Since the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared coronavirus a pandemic, many countries around the world were quick to impose confinement on their citizens, with some even considering its extension to above a month as a precautionary measure. Obviously, this situation is having a considerable impact on jobs around the world. While many professionals have switched to remote working, depending on their sector, in order to ensure continuity of services, others are currently unsure about their future. Here are some testimonials from four professionals working in different countries.
While a lot of people have switched to remote working, this arrangement is easier for some than others. For example, Paul is a British conversation teacher in Indonesia and in his line of work, working from home is not exactly the easiest thing. "I work as a conversation teacher so, as you can imagine, that's not an easy task from home with no proper facilities and not very much co-operation from schools, not because they're being stroppy, more because they're all running around like crazy trying to sort everything out." For Belgian expat in Ghana, Philippe working from home is not even an option. Working on a big civil work project, he has no choice but to go to on-site every day, despite this global health crisis. "The risk is real but if you respect the sanitary conditions, and with an average temperature of 30°C, none of us is ill". Philippe is more concerned about his family than himself. His house and his office are sterilised daily with a mix of bleach water. Ghana just went under total lockdown for two weeks; however permits have been granted to those who need to go to their place of work.
While working under these conditions might be complicated, other expat are risking their jobs with the current situation. Paul, himself, is not sure he will be able to go back to work when schools start again. "As the lockdown is expected to last far longer than first thought, it's possible contracts will be terminated and my job will go. However, I'm in the happy position of not caring about cash, so it doesn't much matter if it happens". According to Paul, schools are not really expected back until the new school year – many have already extended for another two weeks – that meaning the likelihood of contracts being terminated are fair to good. "That will leave expats on company KITAS in difficult positions". Same goes for Bryan, a South African expatriate in Thailand. Bryan is an ESL teacher who just started his new professional adventure in the country. "Due to schools being closed, I only got paid for three weeks of work and now in a tight spot. I am on my PC every day applying for online teaching positions but I assume everyone is doing the same and making it extremely difficult for someone like me with little experience trying to start anew".
In general, and except for a few sectors, expats and everyone else are in limbo with regards to their jobs.Frank, who lives in Germany, has just joined a new job and is currently on probation. "My company sent us on home office early on (where, due to school closures, two bored kids prevent productive work). My industry, industrial machinery and facilities, will certainly see a huge drop in turnover". While instructions were given for remote working, the company figured that some presence in the company is needed, so they retracted for some functions. "They also said no visit to customers, although the projects there were supposed to continue, and later retracted to "only essential visits. Then there came several requests to analyse potential project delays, upcoming supplier bills and similar events that influence the company's cashflow. And just a few days ago, they announced that they applied for reduced working hours (this has to be approved by the authorities), but did not say when and to which functions this will apply. This all shows they are overwhelmed by the situation and needed a few iterations to come up with a workable plan – and have probably not found one yet. Thankfully, we are financially well-sorted, my wife works in the medical technology industry (which means safe job, especially now) and she earns well. So if I'm laid off and cannot find another job, which is likely, I'd just spend time doing other things like renovating our house and volunteering. However, this cannot go on forever". He agrees, however, that many other people are in a worse situation.
