IT pros struggling with sudden shift to home working

Early TechBeat results indicate minor gripes with remote working experience
Pro
(Image: Stockfresh)

16 April 2020

The majority of Irish IT professionals are currently working from home, amid the Covid-19 emergency measures.

While this is no surprise, the vast majority are not accustomed to working from home for more than the occasional day here or there. Furthermore, the majority (57%) are doing so on Internet connections of 100Mb/s or less.

These are some of the early results from the TechBeat survey, in association with eir Business, on the current home and remote working situation.

Other points of note from the early indicators are that while many are having trouble avoiding distractions and maintaining focus, many more have said that the current work from home situation would be fine had they had the time to prepare properly by having the right equipment, such as screen, keyboard and mouse. Interestingly, few said that they lacked a suitable machine with which to work.

Many respondents have said that coordinated hours is a challenge. They have reported issues with ensuring that co-workers are available at the same times during the day to ensure responsiveness.

Intriguingly, another common complaint is a lack of suitable workspace at home. As many households are now hosting two, or more, homeworking individuals, even those who may have had a dedicated space are finding that they are also using a spare room, the couch or the kitchen table. This is proving less than ideal for whomever draws the short straw.

Thus far, there is an even split between those who have said that they have varied their working hours while working from home and those who have not.

The survey is still open, and the results will build a picture of how Irish IT professionals are coping with the current public health restrictions. With the work of IT teams being critical to supporting the efforts of many organisations to continue to facilitate operations and users at this difficult time, it is important to document the successes, or otherwise, to ensure that lessons can be learned.

The current restrictions will not last forever, but some form of restriction and social distancing is likely to be a factor in society and business for some time to come.

This TechBeat survey will establish a baseline on the remote and home working experience for Irish IT professionals in difficult times. Future runs of the survey will build on the core statistics while further investigating the evolving experience.

Go to techpro.ie/survey to give us your experiences and insights to contribute to a detailed picture.

TechCentral Reporters

Read More:


Back to Top ↑

TechCentral.ie