Remote work in Poland and perspectives thereof

Abstract

Abstract Subject and purpose of work: Remote work is a phenomenon which has rapidly intensified as a result of COVID-19 pandemic. The article presents the scale of remote work in Poland before the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, i.e. until 2020, and directly during the pandemic, i.e. from 2020 to half of 2021. Topics discussed herein concern: the conception of remote work, the level and structure of persons working remotely in Poland and changes in their number in the recent years, as compared to the world and the European Union Member States by sectors of ownership, particular regions of the country and a type of socio-economic activity. Moreover, positive and negative consequences of remote work for employees, employers and their families have been presented. Materials and methods: The analysis concerning development of remote work is based on many sources: data from Eurostat, Eurofound, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Statistics Poland, as well as surveys conducted by national and foreign consulting companies dealing with the labour market. The following have been applied: - descriptive analysis allowing identification of basic data in the scope of share of remote workers; - analysis of dynamics identifying changes in the studied scope; - comparative analysis assessing the scale of remote workers in the country with regard to the data noted in the EU states. Results: Before the pandemic in 2018, in Poland – in comparison to the EU states – the share of employees who had the possibility of working remotely was below average and amounted to approx. 4.6% (whereas in the whole EU 5.2% of persons aged between 15 and 64 years old regularly worked remotely from home). In 2020, the share of persons who “usually work from home” doubled in our country in comparison to data for 2018 and amounted to 8.9%. The largest share of remote workers in the general number of workers at the end of the 1st quarter of 2021 was noted by the following sectors: financial and insurance services (36.1%), education (45.9%) and IT (66.8%). These sectors were also the leaders in digitalisation and automation before the pandemic. Conclusions: Remote work is a flexible form of employment that, due to the coronavirus pandemic, has recently been developing in Poland and in the world on a mass scale and in an unprecedented pace. This form of work using the newest information and communication technologies (ICT) changed work and workplaces. This form of work opens new divisions on the labour market, since better educated persons living in rural areas are better prepared to work outside the employer’s seat.