a relatively small company of only 240 employees from New Zealand, has carried out an experiment in which the employees were asked to come to work only four days per week. All in all, the idea proved to be a real success and therefore the policy was made permanent in September 2018.In Europe, the Spanish government is analyzing how to reduce working hours and cut the working week to four days. Any proposal for a change to the working week would be presented by the government within the so-called social dialog framework with labour unions and industry groups.A similar decision was made by ICE Group Ireland. They shortened the work week to four days per week, and soon afterwards they noticed a change in the behaviour of their employees. They became more focused on solving their daily tasks, they took fewer breaks and did not spend too much time on social networks.The above companies are small companies, with only a few employees. But it is also worth mentioning the trial made by Microsoft Japan. The American managers asked their employees to come to work only four days per week. The result was that productivity increased by 40% while they lowered the electricity costs of their offices.Similar measures have been adopted even in Romania. Therefore the marketing agency WebDigital shortened the working week to four days per week for all its employees from no later than 2016. The employees receive their full salary even though they work one day less every week and the results are very good.<h3>What are the advantages?</h3>The idea is that, with this program, the employees would basically receive the same salary as they used to for less working hours, while the additional purchases or staff recruitment, which the company might have to do, would be funded from separate budgets.Putting aside the financial rewards that this measure could bring, the big companies which analyzed it concluded that it is a good measure as the productivity increases and the employees take more care of their mental health. A recent study made in Great Britain showed that a four day working week in the public sector would create half a million job openings which would slow down the unemployment in the next months.European unions in Romania are considering adopting this measure and they have asked for support from Brussels. If they can reach consensus with Brussels, then the measure is likely to be adopted in our country too.The idea of a shorter working week has been around for some time but the ongoing pandemic and its consequences, especially on the economy, have brought back on the agenda the necessity to adopt a new approach to the “traditional” employee-employer relation.What would you do with your extra free day?• Watch TV shows all day long • Take a mini-vacation • Take training or creativity courses

Work week reduced to four days. Is this how the future will look like?

<h3>The global economy has been heavily tested during 2020 and has been changing ever since. However, with time, remote working became well suited to the lifestyle of many of us.</h3>A new trend on the labour market has been recently gaining popularity and that is the so called “surprise day off”, by which the companies hope to build a more flexible and also friendlier relationship with the employees. This “gift” is meant to reward employees for the high amount of work they are doing and for the changes imposed on them during the past year due to the pandemic.<h3>What is the new trend all about?</h3>More and more companies around the world are offering a spontaneous day off. By doing this the companies want to emphasize the fact that they take into consideration the comfort and, most of all, the health of their employees. However, no matter how wonderful this may sound, it might not be that helpful. In other words, a day or even a week away from work might not be enough. Days off do not magically reduce stress and do not instantly solve the problems that get one overwhelmed at their job.What is effective about this measure is the element of surprise because, normally, the company doesn’t have to offer more days off than required by the law. By offering them however, the management shows they care. When people notice these spontaneous gestures, they start believing that the company cares about their needs, even without communicating them directly to the management. These gestures could build a long-term healthy employee-employer relationship, which would at least maintain the well being of the employees.However days off are not helpful to everybody in the same way. People are different, not all the employees love surprises, for certain reasons too. For example parents can get more stressed as they cannot plan a day off on such a short notice. This measure would rather suit single employees who have a ….more casual lifestyle.<h3>USA leads the way</h3>As it is with other modern trends, the initiators of this measure are again the Americans. It all started with the leaders of a company in Georgia conducting employee surveys on how the management could improve their well-being. After they analysed the answers, they offered two additional days off to the entire staff, on two separate Fridays, one in April and the other in July.The model was later copied by other businesses too. Just this year LinkedIn surprised its employees by offering them a paid week off, April 5-12, trying in this way to minimize the risk of employee burnout. Approximately 15.900 employees received the perk.<blockquote>“People were working longer hours, not taking their vacation time and just churning through. We had a successful, productive organisation, but we knew our employees were being burnt out.” said Lisa Finnegan, HR Vice President at LinkedIn.</blockquote>Even the tech giant Google offered their employees two unexpected vacations. Moreover, in November 2020, the CEO of the cash-back app Dosh agreed to offer his employees “long weekends”.<h3>Burnout – the motto of the 21st century</h3>The “burnout” phenomenon, or overworking the employees, has become a frequent problem of the “modern work age”. Too many tasks to do in a very short time, longer working hours, emails to read, WhatsApp messages to check, brainstorming for whatever meeting, remote work during the weekend, all of these are unfortunately well known to the “21st century employee”.According to a study made by CareerBuilder, around 60% of the people surveyed said they felt burned out at their job, while a quarter reported high levels of stress at work. Therefore the HR is constantly preoccupied by the “burnout” phenomenon and the managers are thinking of ways to protect their employees by always looking for solutions adapted to social changes.Many studies clearly reflect the idea that if you get away from work, even for a short period, you improve your ability to handle stress at work. What’s more, when you plan your free time correctly, in other words, when you manage to forget all your troubles, you can engage your creative side which can lead to an increase in productivity.On the other side, the employees have to watch for drawbacks and not let themselves pressured by more overwork just to receive paid days off.Do you think Romanian companies will also reward their employees with surprise days off in the future?

