This week in Germany, the Minister of Labor (Heil, SPD) brought up this new agenda item for discussion.
Since Covid-19 has been around....a fair number of Germans have done home-office routines. The Ministry of Labor wants to take this idea to the next level....even after Covid-19 goes away....they'd like the option of 24 days a year of home-office to exist....where possible.
So, you sit and ponder upon this.
No one can say with any factual data....how many Germans actually did home-office since March. There are estimates, but it's nearly impossible to find statistical data that you can trust.
Then you come to the issue.....if you lined up the 300 top career fields or job situations....how many really fit into home-office routines? Maybe ten-percent? Maybe twenty-five percent?
This is like the idea of teaching via zoom, with the kids at home, and the teacher trying to run a class via home-office strategy. Most will now say that it marginally works and is not a great long-term idea.
Even in the case of my wife (a German office-worker)....she'd say that a day a week might work but it's only productive if the home environment is quiet and without bothersome details.
Trying to mandate the 24 days? That's likely to be a doomed idea. Maybe offering a tax credit for companies and people....if they spent money on things to make it successful....this might be the full extent of what the govenrnment could do.
Update: 10 Oct 2020. I noted last night....ARD said in a factual statement that around 13-million Germans did 'some' home-office days since day one. I don't have any reason to doubt the number. But it's curious about the other 70-odd million residents of the country.....they weren't able or capable of doing home-office.
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