As the still rampaging coronavirus pandemic persists, compelling companies to consider and increasingly, implement work-from-home policies, rich countries are, in more ways than one, reaping the benefits of their technological advancement.
No less than anywhere in the developed world, poor countries like Guyana are seeking to put makeshift mechanisms in place to ensure that as far as possible, they maintain a modicum of normalcy in what is a decidedly abnormal situation. One such way is to seek to put temporary mechanisms in place to ensure that critical workplaces continue to provide services and the closure of schools notwithstanding, that some measure of home schooling is put in place. In this regard, developing and underdeveloped countries are still being left far behind by so called ‘First World’ countries in their efforts to ensure that vital services do not collapse completely.
As the need for technological support to sustain some measure of workplace normalcy and education delivery grows more evident, the superiority of rich countries is being underscored in no uncertain terms. Last month, Google and Microsoft were named among the international tech giants that have been offering enhanced free teleconferencing tools to their clients to help make it easier for employees to work from home.
For big businesses increasingly seeking to create efficient, image-building, work-from-home arrangements, which reflect their mindfulness of their employees’ welfare, the offers by the tech giants are a godsend. Some companies are reportedly working with the tech giants to duplicate office technology and appurtenances including computer, email, phone conferencing and access to internal networks, all tools that employees need in order to be part of an effective work-from-home regimen. Both Google and Microsoft are reported as saying that they will grant clients access to their sophisticated teleconferencing and collaboration inventories that are customarily available to “enterprise customers” to make an efficient work-from-home regimen possible for a limited time.
By comparison, work-from-home systems in poor countries are solely lacking in the technological tools to make those systems work with anything resembling high levels of efficiency, so that entities that have sought to implement such systems are already discovering that they are not coming remotely close to living up to expectations.