A new concept on the labour market &#8211; surprise days off for employees

<h3>The digital revolution that has been happening in the last year together with the hard stop imposed on the classical, real life interaction between a company and its potential clients or existing business partners has shown just that: “online communication is no piece of cake”. To stay relevant even in times of crisis it takes more than just tossing out the once-a-month post to social media. The necessities created by the new context have led to the current boom in available jobs especially in the creative and the IT industries.</h3>
And because most of these jobs can be done remotely often times the employer states, even from the job posting phase that the new employees will be monitored by means of dedicated software such as TeamViewer. This leads to a situation where it is unclear what a company can and cannot do in terms of employee tracking and monitoring.
<h3>What is a remote employee monitoring software?</h3>
Despite the fact that at the end of the day it should be the results that matter most and not how an employee gets to those results, many companies find managing remote teams very difficult because it means that they cannot directly see what the employees are doing and where exactly they are as it is the case with the classic office space. A remote employee monitoring software comes to do just that.
In principle this type of software records and monitors the employee activity, allowing a company to access in real time, from the company’s office or from anywhere else, information such as: keyboard activity, screenshots of an employee’s screen at random intervals, list of applications accessed and closed, list of websites visited. The solution, software only, can be installed in a couple of minutes and does not require separate hardware. At the same time it represents a very accessible option because its installation and configuration does not require any special knowledge or training. Here is list of some of the most popular employee monitoring software applications: ActivTrak, Time Doctor, TeamViewer, Top Tracker, Workpuls, EmpMonitor, Teramind, etc.
<h3>When is monitoring legal?</h3>
When we talk about monitoring we also talk about a fine balance between an employee’s right to privacy and the legitimate interest of a manager of protecting their business against any malicious action. On the other hand, regardless of the technology that they use, employers must take into account three fundamental aspects:
<ol>
<li>Purpose: &#8211; monitoring must have a specific and legitimate purpose, one that justifies use and processing of employee personal data during the monitoring activities. For example, an employer notices that their employees’ productivity has fallen dramatically and they want to find out the cause of that fall.</li>
<li>Transparency – employees should be informed in clear fashion that they are being monitored by the employer, they should be notified about the purpose of the monitoring and also, about the possible consequences should a breach of internal regulation be found.</li>
<li>Proportionality – employee monitoring should be adequate, relevant, and not excessive in relation to the desired purpose. Companies can track and later retain only data that is strictly necessary to attaining the legitimate purpose according to the nature of the company’s line of business.</li>
</ol>
In other words, the manager has the obligation to inform their employees that monitoring software has been installed on the office desktop computer or on the notebook they are given to from work. Furthermore, when an employee is given a notebook for use for business purposes she/he should be informed that they are not allowed to use that notebook for personal activities.
For example: if you as an employee working remotely receive a notebook or a mobile phone that you will use to perform your work, the company has the right to monitor your activity on these devices but you have to be informed about it before you starting using them and you should also be notified that you cannot use them for personal activities. Employers do not have the right to snoop on your private life by going through your private communications.
<h3>Bărbulescu v. România lawsuit</h3>
Practice should follow the theory and this is exactly what happened in the case analyzed by the European Court of Human Rights. It is the case of a Romanian citizen who was hired by a private company and who was then asked by his employer to create a Yahoo Messenger account that he was to use in order to communicate with the company clients.
After a while, the employer notified the employee that he had been monitored and that it was discovered that he had used the internet connection for private purposes, a fact that went against the internal regulation of the company. The employee denied the accusations and sent the company a letter where he explained that had used the messaging application exclusively for business purposes.
Later, the employee decided to sue the company presenting his case in national courts and alleging that the decision to terminate his contract taken by his employer was against the law and that the employer had breached his right to private life and personal correspondence.
When the ECHR issued a verdict it clearly stated that an employer has the right to monitor their employees in order to find out whether the employees are using the internet connection and the company computer for personal purposes during the working hours. But it also stated that the employer has the obligation to notify the employees that they will be monitored and has to guarantee that employees will be protected against possible abuse.
Therefore, what employees have to remember is that the employer has the right to monitor them to a certain extent, and this is especially true when we talk about big companies. But regardless of whether we talk about a simple time tracking software or full email and phone calls monitoring what is essential is that the employee is notified about them and that the employee privacy is respected.
What is your take on the employer’s right to monitor their remote team?

