Covid-19, Workplace Challenges

This paper is written to enlighten how organizations monitor employees' work performance from home versus working in the office as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The objective of this article was to determine how organizations were able to measure the performance of their employees when they were working from home. Secondly, to evaluate how organizations were able to monitor virtual workload as versus traditional workload. Finally, through scrutinizing the new workplace normal articles, the author derived the third objective which was to determine how the employees balanced their work and family disputes during the Covid-19 pandemic. Several related articles were scrutinized to demonstrate the current workplace scenario as opposed to the traditional practices. At the end of the article, we proposed several monitoring measures and how employees’ performance can be improved during the Covid-19 pandemic. Flexibility in goal setting, teamwork and regular performance feedback will psychologically lead to positivity in work performance. Whilst, social support, job autonomy, workload and monitoring would reduce employees’ procrastination in carrying out their virtual workload. Lastly, a 360° social support, flexible schedule, mental therapy and boundary management create conductivity working at home and being able to overcome work and mental stress thus create a healthy working environment.


INTRODUCTION
The Movement Control Order 3 or MCO3 is back again. With the rise of Covid-19 cases at 4 digits increment since 15 May 2021, work from home, online distance learning, homeschooling, online shopping, food delivery, will be the way to go. As of 15th May 2021, My Sejahtera apps reported that there were 466,330 confirmed cases, 42,135 active cases, 422,329 recovered cases and 1,866 deaths in Malaysia. The three states with the highest cases were Selangor, Sabah and Johor. This figure was unprecedented because the increase was extremely high since the implementation of the first MCO on the 18th of March 2020. Globally, the figures highlighted the seriousness of the pandemic. India has been stroked badly by this pandemic. As of May 11, 2021, there were 162,619,110 new cases, including death, recovered and discharged persons in the entire world. The total number of active cases were still alarming, with a total of 18,715,522. The number of deaths were 3,373,574 cases, 140,530,013 recovered cases and 143,903,589, closed cases. The statistics were extracted from Coronavirus Graph: Worldwide Cases and Deaths (Worldometer, worldometers.info, 2021) These scenarios have forced many employees in many sectors to make a lot of adjustments in their daily activities and tasks. Employees have to adapt to the new normal of performing their tasks and job. An increasing number of employers across the world are requiring their employees to work from home as part of the efforts to mitigate the spread of Covid19. But this may not be an isolated shift. Recent research by the Lenovo research team completed in the middle of March 2020, 77 per cent of employees surveyed across five countries (USA, Italy, Germany, China, and Japan) believe this may have a longlasting impact on how employers perceive remote-work policies going forward. There was a sense that organizations will be more open to or even encourage workers to work from home beyond the Covid-19 pandemic when things return to normal. Furthermore, another change would be the restriction of employees to travel to areas beyond their place of work and working at home or limiting the days of working at their respective office and workplace.
An online report by the BOTS team in New Straits Times news revealed that even when employers are concerned with the productivity of their employees when they work at home, respondents in the Lenovo research think otherwise. Nearly half of the respondents (46%) said their productivity was at par when working at the office and 15 per cent say that their performance increases when working at home. Working from home is considered a blessing compared to those who lost their job during the pandemic. In normal situations, employers need to acknowledge and provide a conducive and harmonious working environment to minimize the unnecessary work stress that may affect the employee's physiological and mental health. Good physiological and mental health are important in motivating employees to give the best performance in their job and tasks. In the modern world, it is difficult for any employee to avoid stress when performing their tasks and jobs. Unnecessary stress should be avoided as stress may create pressure and loss of focus at the workplace. Work stress is however unavoidable in any working environment regardless of the type and nature of work. This scenario is more prominent in the service industry as front liners have to deal with customers who have many different needs and preferences. It is a challenge for any front liner to deal with the myriad of human characteristics that are dynamic and inconsistent (Ahmad & Ramzan, 2013). Added pressure is felt by employees during the Covid-19 pandemic that has hit the whole country. As more employees are working from home, they have to make a lot of adjustments to their daily working routine and these changes may create anxiety and feelings of helplessness. This new routine is forcing employees to adapt to the changes quickly and to manage their emotions wisely where employees need to balance their work and personal life more effectively. Employers, therefore, have to focus more on worker's wellbeing before expecting a high level of performance from them.
There are three prominent objectives of this conceptual paper. The first objective is to determine how organizations can measure the performance of their employees when they are working from home. Secondly, to evaluate how organizations can monitor virtual workload as opposed to traditional workload. Finally, through scrutinizing the new workplace normal articles, the author derived the third objective which is to determine how the employees balanced their work and family disputes during the Covid-19 pandemic.

