Employees should be encouraged to return to the office as remote work options cut down consumption and slow down the economy, a member of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) said.
In a televised public briefing, PSAC Lead for Jobs and Go Negosyo founder Jose Ma. “Joey” Concepcion III said he had mixed views on having work-from-home or remote job options following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Kasi kapag work-from-home tayo, anong mangyayari sa Pilipinas. There will be less mobility. If there is less mobility, there is less consumption,” said Concepcion.
“Iyong work-from-home, okay lang iyan sa pandemya, pero sa panahon natin ngayon, wala namang pandemic eh. So dapat tuluy-tuloy ang (we should continue the) encouragement to work-from-office para may disiplina rin (so there would also be discipline),” he added.
“remote work options cut down consumption and slow down the economy” seems to translate to “remote work options reduce how much you have to spend each day, and that is impacting how much money the businesses we actually care about are making.”
Considering na a big chunk of our economy is informal I hate that he has a point
I’m bias on this since I’m WFH but here is my take on the word for discipline it can mean a lot for each person. It could mean a good employee or a devout catholic. I think a person can be a good employee either his out of office or in the office. But I think what he really means by discipline is in terms of control, he wants to control movement and actions of the employee. I probably would not want to work with this guy he has that typical middle management vibes. But in the case for WFH he does have a point it will slowdown economic activities that is within economic zones. E.g. Makati Central Business District. Landlords will be also losing money for those empty buildings. Because it was not built to work with WFH situation. But I think this is just a transition. The people who WFH will likely now invest within their local communities. People would be going back to their provinces. This declutter cities and reduce traffic. I think current empty offices should be converted to cheap apartments. This in turn makes apartments affordable for the lower end.
Same sentiments except I don’t worry about landlords, especially kung corporate entities. They’ll survive. Laki ng resources. Kahit yung mga small-time condo owners na bumili ng units to rent out to workers from malalayong lugar, asset pa din yung unit nila kahit empty. Alam nila yan nung binili nila. Hopefully nga this will lower the rent in the area. I can’t say for sure kasi wala naman tayo data.
Ang problem ko talaga ay gumagawa ng proposal o plano without presenting data. Sure ba sya na ang dahilan ay yung wfh, or something else like online commerce? Sana may data sya para maidentify nya yung mga industries affected at gumawa ng plans specific to those.
(Aside: naimagine ko sarili ko as anak ni JoeCons, at pagkagradweyt ko susulat ako ng isang speech entitled “Sana di na lang ako pinanganak”. Tapos irereveal ko how bad my parents are, na puro focus sa performance, sa bottom line and I feel I’m not good enough. Dahil dun, home isn’t a safe space for me. And I’m not going to make it a safe space din for my parents kaya lagi ko sila inaaway. Kaya mas gusto nila mag work sa office.)