Is it ok for companies to monitor their remote employees?

<h3>Socio-economic changes occurred in the last year have forced companies to be more flexible and to offer their employees the possibility to work remotely not only as an exception. This approach has created new opportunities especially for those who want to „work and have fun”, that is, employees who can work from anywhere and who can thus visit different locations without this affecting their day-to-day activities at work.</h3>
Consequently, several European countries such as Croatia, the Czech Republic or Germany have launched the so-called „digital nomad visas” aimed at foreign nationals who want to live in those countries and work remotely.
Romania does not want to lag behind and therefore its Parliament is currently preparing a bill that aims to attract specifically this kind of „atypical employees”. The existing fiscal facilities, high speed internet and a low level of expenses are just some of the facilities that our country has to offer.
<h3>Who are the digital nomads?</h3>
Basically, a digital nomad is a person who is not tied to a „physical workplace” because they can successfully combine their day-to-day work tasks with constant moving from one city or country to another&#8230; to wherever their imagination or whim takes them. All you need is a laptop, a mobile phone, a reliable Internet connection and of course, a profession that is suitable to this lifestyle. A very important aspect is that contrary to common perception, „digital nomads” DOES NOT mean only „freelancers” who, given the nature of their activity are their own bosses and in principle work on a project basis. The reality is constantly changing and the pandemic context has shown us precisely that: you can work part-time or even full-time for a big corporation and as long as you perform at your job it doesn’t matter that you don’t like winter in Romania and that you’ve taken your „office” to an exotic destination for two or three months.
Most of the people who were able to adopt this lifestyle have jobs that to not entail manufacturing, being instead part of the ”new industries” such as programming, graphic design, digital marketing such as SEO, PPC, community manager, social media, content writing, etc. There are numerous reasons why somebody might opt for a nomadic lifestyle. Some choose it because they want adventure and a break from the daily routine, others because of the low level of expenses, others just because they want to expand their horizons travelling the world as they work.
<h3>What does the bill propose?</h3>
Romania is taking a big step towards introducing the notion of „digital nomad”: currently the Senate is discussing the draft bill for the amendment of law nr. 194/2002 regarding the status of foreign nationals in Romania. To become law, the bill must first be sanctioned by the Romanian Chamber of Deputies then published in the Monitorul Oficial.
In the bill, the term „digital nomads” is defined as follows:
<blockquote>„foreign nationals working for a company registered outside Romania or who provide services through a company registered by them outside Romania, and who can perform their activities remotely by means of information technology and communication (IT&amp;C) systems”</blockquote>
According to the proposed „plan”, in order for this category of employees to be able to live and travel in Romania while they continue to work remotely for a foreign employer or for their own company registered outside Romania, they will have to apply for a special type of visa. This visa will allow digital nomads to stay in Romania for an initial period of 90 days which can later be extended by requesting a residence permit.
In order to obtain such a document, applicants must request it at the Romanian embassies or consulates from their country of residence. Also, they will have to provide proof of medical insurance, of their living arrangements as well as their criminal record.
One last condition is that digital nomads must earn an income which is at least the medium gross monthly wages in Romania for the last 6 months prior to their request. That value currently stands at approximately 1.125 EUR, the lowest in the European Union.
According to The Digital Nomad Index, Romania ranks third in the world, only after Canada and UK in a top of the most attractive countries to work remotely. Therefore, if the „digital nomads” law is approved, the flexible visa approval process, together with the low level of expenses and the very good quality and speed of the internet connections will constitute the perfect combination of factors allowing Romania to attract as many digital nomads as possible, especially in the IT industry which is currently suffering from a deficit of specialists.
<h3>Will there be any fiscal advantages for the digital nomads?</h3>
In principle, no. Digital nomads will not have a dedicated fiscal system in Romania but the proposed law aims to avoid the double taxation, that is, it will allow digital nomads to avoid paying taxes in both their country and in Romania. Moreover, the law does not discriminate among the different types of digital workers who can apply for such a visa, all workers who can work remotely are eligible.
And because nowadays competition is fierce, companies have adapted rapidly to remote work, have invested in digitalization and with time have noticed that employees are more productive working from home or even from a mountain top. It seems that Romania is picking up on this trend and the law proposal aimed at making life easier for digital nomads might just be the small detail that makes all the difference.
So what do you say, are going to help us with a share?

