More than six years after Covid-19 triggered the world’s largest work-from-home experiment, many Kenyan organisations are still struggling to function optimally.
Some jobs can easily be done from home, while others grind to a halt if the employee cannot get to the office.
Last month’s fuel strike exposed more than the country’s transport vulnerabilities. It revealed how unprepared many employers remain for disruption.
No framework, protocol or company guidance
Elsie Owino is a retail representative. Her job involves movement – going out into the city, finding customers, building relationships and hitting targets. The office is merely a starting point. It is in the field that her work actually takes place.
‘I have to go out and look for customers,’ she explains. ‘The two-day fuel strike, for instance, affected me greatly because I wasn’t able to achieve my target while working from home.’
The strike was abrupt and her employer didn’t offer any framework, protocol or company guidance on how to get work done. Her employer offered her no assistance during those two days. She turned to phone calls-only to find her airtime costs rising. At home, she also struggled to secure a suitable workspace.
‘My biggest challenge was the constant distraction from the children,’ she says. ‘If I work from home I have to lock myself in a room to work.’
The organisational gap
James Acholla, a human resource consultant, says that what played out across offices was not a surprise, but the result of preparation gaps that companies have repeatedly chosen not to close.
“The lesson from the strike is that most organisations still treat remote working as a crisis response rather than a legitimate way of working,” he says.
When employees are left without clear guidance or the right tools, the burden falls entirely on the individual. Output suffers, morale dips, and trust in leadership erodes quietly.
Supporting employees through periods like this, he argues, requires more than sending a message telling staff to work from home. It means ensuring people can access the documents and systems they need from outside the office, that managers are equipped to lead remotely, and that communication channels are clear from the start.
“A worker who cannot access what they need to do their job is not working from home. They are waiting at home, and that distinction matters.”
Managing remote teams during sudden disruptions also exposes how under-prepared most managers are. Without proper systems, they default to either micromanagement or complete disengagement, both of which damage morale and output.
“There is a middle ground, and it requires trust, clear expectations and regular check-ins. Most organisations have not invested in building that culture, and it shows the moment a disruption hits.”
Closing the gap
He recommends that every organisation should have a remote working policy that does not need to be written from scratch each time a crisis arises. Employees in roles that can be performed remotely should have the necessary tools and system access set up well in advance. Managers should be trained in remote team management as a standard competency, not an afterthought.
Communication protocols-who reports to whom, how and how often during a disruption-should be agreed upon and tested before they are needed.
“You cannot demand full output from someone sitting at a kitchen table with two children, no proper desk and an unreliable internet connection,” says Mr Acholla. “What you can do is set realistic expectations, check in regularly and make sure people feel seen rather than simply monitored.”
While Elsie found solutions in the form of more calls and an improvised work space, the structural limits of Emmanuel Adika’s role left him with little room to manoeuvre.
‘It ended up being a very sudden transition, and I had to adjust to it as it unfolded.’
Pleasant discoveries
In jobs where work is portable,employees find it easier to switch to emote work. Brian Mwangi discovered its advantages. Brian is a journalist with 11 years of experience. He continued to do what he does every day: write, report, edit and send articles to the newsrooms.
‘My entire job travels with me,’ he says. “All I need is a laptop and a phone. That is genuinely all I need. The story is never in the office.’
In 2020, so many sectors like newsrooms, law firms, financial institutions and tech companies operated remotely for 18 months, proving that a huge proportion of knowledge work can happen anywhere there is a laptop and an internet connection. But the moment the pandemic was over and restrictions were lifted, some returned to the old ways.
The psychological toll
Mwangi notes that the money not spent on commuting, lunches cooked at home and work clothes maintained to a certain standard goes a long way. For many workers on modest salaries, those savings cover rent and school fees.
‘Nobody talks about that seriously enough,’ he says. ‘The cost of the commute is treated as the worker’s private problem, but it is actually a structural tax on employment. Remote work, even partial remote work, partially lifts that tax.’
Annabell Gichure, a counselling psychologist says the psychological impact of sudden disruption is often the part that goes unaddressed.
“Sudden work disruptions trigger loss of control, and that is one of the biggest psychological stressors a person can face,” she explains.
Workers find themselves anxious about job security, mentally drained from constantly rethinking their plans, and frustrated by circumstances entirely outside their hands. Productivity drops not because people stop trying, but because so much energy is going toward managing the disruption itself.
Routine, she says, plays a bigger role in mental stability than most people realise.
“Routines are psychologically stabilising. When they disappear abruptly, people can feel unsettled in ways they struggle to explain. The morning commute, the walk to a desk, the rhythm of a structured day-these are not just habits. They are anchors. When they are removed suddenly, even capable and experienced workers can find themselves disoriented.”
However, not everyone loves working from home. Annabell notes that it can go either way. Some people find the quieter environment a relief.
Others find the home brings its own difficulties-loneliness, particularly for those used to busy, social workplaces; a loss of motivation in spaces not designed for work; guilt about not doing enough professionally while also feeling the pull of responsibilities at home; and the exhaustion that comes when work and rest occupy the same space with no clear separation between them.