Changed Nature of International Work during COVID-19

The start of the pandemic brought about a change to the working practice of all con-sultants attempting to continue to deliver a good performance and adapt to the new situation despite of the changes. The first aspect that directly impacted the work of the respective consultants was the absence of business travel and stays abroad, as all em-ployees of the case company have been working remotely from their home in Germany since March 2020. One respondent explained:

Currently, I’ve been working on a project in [country] for two and a half years. I used to go there from Monday to Thursday every week. But since March 2020, I am working from home. Business trips are restricted because of the policy of the client. Even though there would have been time periods. In the summer, for ex-ample. Where I could have gone to see the people in [country], but the client didn’t let externals in the building. So, there was no point of meeting someone. In-ternal people are too working from home. They just go to the office one week every four weeks.

The restrictions regarding travel, staying in hotels and apartments abroad and entering business offices do not come exclusively from the case company but also from the cli-ents and the countries of operation. This is why all of the consultants are staying in their home country Germany. “Before making a business trip, they need confirmation from both sides. Both companies and the consultant have to be comfortable with trav-eling and working physically together at the moment.”

This industry, however, is much more conducive to remote work than many other in-dustries. The clients and the case company have been able to gradually learn during the pandemic that many aspects of the daily work routine can be executed without business travel and consultants being on site. The equipment of both case companies and their clients allows for excellent digital communication between both parties.

These communication channels can be used almost equally effectively for project ac-quisition, project processing and subsequent follow-up work:

You have to [inaudible] to videocalls and remote working. But in this finance and insurance area, working remotely is fairly possible as the companies have a good in-house IT architecture. Other consultants who work with delivery or manufacto-ry or productions companies. That, it’s not that easy or not always to expect to have a good IT department. […] Banks and insurances, on the other hand. Our cli-ents have similar or good enough IT equipment as we have.

Nonetheless, working from home and being located in Germany can cause problems in international projects due to time differences to the project country. Consultants work-ing on projects with clients located in a different time zone try to adjust their workwork-ing hours. “The time difference is no problem. I am supposed to work German hours, which are not overlapping. But I can do private stuff in the morning and start working later in the day. And everybody is happy. That is no problem for me”. The adjustment of the working is an option to deal with the time difference. One respondent explained, that the adjustment of those hours should favorably be within Germany's working hours. It is then possible to arrange meetings with the client either in the morning or in the afternoon, respectively, to share the most important information and discuss the further procedure. Additionally, consultants who work outside of German working hours should then be given additional recognition:

At the moment, I start working at 6 am and it is [afternoon] in [country] and all of them almost finish their work because they want to use their afternoon privately.

[..] This means they only have about one hour to communicate. If [country people]

are nice, I have two hours with them. But this forces [the client of the client] to work until [night times]. Which is not nice and not in their space of ideal. At the moment, I work from six to eight in the morning with the team in [country]. It is not enough to survive the project. There will be times where we need to com-municate more than two hours. [..] A client in Germany might have the same live interaction time, but you can still write e-mails QA and get an answer fairly soon.

[Country], it is always overnight and takes time. A ping-pong game with [country]

is different than in Germany. [..] But starting earlier than six am is also painful and not really attractive for the employees. In Germany, working time beginning before 6 am requires additional consideration.

Time differences create challenges for the daily work routine: “It would be helpful that one person, who is working on more than one project, is only assigned to projects in a fitting time zone. So, no one has the necessity to work 24 hours a day.” Another option usually would be to relocate the consultant to a geographically closer destination in order to eliminate or minimize the time difference. This, however, is at this point of the pandemic not feasible:

The problem is that the pandemic is everywhere. [...] Many countries are between here and [client country]. Many countries would therefore ease the pain. But there are countries where you don’t want to be or land a project team because of safety reasons like physical safety, harassment safety or health safety. [Country]

sounds fantastic [in terms of time difference], but they are worse off than Germa-ny in this pandemic. […] Work for the [client country] from [country]. This would take away three hours from the time difference. This is not much, but it’s possible to arrange three hours of live interaction time with the [clients] afternoon.

Another change due to the pandemic is that everyone, including the working popula-tion, is expected to stay at home as much and as often as possible. However, several consultants find it challenging to work from home. The focus here is not on the factor of working remotely on the project but actually on the local aspect of being at home.

There is a blurring of the distinction between work and leisure. The balance needed to be able to work focused and concentrated is missing due to the absence of breaks with colleagues and the lack of spatial separation after work. Working and spending free time in the same room leads to an impact on the employees' psyche. The possibilities of spending free time are also limited and therefore cannot provide compensation for working time. One respondent shared:

My work quality is affected because of the mind-body balance. I am motivated to work, but it is difficult to concentrate when working completely alone and getting the work done all by myself. I started faking a bureau or office atmosphere by staying on the phone with a colleague. This helps my motivation to stay focused on the work. Otherwise, I get distracted more easily. […] But all I can do is go for a

walk. And in Winter, this means walking in the dark outside. This is not very en-joyable then.