Digital nomads in Romania: an opportunity created by the remote work trend

<h3>Recently, more and more companies from various fields, including IT, health, and even finance, have reoriented themselves towards the TRaD (telecommuting, remote, and distributed) work model. Due to its rapid adaptability to new technologies, &#8220;remote work&#8221; is beginning to make its &#8220;presence felt&#8221; in other areas as well, such as education, sales, customer relations.</h3>
According to the <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/11/our-work-from-anywhere-future">Harvard Business Review</a>, globally, approximately 40% of the world&#8217;s population works remotely. This phenomenon is on an upward trend and will certainly increase in the coming years.
Such jobs especially facilitate the attraction of people who are part of the &#8220;young generation&#8221;. They appreciate the independence and flexibility of a &#8220;remote job&#8221;. Times change, society&#8217;s behavior changes, and companies have to keep up in order to survive.
An organizational culture based on flexibility, which allows employees to work from wherever they want is fundamental to business. &#8220;Remote work&#8221; is currently considered an important part of business. Although opinions are contradictory about this work model, there are many reasons to the contrary.
<h3>1. Increased productivity</h3>
Numerous analyzes carried out by renowned universities, such as Stanford or even <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/harvard-study-finds-most-workers-would-rather-continue-working-from-home">Harvard</a>, confirm this fact, &#8220;remote employees&#8221; are indeed more productive. On average, a &#8220;virtual employee&#8221; works 4 hours more than those who adopt the classic version and work at the company&#8217;s headquarters. Although it is still a topic debated &#8220;worldwide&#8221;, it seems that the option to prioritize one&#8217;s already ongoing projects, alongside having autonomy over the decisions needed to fulfill the tasks of the position, plus a friendly work environment, led to more enjoyable results in the medium and long term. The notion of a hybrid system, i.e. a mix between days spent at the office and working from home is a concept that many brands should adopt in the future.
<h3>2. Reduced costs</h3>
From the employees&#8217; perspective, those who opt for the remote system have the opportunity to save more. Most of the time, a &#8220;full time&#8221; job at the office involves transportation expenses, food during lunch hour, a certain outfit, which not all companies cover, not even partially. Due to the decision to &#8220;embrace&#8221; remote work, entrepreneurs also enjoy benefits, many brands are practically able to save money, thus lowering business costs, for example, by eliminating utility costs. Additionally, certain companies who are a little &#8220;braver&#8221; have even decided to give up physical offices altogether, saving the cost of rent, thus having the opportunity to redirect those amounts in other areas that benefit the business.
<h3>3. Work-life balance</h3>
Achieving work-life balance is a highly valued and pursued aspect of the “Millennial generation” (those born between 1981 and 1996), which currently accounts for a significant percentage of the labor market. One of the most important benefits we have received due to the context of the pandemic is the balance created between our day job and our personal life. For certain fields that can successfully carry out their activity from the comfort of their own homes, the time gained by eliminating the &#8220;home-office route&#8221;, brought added value in the lives of employees, giving them more time for self-care.
<h3>4. No stress</h3>
The main reason why most employees resign is the stress they experience at work, which can give rise to a worrying phenomenon, &#8220;burnout&#8221;. Studies show that people who work remotely have less stress. The fact that they no longer have to &#8220;deal&#8221; with traffic, meeting after meeting, jobs that often involve responsibilities for two separate positions, and the fact that they can work from a cozy environment determines them to solve tasks while being more relaxed. Due to a low-stress level, those who can &#8220;work from anywhere&#8221; have all the chances to be healthier and fitter.
<h3>5. Efficient recruitment</h3>
Attracting and retaining talent is easier because there are no geographical restrictions, giving managers access to a wide range of potential employees. After all, this is a remote job that should involve the possibility of having a job in another area, without having to move there. So, the recruitment possibilities are more evolved and with no added financial effort, because in principle all you need is an outlet and internet access.
Every year, the number of employees who give up “jobs that require their physical presence” increases and it is certainly a concept that will “take root”.
As an entrepreneur, in order to remain competitive, and at the same time relevant to the current market, you should consider your options concerning moving the company&#8217;s business into the online environment.
Why would you choose the remote working system? You can leave us your answer in the comments below.

