The Malaysian Insight

EMPLOYERS are forcing their staff to come to the office despite a government directive to increase the work-from-home (WFH) numbers under the stricter movement control order (MCO 3.0).

Employees who spoke to The Malaysian Insight said their pleas to be allowed to WFH have fallen on deaf ears, adding they were worried about increased exposure to Covid-19, which is now spreading in the community.

“All that I do in the office can be done at home. It’s all drafting, social communication and so on,” said a strategic planner, who only wanted to be known as Rachel.

She, like the others interviewed, did not want to give her full name or disclose her workplace for fear of repercussions.

Rachel’s company has more than 20 employees and most of the time they are told to be present at the office.

She said her employer was unsure if any work would get done if he allowed his staff to work from home.

Rachel’s concerns stem from the fact that she lives with her parents and brother, the latter was infected with Covid-19 two weeks ago.

She said her employer was also against her self-quarantining during the full 10-day period when her brother was tested positive.

Another employee, who only wanted to be known as Amanda, 35, said she was told off by her employer when she requested to work from home.

The human resource manager said the small size of her office made it hard to maintain social distancing, particularly when they have lunch or meals in the office pantry.

Meanwhile, digital marketer Jason, 27, said he has been told to come to office even on Saturdays despite there being no sales.

“My employer’s philosophy is this: if he doesn’t see his staff in the office that means they are not working.

“We employees don’t really have a choice. Either obey him or lose our jobs,” he said.

Jason said he did suggest that his boss prepare a structure for the administration and management teams to work from home, and to allow the production team to work in the office, but that was rejected.

He also said recently there was a Covid-19 case involving their dispatch clerk but the office management kept it quiet and let the rest work as usual without asking them to self-quarantine.

The government announced that beginning May 25, 80% of civil servants must work from home. For the private sector, 40% of employees can work from home.

This new directive affects 750,000 civil servants and 6.1 million workers in the private sector.

Official data showed that more than 50% of the total Covid-19 clusters in Malaysia since the start of the pandemic were linked to workplaces.

Figures from the Ministry of Health showed that workplaces also reported more infections than any other sector.

By May 18, a total of 1,011 workplace clusters with a total of 124,614 people were infected. Within six days another 51 workplace clusters were traced.

Bosses want to monitor staff

Malacca-based Saiful, 33, another digital marketer, also said he was helpless as going against his employer would result him in losing his job.

“Every day I want to bring this issue up with my employer but at the same time I’m afraid that I might lose my job. I’m the sole breadwinner in my family,” he said.

Amelia, 35, who works as a consultant in Negri Sembilan, said that she and her employees could do all the work from home as they all have internet connection and computers.

“So I can say, we can absolutely do our tasks remotely even without going to the office.

“Despite doing rotation work now, I am still worried about the situation. I have even lodged a complaint with the authorities about my boss not letting us work from home but there was no reply from them,” she said.

Amelia said she talked about working from home with her manager in Malaysia when he brought up this issue to the Singapore team but her upper management believed that employees should learn to adapt to work in the pandemic.

She also said that initially no standard operating procedures (SOP) were followed in the office, and only later after Hari Raya, her manager requested everyone to wear a face mask on the premises.

Sandhya, 27, who works in a public relations firm in Kuala Lumpur, said her company has 50 employees working on a single floor, which makes social distancing and adherence to the SOP difficult.

“The office is just a place for colleagues to facilitate discussions, which can be conducted virtually while we work from home,” she said.

According to Sandhya, all employees must be present at work in the office from Monday to Thursday.

As for Ramesh who works in the business development department in Ipoh, the 29-year-old said their manager told everyone to be present in the office as they wanted to ‘monitor’ the employees.

He said their pleas to be allowed to work from home have been continuously ignored by the management team.

Meanwhile, Covid-19 cases in Malaysia continue to rise with 7,857 cases reported yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of cases to 541,224. – May 28, 2021.