METHODOLOGY
This conceptual paper applied content analysis methodology. More than thirty-five strategic articles were analyzed. Due to the issue being current, we grab some of the literature from magazines and newspaper articles. Three variables on workplace challenges i.e., employee performance, workload and balancing work and family lives were depicted based on their significant effect on employees and employers' wellbeing. Chosen variables were compared with what was previously practiced at the workplace and how the current challenges gradually take place during the pandemic. The author gathered articles that describe the challenges faced and their implications as a source of organizational growth, profitably and sustainable competitive advantage and suggested possible solutions to the workplace challenges.

Employee Performance
Employees are considered as key success factors of production in any organization. Owing to the co-existence of many professional groups with different needs, expectations and the need for cooperation in many types of services, employees' performance at all levels and authority have become paramount (Bruggen, 2015). When discussing success factors in an organization, it is unavoidable to discuss employees' performance when executing their tasks or jobs.
In general, performance is defined as the result of a person's effort achieved by the presence of effort, ability and task perception (Bryman, 2012). It is also considered as a result of motivation, satisfaction, and organizational commitment that represents the amount of energy (physical and mental) used by an individual in initiating a task. While effort represents an individual's characteristic in doing a task, it is usually not directly influenced by short-term motivation. Task perceptions are clues in which individuals believe that they can materialize their efforts into their jobs. According to Robbins (2002), an employee's performance is the level of achievements that resulted from a certain task in a certain period. In addition, a manager's performance can be manifested from the output, product quality, productivity, better cost management, safety and health, employees' relationship and development (Amstrong, 2003). According to Chiang, Sun and Walkup (2018), the majority of Malaysian firms measure performance as part of the employee's credibility. Furthermore, employees' high performance is seen as a source of organizational growth, profitably and sustainable competitive advantage (Chiang, Sun, & Walkup, 2018).
The Covid-19 pandemic has led to dramatic global economic disruptions, as health concerns created by the virus have led people to stay at home . Using firm-level surveys, , investigated perceptions of employees remote working during the Covid-19 crisis. Although remote working has become the new normal during the Covid-19 crisis, there are still many firms that do not allow any remote working. In general, industries that are better suited to remote work also seem to experience less productivity loss when switching to remote work. It depends, however, on the level of education and skills of the employees. In industries with more educated workers, the level of remote working is higher and the productivity loss from remote working is much lower. While knowledge-intensive work done by skilled professionals and business service providers can be supported by electronic tools and software, work in capital intensive factories or hospitality and leisure tends to be harder to perform via the electronic platform. The results indicate that the economic loss and low productivity of organizations with low skill and education will be greater than organizations with skilled and educated employees. Furthermore, some industries such as hospitality, leisure, tourism, and transportation would face extreme financial losses as a result of lockdowns and social restrictions and movements. They may even have to close down their business due to the dwindling number of customers.
Performance has been perceived differently by various researchers, but many scholars relate performance with the measurement of transactional efficiency and effectiveness towards organizational goals (Chakraborty & Biswas, 2019;Yuan;2011). The job of an employee is very much tied to the degree of achievement of a particular goal and mission set by their superior that defines the boundaries of performance. With the Covid-19 virus creating uncertainty, an accurate and comprehensive measurement method is even more critical. This means that even with vaccines expected to be available in 2021 and the end of the pandemic insight, rethinking the way your business measures performance is critical for future success. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic a new approach in measuring the performance of employees especially the front liners. Smyth (2020) proposed a new way of measuring employees' performance that includes three approaches which are creating flexible goals, focusing on team performance and developing ongoing performance feedback.
In uncertain times during a pandemic, flexible or agile goal setting should be the new normal. In creating flexible goals for employees, employers should focus on shorter-term goals that are agile enough as the business operation changes. The changes, however, should not be a surprise, hence employees need to have the right mindset that the organization needs and performance standards will continue to evolve as the business changes through the pandemic. Furthermore, employees should be encouraged to voice their thoughts and ideas in setting organizational goals. Employees should also be empowered and trusted to find new solutions to new emerging challenges due to new norms of doing business (Smyth, 2020). Similarly, Sandha et al. (2020) proposed that aspects of human resource management which include compensation and benefits, leadership communication, competency, flexible work practices, use of high technology tools and physical work environment for employees may help motivate employees to perform better when working at home. Their research highlighted that compensation and benefits, flexible working practice and superior's communication competency have the strongest impact on employee's performance. We postulate that in terms of flexible working practice superiors should allow employees not only to have flexible working hours but also to offer their thoughts and ideas in setting their organizational goals and key performance indicators (KPI). This exercise will create a sense of teamwork and synergy between superiors and their subordinates, hence increasing the probability of attaining the goals and KPIs.
