Sure, some Filipinos can work from home. But the vast majority of them can’t. This is not to mention the fact that most Filipino bosses can’t even wrap their heads around the notion. Even in the First World, mentioning the term “working from home” is accompanied by the quotation marks double finger gesture along with a wink-wink.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer today, surprise-surprise, came out with a fluff piece (its top editorial story no less) praising the “wise advice” of “vice president” Leni Robredo to high heavens for her groundbreaking recommendation that Filipinos work from home in these times of shrill pandemic panic attacks. It was made out to be a key “social distancing” measure that could contribute to mitigating the spread of disease like, in this current instance, COVID-19.
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This is, of course, a good idea — one that is entrenched in the business continuity plans of most half-decent business organisations. However, discounting for a moment the need for fast and reliable Internet, there are other measures required to safely work from home. Ergonomic workstations are key — seats designed to provide adequate support over the average eight-hour workday, desks that adjust to the right height to prevent prolonged stress on joints, and monitors that could be adjusted to reduce eye strain. In the spirit of the Philippines’ renowned pwede-na-yan mentality, far lower standards to these setups would arguably suffice, to be fair. However, even under the most ideal conditions, one cannot expect a “work-from-home” person to be as productive as their on-site colleague.
The fact is, working from home productively requires expensive facilities and access to infrastructure beyond the reach of even the average Filipino white collar worker. This brings us to the most important point. Working from home (WFH) is a nice and peachy notion if you are a chi chi amoy bagong paligo Katipunero or Dilimanero who drives daddy’s car to the office in Makati. But is this chi chi clique of Leninistas representative of the broader Filipino workforce? I don’t think the average Diliman activist would agree.
The way the Opposition are positioning Robredo’s most recent work-from-home brainwave as the greatest thing since the invention of sliced bread is, in essence, dishonest. Fact check right there folks: working from home is not an option for the average Filipino worker. The Inquirer Editor, for her part, should be ashamed of herself issuing such a bald misguidance to her readership and the Opposition need to go back to the drawing board to cook up another PR campaign for their “vice president”.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Well, the well-off Filipinos who have an Office or Online Job will be fine because they have job security or are self-employed, those who are Physical Laborers/Blue Collar Workers are screwed, so good job at dispensing worthless and obvious advise, it’s the same as that opportunist Hontiveros whose aiming for the top spot in 2022, to be castigating the Government like the Political Viper that she is while yapping that she could stop the virus and enjoying the limelight, I might applaud her for helping that whistleblower blow the lid of the BI scandal, but she’s an utter snake.
The Inquirer news media is a propaganda media of the Aquino Cojuangco political axis ; the Liberal Party; the oligarchs; the CPP/NPA; the leftist front organizations , and other opposition alliances.
Work at home, is an office work…some jobs require manual work, some of technical expertise with manual dexterity…Surgeons , doctors and nurses cannot work at home…
So, the information of Lugaw Robredo, to make us all “work at home”, is a stupid information and brainless idea. And this idea/information is being cheered by his “cheering squads”, like the “Inquirer”…how stupid can these people be ?
No wonder, Lugaw Robredo , flunked her Law Bar Exams three times…she cannot think rationally; no practical thinking, and utterly no common sense !
Leni was illegally installed by her party mates and the lugaw brigade because they believed that she was capable. She remains in that august VP position because the people other than her deceitful party mates and paid for lugaw brigade support allowed her to remain in office; despite being accused of stealing the election, and showing nothing to prove that she did not, she is serving sadly sans sense of decency. And these people other than Leni’s party mates and the lugaw brigade are helpless. They can only protest but not heard. Is it surprising that she can spew just about any garbage out of her ignorant mouth because she can? She is the VP, after all, made official by the Republic of the Philippines. Yes. Steal the election and serve. Leni is happily having her cake and eating it, too.
DOESN’T THE PHILIPPINES HAVE INTERNET benign0?!?!?!
HOW ABOUT EMAIL?!?! or *GASP* the Phone!
Majority of white collar work can be done from home. And most people who do have cars do white collar work. benign0 ONCE AGAIN prevents the modernization of the country by POO-POO-ing new ideas because its from the west.
That is because he is in love with oppressive regimes like China. While living in Australia where they do have work from home. He basically wants a return to MARTIAL LAW so that everyone is oppressed and inefficient. More for me and not for Thee right benign0.
Good day! It is exactly what we feed our active consciousness that creates our reality. Consciousness is both subjective and objective. What we think becomes our reality through active confirmation of what we perceive even subconsciously. Are we under a zombie attack already and an antidote vaccine is much needed? Do we entertain the idea that there is a sequel to every horror movie, film, or story? I don’t watch terrible movies because I already receive multiple consciousnesses everyday as I filter every nugget of negative emotions. Toxic people around us are easy to avoid and leave out unless we choose not to. But if our consciousness is strong, we can create a positive reality on our own up against other opposing consciousnesses. Bit by bit, we can build our reality and its immensity requires correlatively tremendous efforts, time, prayers or perseverance. The question is: How many consciousnesses have a similar intention like ours? Only through fasting and prayer can we move mountains. Yet, if we cannot fast, what temperance, habits, and conscious ideas can replace it then? Let us think well so we can live well, Socrates once said. God bless! Godspeed!
Work from home… sounds good. Even better if one can work from anywhere. Doing what really matters. Concrete jungles are really ugly. Greedy needs the crowd.