Work from home during the Pandemic in South Korea

Robert Kelly is an American political science professor at Pusan National University. His most interesting achievement is not an impressive professor but his interview that went viral which was interrupted by his adorable family on BBC World News in 2017. This video captured hearts all over the world and make many netizens to understand how difficult it is to work from home, especially with young kids. Espacilly now, most employees are working from home due to the COVID-19 outbreak in the community.

Robert Kelly and his family have been interviewed by BBC World News online recently to discuss the daily lives in Busan with kids and the situation of working from home at the moment. Also, Robert pointed out the importance of understanding pandemic could lead to better anti-epidemic measurements.

As they are staying in Busan, South Korea, where the Government has been taken prevention action for the coronavirus outbreak since Janurary. Jung-a Kim, wife of Robert, mentioned that it was hard to stay home with kids for such a long period of time. Luckily, they could bring kids to countryside which is away from crowded and enjoy the natural environment.

As an employee, Robert agreed that working from home is a transformation of way to work and it is a tough time for employees with kids. He works about two hours a day because kids are always grabbing attention from their parents, which make parents cannot focus on their own work. It is getting better that they can bring kids out to use up some of their energy recently, but not at the three weeks time when the Government lockdown some of the cities. It is definitely a challenge for parents who have to work from home.

Besides, the South Korea Government adopts measures to prevent community outbreak which a lot of westerners would see as extreme, such as the Government can track everyone’s movement. Yet, Robert claimed that is a successful policy to control the number of risky carrier of virus, Moreover, South Korean are self-disciplined to keep distance in public rather than get involved in crowded places like American. Therefore, the cases have dropped sharply in South Korea like only hundreds of that recently.

Moreover, Robert agrees with the understanding of pandemic could affect how countries treat coronavirus. He thinks South Korea could respond to COVID-19 shortly because they have experienced MERS and SARS before. Many scenarios that the Government and citizens are expected to be happened again and they are alert with personal hygiene once COVID-19 occurred there. On the other hand, there are some infrastructures and anti-pandemic equipment left over from previous epidemic outbreak which could help in testing or control the infection of COVID-19. As a result, South Korea is able to slow down the rate of infection though there are still rising number of cases.

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https://youtu.be/5IuK-4rALSU

#Korea #WorkFromHome #Coronavirus

#Newspaper

Macquarie Surrenders Office Space in Hong Kong’s IFC Building

//The Sydney-based investment bank will surrender 13 suites on the building’s 20th floor before the end of September, documents lodged with the Land Registry show. It will retain its other three entire floors and the rest of its space on the 20th floor, the documents show.

//Finance firms around the world are considering trimming their office needs after seeing how their staff have functioned working from home during the coronavirus shutdowns. The issue is particularly acute in Hong Kong -- the world’s most expensive prime office market according to CBRE Inc. -- with the city also being rocked anew by protests over China’s imposition of national security laws.

//“There is now a revisiting of portfolios globally to understand how we can use real estate more efficiently and how does work-from-home play into that mix,” said Dieter Kursietis, a consulting director at architecture firm Gensler. “A lot of organizations are looking at how they can consolidate and reduce real estate.”

Full article: Bloomberg, (03-Jun)

#RealEstate #OfficeSpace #Economy #WorkFromHome #Coronavirus