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Italy's "smart working" economy is smaller than in virtually any other major industrialized country. But that may be changing -- an unexpected silver lining of the coronavirus outbreak in the European country.
Smart working refers to a greater flexibility in the working methods, such as working from home. European Union (EU) data showed 4.8 percent of the adult labor force in Italy worked from home in 2018, more than in some Eastern European economies but well below the EU average.
The size was dwarfed by France with 20.7 percent, Germany with 11.6 percent and Britain with 23.8 percent while the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland and Sweden, and the Netherlands stood at the top of the list with around a third of the entire labor force working from home.
Some experts believe that for an economy, having a big share of the labor force working from home creates a long list of benefits.
"Obviously, there are many jobs that cannot be performed from home, such as those that require special equipment or face-to-face collaboration with colleagues or on-the-site analysis," Domenico De Masi, a sociologist with the La Sapienza University of Rome, told Xinhua. "But for those who can work at home, there are many benefits."
De Masi said he has been lobbying for "smart working" in Italy over the past more than 40 years, as the working method saves the workers' time of commuting to and from the office, reduces road traffic, creates less stress, costs less, and allows more flexibility from self-scheduling, less use of office space, and less infrastructure wear.
"There are many jobs that can be done from home, or from the train or the airport or anywhere, and it creates an economic disadvantage when that cannot be done," De Masi added.
According to Marco Leonardi, an economist with the Department of Labor and Welfare Studies at the State University of Milan, "smart working" has been slow to gain a foothold in Italy because Italian employers are less likely to trust workers to work full time when they are away from the office.
"It's an old tradition not to trust that a worker is working unless the boss can actually see him or her working," Leonardi told Xinhua. "Italy has been behind most of Europe in terms of letting those old values go."
That could be changing -- at least temporarily -- because of the coronavirus outbreak, which has prompted the demand for requiring workers in parts of the northern Italy to stay at home in an effort to contain the virus. As of late Thursday, more than 600 cases of the virus infection have been confirmed in Italy, mostly in the economically vibrant northern area.
The outbreak has led to the close-down of many government and private offices and many people have begun working from home. In the so-called "red zones" with the highest risk of infection, the government has given more flexibility to companies to have their workers continue working in isolation.
Leonardi said the early indicators are positive.
"We could look back at this period as a turning point for 'smart working' in Italy," Leonardi added.
"The more companies see how productive workers can be from home during the time of the crisis, the more they may allow them to do it once the crisis has passed," he said.