5 Reasons Why Remote Work Represents the Future

<h3>The last year has reminded us of an important lesson: life is unpredictable and we cannot be 100% prepared for certain changes, but we can adapt quickly if the situation demands. We have been living in a “new normal” for some time, in which we include the habits we had before the pandemic, and why not, even certain opportunities that can change our lifestyle for the better. At some point, things will return to a balance, but the effects of the changes that have taken effect during the health crisis are already beginning to make their presence known.</h3><h3>Reinventing HR departments</h3>The “Covid-19 problem” did not come alone, as for many companies in Romania and beyond, it also meant an internal crisis. Thus, most looked to HR departments for a “life-saving solution.” Changing work schedules, but also work styles, granting of the technical unemployment, imposed restrictions, introducing Kurzarbeit, internal communication, all “have fallen to” the human resources departments.If until now HR was seen strictly as a support department when changes related to staff occurred, from now on it will also have a transformational role. Organizations have fully understood the importance of the flexibility and adaptability that HR has managed in recent times.<h3>No “9 to 5” schedules</h3>A few years ago, we would not have thought that it was possible to adopt the remote working system, “working from home” was thought of more like a kind of vacation, still, the pandemic turned it into reality. More and more companies are moving to fully remote schedules for some or all of their employees. A “hybrid working model”, i.e. a mixture of remote and office work, is the option most of us want. This balances the obvious benefits of direct human interaction and the promotion of the company’s culture through their physical presence, but also of the familiar workspace for those who can carry out their activity uninterruptedly at home.The key towards success will be the way in which all of these elements will be implemented on paper, and not just in theory, as listening and understanding the needs of employees is the first step in that regard. Moreover, new ways of evaluating employees will be applied, such as “quality over quantity” approaches, their performance being rewarded based on the results they yield, to the detriment of the number of hours they work.<h3>Goodbye bureaucracy</h3>The period of restrictions was a good test, especially for state institutions. At the European level, citizens can solve most of the “problems” they have in relation to the state with a single “click”. In Romania, this is “somewhat more complicated”, sometimes even impossible. Thus, regardless of how public institutions have handled the situation, it has become clear that bureaucracy can be reduced, a large part of state employees can work from home, and that an ICT (Information and Communications Technology) infrastructure is fundamental not only for crises. In the age of speed, it is normal for the interaction with state institutions to gradually take place in an online environment.Recently, we have seen that things are starting to develop in a concrete way, as there is already an institution in the country that has introduced a task management software for their workflow, namely Asana.Such practices can also be introduced in the private sector. All physical interactions between work teams or between members of different departments proved to be easily replaced in the state of emergency, and subsequently in the readiness state. The endless meetings turned into short meetings on Zoom and in some situations just an email.Also with regards to the private sector, constrained by circumstances, companies have experimented this year with the Agile management practices, being forced to test and develop services or products in parallel, to remain active.<h3>Empathy within the manager-employee relationship</h3>Transitioning into a healthy organizational culture, that also corresponds to the new requirements of the labor market, will place an even greater emphasis on “soft” skills, such as empathy, communication, and trust. Although managers said they felt ready for 2020, most needed support to handle the new situation. Therefore, companies will begin to invest in the development of these practices, which aim to help people in management positions to meet the challenges that may arise in their work. Moreover, it is recommended to show empathy towards employees as well.<h3>Employee health will be prioritized</h3>Unfortunately, before the pandemic, there was no talk of the staff’s mental or physical condition. Nowadays, things are different, many employers introducing special medical support packages for employees. We are different, and for those who prefer “belonging to a group”, isolation can cause depression, anxiety, or other unwanted problems. Physical and social distancing has only exacerbated these problems. Companies will more responsibly address benefit packages to include mental health issues.Since last year, the world is still constantly changing, some changes being even welcome. Trends that seemed impossible became a reality, overturning pre-established patterns. Thus, entrepreneurs were “challenged” to formulate business models that fit a reconfigured economic environment.What changes have you noticed?

