Trabajo en casa : percepciones de los trabajadores del call center Konecta del Municipio de Itagüí, Antioquia

Abstract

Pandemics have appeared throughout all human history. Currently, the world is going through one with high fatality rates: COVID-19. In Colombia and Antioquia, the first cases of contagion occurred in the first quarter of the year. By national policies, in order to mitigate the spread, the measure of mandatory confinement in the national territory is taken. This is an unknown scenario for the country and organizations. The technological advances available led by the International Labor Organization (ILO) recommend the adoption of strategies for making work more flexible, suggesting companies to migrate their employees to work at home. This is the case of the Konecta Company, which moved 90% of its DIRECTV employees to this modality in their different positions: coordinators, supervisors, advisers, trainers and experienced technicians. The objective of this research is, describe the effects of work at home on the Konecta call center workers, specifically those who provide support to the DIRECTV service. Within the framework of conceptual references, the concepts of work, telework and labor flexibility were addressed. The research study method is explorative and qualitative. As a result, it was possible to analyze the aspects generated by the current working conditions, finding a high favorability in this modality, mainly by the protection feeling by the company's decision to send them home as a prevention measure. In addition, the commitment to sustaining work performance is highlighted and other factors like savings in travel times to the headquarters, which allows them to invest more time in family and personal activities. However, the impact of excess work at home by those who occupy leading administrative roles and operations coordinators was visible; Difficulty issues in the technical solution of incidents and infrastructure, there were not the adequate tools for the development of the work, such as chairs, desks and footrests. It was concluded that the favorability for work at home was 93%, despite the fact that in terms of well-being it had a 70% approval because the absence of activities that could not be supplied and the absence of safety conditions and health at work associated with issues of active breaks and ergonomic conditions. Finally, it is recommended that the company review the possibility of regulating telework and mixed work modalities, classifying and assigning personal interest; likewise, workers with family, psychological or other problems caused by these new conditions return to the presence. Further, it would be necessary to redesign the wellness and OSH plans, adjusting them to this new modality, in order to provide the appropriate physical elements for carrying out the work: chairs, footrests, tables; review the capacity of the technology and technical support areas to speed up the resolution of incidents and, finally, carry out programs to restrict agendas and responsibilities outside of working hours, due the impact on the personal lives of workers, mainly the administrative staff.