One of the biggest challenges of working at home (remotely) is creating effective communication and coordination among employees and between employees and superiors. Since many performance standards and factors influencing performance are beyond the control of any single employee, thus, focusing on team efforts and synergy can lead to better organizational outcomes. Furthermore, weekly or monthly discussion, mentoring and coaching become more challenging when employees are working at home. These activities are essential as a platform to evaluate employees' performance and a basis to overhaul performance management. Smyth (2020) also proposed the importance.
Sija (2021) who studied the key factors influencing bank employees in Malaysia during the Covid-19 pandemic discovered that employee recognition is the most dominant variable in influencing employees' performance. It is avoidable that employees are experiencing more stress working at home, hence more recognition, coupled with empathy and concern are essential in sustaining employee's performance during the pandemic of formalizing the process of measuring performance standards to overcome these challenges.

Workload
As humans, employees are unable to avoid stress in balancing their family and work-life which may be contributed to heavy workload. Heavy workload is one of the factors that may lower employees' performances. The employee stress caused by high workloads has become common in the modern working scenario (Olukayode, 2017). Workload may be defined as an individual's evaluation of the ability of employees to complete a myriad of tasks and job demands which include their mental activities, solving unexpected problems and making quick decisions on job-related tasks. If the individual has a positive attitude and perceptions, employees willingly accept the workload as a challenge in their respective organizations (Veninga, 1998).
The effect of a huge workload may contribute to low performance and low morale among its workforce in a company. Furthermore, employees may become overwhelmed with the pressure of a high workload that they may bring their unfinished work to their homes. Another challenge faced by employees is the conflict with their families when more employees are working at home during the Covid-19 pandemic. The conflict may create more tension at work, lower their productivity and hostile relationship with other co-workers when they are required to return to their respective place of work. Employee's excessive workload can also be influenced by external and internal factors. External factors are the work burden resulting from the complexity of work and high job responsibilities. Internal factors on the other hand originate from the perceptions of the employees which creates specific reactions to the external factors creating the heavy workload. According to Ma'rufi et al. (2018), internal factors include health conditions and physical factors such as motivation, desire, and satisfaction. Wang et al. (2020) who surveyed 522 employees revealed several interesting findings. Performing tasks and work using online platforms or "virtual work" possess unique challenges and problems. The characteristic of virtual work undeniably will influence the employee's well-being and their work performance. Wang et al. (2020) define "Virtual Work Characteristics" as the nature or quality of a worker's job during the period of working from home. They also identified four crucial factors that may influence Virtual Work Characteristics which are social support, job autonomy, monitoring, and workload. Specifically, social support provided by family and friends is inversely related to the challenges of working remotely from their traditional place of work. These challenges included job autonomy that is related to loneliness, heavy workload and monitoring that are linked to higher work-home interference and high procrastination. Based on their qualitative studies, they argue that workload and monitoring have mixed effects on individuals. The positive effects of workload and monitoring are their ability to reduce employee's procrastination. Workload and monitoring are expected to decrease employee's procrastination because of the realization of employees that punishments will approach immediately if employees are found to delay the accomplishment of the work or spending time on non-work related activities. The workload experienced by employees varies across different industries. In the service industry such as the social-service organizations, education and hospitality, a pre-existing culture of teamwork, willingness to adapt and adopt new approaches, and responsiveness to new policies and procedures will help employees to manage their workload complexity during the COVID-19 pandemic (Danilovich et al., 2020). However, challenges may exist which include low levels of digital literacy among staff, decreased job satisfaction due to the absence of face-to-face interaction between customers and service providers, and lack of proactive policies for crisis response, which decreases response time.
On the contrary, an optimum level of workload can be a source of motivation for employees to develop new knowledge and better skills by engaging themselves in training and workshops provided by employers. In terms of designing workload for employees, there is an increased awareness of the risk of Covid-19 in relation to the new norms of performing their tasks. Research conducted by Sasaki (2020) revealed that there is an increase in employee's fear and worry about the virus. Furthermore, there is a possibility that organizations whose employees are most worried about Covid-19 will take more action against the virus. Sasaki et al. (2020) further discovered that as workplace measures are intensified to minimize the impact of Covid-19, that is a reduction in employee's psychological distress and consistent work performance.