How has the pandemic changed the labor market

<h3>In addition to its social impact, the current crisis generated by the Covid-19 phenomenon has created numerous changes, especially related to finance and the economy. The business world has not been exempt either, while in the social distancing context “work from home” suddenly turned from a dream into a completely unexpected reality.</h3>Even though initially this represented a challenge for most of us, later on, the perception has changed. Thus, according to a study regarding Romania conducted by <a href="https://www.bcg.com/en-hu/press/31march2021-people-expect-jobs-partly-remote-after-pandemic-ends-global-workforce-study-shows" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Boston Consulting Group (BCG)</a> and BestJobs, approximately 9 out of 10 people stated that the “fully remote” or hybrid work system should continue even after the end of the pandemic.Recently, the <a href="http://legislatie.just.ro/Public/DetaliiDocument/242068" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Romanian Government’s Emergency Ordinance 36/2021</a> was adopted, which includes new guidelines regarding remote work, that are especially relevant for the world of business and which are useful to know regardless of whether you are an employee or an employer.<h3>The definition of remote work has been modified</h3>The concept of “working from home” already existed within our legislation, however, it came to the forefront and grew increasingly popular amid the events of the last year. Hence, remote work is:<blockquote>“A form of work organization through which the employee regularly and voluntarily fulfills the duties specific to his position, occupation or profession in a place other than where the work is organized by the employer, for at least one day a month, [using tools provided] by information and communications technology.”</blockquote>According to the amendments brought by GEO 36/2021, remote work enjoys a much higher degree of flexibility, eliminating the obligation that at least one day per month the employee’s activity be performed in this form. Therefore, “work from home” is now defined as a means by which an employee can perform his duties in a “remote” system, through devices such as PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone, and of course with the help of the internet, not being conditioned by a certain period of time.<h3>Checking up on the remote worker</h3>The new changes also concern the way in which the employer can check if the remote worker fulfills his tasks correctly and on time. Therefore, the legal framework is the following:<blockquote>“The employer is entitled to verify the activity of the employee mainly by using [tools pertaining to] information and communications technology, under the conditions established by the individual employment contract, internal regulations and/or applicable collective labor agreement, in accordance with the law.”</blockquote>The article comes to “shed some light” upon the matter, being extremely useful, because since the beginning of the pandemic there have been various points of view presented on this issue. Basically, the process of verifying employees is not carried out as we have seen in many recruitment ads via video surveillance or recording practices, which also breach GDPR regulations, and make the employee believe that he is… “spied upon”.Among the “safe” options you can use there are: the use of email or various chat applications (WhatsApp, Slack, Telegram, Facebook), the use of services that allow tracking “live” projects, such as Google Drive, calling the employee by phone, and even “visiting” them with the help of Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, etc.The secret of managing “long-distance” labor relations is to establish the type and frequency of communication.<h3>The place of the actual work</h3>In the “classic” regulation regarding remote work, the individual employment contract had to specify the place where the employee will carry out his activity, agreed upon by the parties, that is other than the one organized by the employer.The good news is that, according to the new rules, this obligation has been eliminated, practically as long as you fulfill your duties, you can be at home, in the park, at a coffee place, or, perhaps, at one of the locations provided by us.<h3>Proper training</h3>Lastly, even if remote work does not involve direct contact with other people, the employer must provide the employee with adequate training in the field of workplace health and safety, especially about the use of display screen equipment, whenever necessary, and not only at the beginning of the employment.The new changes are welcome, having the role of further “strengthening” the idea that remote work is a choice that is worthy of the future.Don’t forget, if you liked this article, send it to a friend and subscribe to our newsletter.

