I know that it may be easier for us who have been working from home for a while to not understand why it would be so difficult for others but there's many restrictions we may not be aware - or they arise when we are pressured in some way.
For example, I sent a frivolous tweet yesterday saying how we have had virtual and social technologies since the late 90s to deliver training in blended formats (my background is Learning and Development) but many organisations and people chose to stick with traditional formats. It's what they knew, what they accepted, how they were trained, what they (wrongly) believed were the best way to learn (it's been proven that face-to-face facilitator-led training is not the best way to learn). This stuff should NOT have been new to organisations - especially institutions who are responsible for education.
Similarly, this situation is exactly the same for working from home - we had the technologies to be able to do so. Sure, they may have been rudimentary, systems may not have talked to each other - but it was still possible. My "scratching of the head" moment was why business did not take this situation as part of their business continuity planning and 'what if' scenario planning. (As an ex-military person, I spent much of my early working life working on scenario planning and creating contingency action plans for these so when the time did come, they were just immediately put into action). I have found it quite surprising that the majority of business are only just NOW thinking of remote working because they were pushed into it by the virus. It's a pity that they didn't anticipate the scenario.
Having said that, you can't always anticipate everything when it comes from remote working from home.
An example is that as some institutions and businesses are now moving their stuff online and working from home, there's NEW considerations they may have never thought about.
Eg. access to technology for everyone (equally); laying off people - especially those who may not have full time or contracts; cost of utilities;
Are there any others?
I had an interesting on this morning. An educational institution said they couldn't deliver on two modules because they were run by an external facilitator who refused to deliver in an online format because then, the IP will be held within the University - and not the originator. That is, the moment their content is delivered online (and recorded), it then becomes the property of the university. To me, this also shows that remote delivery of work across different media will mean that it affects legal issues too that need to be considered.
I'm wondering if other people have also come across situations that are 'stand outs/out of the ordinary" that are just curly because they're not as "clear cut" because we, as knowledge workers, find working from home so much easier than others. However, there may be industries, professions and jobs that bring up completely new and complex issues we may not have thought about??