A study by Christian (2020), on the task of lecturer's performance, revealed that they are facing what is known as Techno-overload where they are encouraged to work faster as a result of the use of connected ICTs. Techno-overload (TO) presents when teaching staff is encouraged to work faster and longer. Employees may experience work fatigue and other health problems as a result of TO among employees. In addition, poor workplace design, awkward and repetitive body movements and other ergonomics hazards may contribute to cumulative trauma disorders that affect their hands, wrists, elbows, arms, shoulders, lower back and spine areas (Olaniyi et al., 2014). Workload, however, has a positive effect on the lecturer's emotional exhaustion (Redang Werang, 2018). Christian (2020) also proposed several dimensions to measure Techno-overload which include; extra working tasks, working with very tight time, changing work habits, higher workload due to complexity, less free time and touch with work. The study also revealed that the increment of a lecturer's workload increases not only from the quantity of work but from the way and process of doing the additional online work. Christian (2020) also suggested that the challenge of performing work, in this case, is closely related to the background and qualification of lecturers. This includes the habit of using technology, knowledge in using teaching technology and the limitations of the device, or age. Furthermore. The uncertain condition caused by the pandemic is likely to be the cause of the increasingly high techno-complexity, which is expected to have a negative impact on work productivity and performance (Karr-Wisniewski & Lu, 2010). Izzah (2020) argues that motivation given by superiors and leadership style are two factors that play a critical role in helping employees to maintain an optimum and high performance especially during pandemics such as the Covid-19. This paper postulates that when employees are forced to work at home, effective communication between superiors and subordinates is crucial in maintaining a high motivation level among subordinates. Since physical interactions are prohibited during the pandemic, interaction using online platforms or using conventional channels are encouraged for superiors and employees. Furthermore, Locke (1997) proposed that superiors and leaders should practice a transformational leadership style in order to help increase employees' motivation, especially those who work at home. Transformational leaders are leaders that pay attention to the development needs of their subordinates and help them to see old and current problems in new ways. In addition, transformational leaders are able to excite, awaken, and inspire their subordinates to put forth extra effort towards achieving group and organizational goals.

Balancing Work-Family Conflict
Balancing work and family have been co-existence from the very first day we step our feet on the career pedestal. Some may call it work-family conflicts or struggles. A study on Turkish primary teachers showed that a job can help a person to gain social dignity, a happy lifestyle and a favorable social structure. However, work-family conflict often occurs, (Riana et al., 2018). Employees who are involved with a family conflict will have a negative impact on their work performance. Work-family conflict occurs from long working hours, overtime, low wages, negative attitudes of organizations, bad employee relations, promotion, family expectations, health status, number of children, age, income, and employee performances. According to Polat et al. (2008) and Pawirosumarto et al. (2017), work-family conflict is to understand the personal role of the employee as a member of a family, who struggles to meet the needs and wants of both roles in a limited time. With limited time and resources, one can experience stress, tiredness, burden, loss of work satisfaction and organizational commitment because of clashing needs. Employees who are part of the family members have their roles and responsibilities. Inconsistency and burden from the workplace could affect family members feeling neglected.
Some employees have trouble balancing their duties at work with their duties at home. They will bring the problem and release the burden on their innocent family members. And these troubled employees may also carry their domestic problems to their office. This is the reality that companies face with their workers. Support from family members is needed by giving them space so they can feel more relaxed and calmer when at home. These conflicts are related to outcomes such as job boredom, job dissatisfaction as well as depression and marriage dissatisfaction with a negative impact on job performance in the workplace (Fanavoll et al., 2016). It is of utmost importance that dual-income couples support each other to simplify the balancing of work and family demands. A husband who supports his working wife would have a harmonious family life because both contribute to home, family and community wellbeing (Otto & Mishra, 2018). Shockley and Clark (2020), suggested four action plans to balance the work-family conflicts in time of Covid 19. The social distancing period has magically transformed every home into a "workplace" and "home-school". They desperately need 360°social support, coping strategies, a remote working area and a boundary management system to cope with the new workplace normal.
Social support should come from all angles, inside and outside the workplace, between employers and employees, supervisors and co-workers, families and friends, and most importantly the dual-career couples such as husband and wife. They should reach out to each other via social media, online platforms like Google Meet, Webex or Zoom, to communicate each other's situation in juggling work and family responsibilities. Constant communication can help reduce work stress, improve work quality and quantity and hence, create positive vibes when working from home. Emotional support and respect from dual-career couples and willingness to manage their children's virtual school alternately will create harmony in their home sweet home. This will lead to coping strategies where couples can schedule their work plan and family activities, communicate their dos and don'ts to counter stress and avoid conflict. Employers and government agencies should provide online counselling therapists for their employees' mental health.