New changes related to remote work

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IT-enthusiast, adventurous and nature lover, even remotely, I focus on my work the same way I focus on my passions.

Carmen Petrovici

I have always been passionate about the business world. The process of bringing together people that have never met before to give birth to an idea and grow it to become a global phenomenon is nothing short of a miracle. I always want to be close to those who have the courage, determination and vision to do it.&nbsp;In almost 20 years of work, I never stopped learning. I started with customer care and continued with program and project management, loved to work in business operations and did plenty of people management in all these roles. So I learned a lot about people: what motivates us, how work shapes our lives, what is good leadership, how we create teams that thrive and communities that endure. I realized that no matter how ambitious our goals are, at the end of the day, what is most important is being part of a company that we enjoy working for. And I decided that, wherever I find myself, I want to contribute to this feeling. So here I am, writing about it, hoping to make a difference in how we work.

Andreea Băloi

Young entrepreneur with vision and desire to bring about a change in the society. Passionate about acting and writing. I am focusing on building, I strongly believe in the human potential, I am trying to deeply understand every situation I encounter in a project and to infuse positive energy in each human interaction.

Ana Maria Vâlcu

I believe in the power of human connections and how storytelling can turn strangers into loyal brand advocates. That's why, through my role as Digital Marketing Specialist at Pluria, I develop strategies that speak through valuable content and enable brand development on digital platforms.

Betsy Riatiga

Writing is my second nature, but working from anywhere in the world is probably my first. I explore remote work and the best places to do it, always in search of stories worth telling.

Anca Șerban

Who am I? It’s a philosophical question that we can leave for another time. But, I can tell you what I do and how I am. I’ve been a bilingual freelance writer for a year and a half, I started this journey believing faithfully that words have the power to change everything. Each brand keeps a story and knowing how to tell it is the secret to connecting with communities, at the end of the day words are the bridge between a project and people I write articles, blogs, microblogs, and copies. I’m passionate, enthusiastic, very organized, and curious. I spend my days in a cycle: I research, I write, I edit, I write (again) and between the breaks I prepare many cups of coffee, would you like a cup?&nbsp;

Valeria Uzcategui

Chatty is a freelance writer from Manila. She finds joy in inspiring and educating others through writing. That’s why aside from her job as a language evaluator for local and international students, she spends her leisure time writing about various topics such as lifestyle, technology, and business.

Chatty Garrate

Experienced HR and Communication professional with extensive experience in the banking, IT, and fintech sectors, with experience M&amp;A and a PhD in HR. A former cellist and avid music enthusiast.I’m driven by curiosity and embracing&nbsp;an optimistic approach. I believe that open communication and continuous learning create an environment where everyone feels valued and inspired to reach their full potential. I also strongly believe in a climate of mutual trust where ideas flow. Knowing that daily life can be a dizzying carousel, I strive to find a balance between intensity and fulfillment, without it becoming overwhelming.