The pandemic has changed how we live and work, and while some might be enjoying the work-from-home routine, there are downsides.
It is now roughly a year and six months since China first reported a small number of cases of Covid-19 in Wuhan. How very long ago that feels.
How did the channel respond? Some channel players have made a lot of money, at least in the UK, and a report says the average margins paid to IT suppliers during the pandemic were up to five times higher than just before it. Part of the story is there was a break in the global supply chain, and one from which many in the channel have not recovered. This is true all over the world, but particularly for countries that are off the beaten track.
This, in turn, led to panic buying. MSP Probrand told the UK’s The Register that it had analysed $6.6 million in hardware bought by businesses in the three months before the pandemic began, and then compared these to the rest of the year. It found the average margin was at just over 50% during the pandemic, compared to 9.4% in the period before.
One example given is a Logitech wireless mouse and keyboard that cost the supplier roughly R270, and that was sold to the government for over R2 000. This, at least, should come as no surprise to South Africans, with the seemingly daily news of public sector impropriety. I wonder when a similar study will be carried out here?
In that year and six months, what have you learned? Has your workload increased, and what kind of support have you received from your firm?
The World Health Organisation reports that working long hours is killing hundreds of thousands of people a year through stroke and heart diseases. WHO and the International Labour Organisation say that in 2016, about 745 000 people died as a result of working at least 55 hours a week.
Quoting from the report, CNN said on May 17 that most of the deaths were recorded among those aged 60 to 79, and who had worked at least 55 hours a week between the ages of 45 and 74. Most were men, accounting for 72% of deaths, it said.
WHO says the longer working hours will have two effects, the first of which is that working too long can trigger a physiological response in the cardiovascular system, as well as lesions. The other effect will be seen through a rise in self-harming behaviour, such as a poor diet, lack of exercise, poor sleep, and more smoking and drinking.
And this was true before the pandemic. NordVPN said it had done a survey among people now working from home in the UK, Austria, Canada and the US, which showed they’re working an average of two-and-a-half hours more each day. As the WHO director-general puts it, teleworking has become the norm, ‘often blurring the boundaries between home and work’. Does that sound familiar?
A battlefield
WHO formally recognised burnout syndrome in 2019, but only as something brought on by an occupation, and not as a medical condition.
According to The New Yorker, the term ‘burnout’ was coined by Herbert Freudenberger, who escaped from Nazi Germany and moved to the US. He started a free clinic in New York in the ‘70s, and worked there after he had finished his dayjob. It wasn’t long before he was burned out. The term has since spread to all facets of US life and business, but again, this was long before the pandemic. The New Yorker says burnout is a combat metaphor, and since at least the time of Reagan, work has for some people come to feel like a battlefield.
Gartner, for its part, said in a blog from January that technology workers have been thrust into the spotlight, but these overstretched employees are at risk of stress, and, yes, burnout.
What can be done? O’Donohue says leaders, managers and employees need to take stock of themselves and others, and pay attention to, among other things, a feeling of depletion or exhaustion, reduced professional efficacy, poor sleep, disillusionment about work, or headaches or stomach or bowel problems. Now do any of those sound familiar?