A remote working area that separates family activities and work boundaries are needed for employees' best results. This means a separate room with a door is needed. Children should be trained not to interfere with their parents' working hours. The eldest child that is old enough should help to look after the young one when their working parents are having important meetings and tasks to do. If not, they should take advantage of children's nap time. This should be addressed clearly to their supervisor and co-workers. Hence, whether you are an "integrator" who can switch automatically between work and personal life who strictly works at work and home at home, you need to manage your work boundaries to avoid burnout. The employees need to have a clear separate workspace, carry out their routine activities before starting working and take a walk around the housing area to replace the daily commute. All these are for the sake of mental transition health. It is impossible to encounter a perfectly balanced work and family situation, and most importantly, the health and well-being of the employees and their loved ones are taken care of.
In this respect, Haggblom (2020) suggests that when superiors are more aware of subordinates' personal life to better adjust to their subordinates' working environment, there would be a positive impact on superior-subordinates' relationships. Furthermore, Haggblom (2020) also discovered that employees believed that there is evidence of an increased and more organized form of communication between superiors and subordinates when they work from a distance than in a physical working environment. This is especially true for front liners in the service sector such as teachers, lecturers, telemarketers, consultants and counselors as their tasks involve direct interactions with customers and require complex tasks. Moreover, higher levels of performance are associated with more frequent communications and the willingness of employees to discuss non-work-related issues has resulted in stronger relationships between superiors and subordinates.

CONCLUSION
Covid-19 continues to be an unprecedented time for everyone. Many have been negatively impacted by this virus in some way or another. The present and the future has been more uncertain than it has ever been. Sources of stress right now are numerous, and everyone handles stress differently. Some have been able to rise to the challenges, adapting and creating innovations never before imagined. Others have simply had many opportunities to go beyond expectations.
To meet the first objective, organizations need to rethink the way to measure performance during this pandemic. There are three possible suggestions on how the companies can measure employees' performances. Firstly, flexibility, concentration on short term goals, participation from both employees and employers should be the game, and employees will perform better because they set the common goals that they can achieve. The second way is teamwork. Employers should encourage teamwork among employees as it produces exponential results compared to individual performance. In return, team rewards will motivate employees to perform their best for the organization above and beyond their interests. Thirdly is regular performance feedback. Covid-19 creates a new normal that has never been anticipated by anyone before. To meet with the newness, employers should adopt a friendlier approach in reviewing employee performance as regular and as frequent as possible instead of doing it twice a year. The review should focus on positivity, as well as growth opportunities and learn how psychological safety can become operationalized.
The second objective can be realized by four crucial factors that optimize virtual workloads such as social support, job autonomy, and monitoring workload that can reduce employees' procrastination. Moreover, superiors and leaders should practice a transformational leadership style in order to help increase employees' motivation, especially those who work at home by paying attention to the development needs of their subordinates and help them to see old and current problems in new ways. In addition, transformational leaders are able to excite, awaken, and inspire their subordinates to put forth extra effort towards achieving group and organizational goals. Balancing work-family conflict, as in the third objective, would need 360° social support from all facets of life from employers to employees, supervisors to co-workers, friends and families, husbands and wives. Providing flexible schedules and mental therapy would be the strategy to allow employees to cope with the changes. Employees would have to be provided with a remote working area that is conducive to work at home and with boundary management, employees would be able to overcome work and mental stress thus creating a healthy working environment.
This study depicted a couple of significant issues that may contribute to both employers and employees in sustaining the harmony of the "workplace". The real workplace is almost deserted and the pandemic has transformed employees' homes into a workspace and home-school. Every member of the family is fighting for a conducive workspace. Employers are struggling to meet their companies' economic goals. Thus, flexibility in working hours, leadership communication competency via the usage of technology tools to communicate managerial hope effectively may positively synergize employees' morale, teamwork and work performance. The new workplace boundary, new approach for reviewing performance, new virtual support system, the pandemic has permanently changed the world of work and businesses have asked their employees to consistently, adapt and change overnight. It's time for performance management models and strategies able to do the same. Furthermore, we argue that to motivate and help employees stay focused and committed to their work, better training, consistent recognition and compensation are essential and may improve employees' performance.