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Parisian commuters are astonished. For the past few days, one only has to snake through the corridors of the Paris metro, watch the commuters on the RER platforms or hide from the rain under the bus shelter to see the same worried reactions to the government's advertising posters: "During the Games, the important thing is to telework". Already frightened by various aspects of the organization of Paris 2024, Parisians are annoyed by the difficulty their elected representatives are having in dealing with the logistical challenges the Ile-de-France region will face during the Games.
The authorities, notably the region's prefect, Marc Guillaume, have warned that public transport saturation thresholds will be regularly exceeded during the Games period. He therefore considers it necessary to take preventative action to ensure that the daily movements of residents and workers on the 14 metro lines, 5 RER lines and 8 Transilien lines offered by the Ile de France region are not seriously disrupted.
By focusing on teleworking, the government recognizes the flexibility offered by this practice and its potential to alleviate bottleneck problems. It then claims to be inspired by London, in 2012, where a third of employees stayed at home during the Summer Olympics. Yet this recommendation is neither new nor trivial.
It is also part of an emerging trend observed over the last few years, amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has prompted many companies to adopt teleworking as a norm. This has also highlighted the potential benefits of telecommuting in terms of reduced travel, time savings and flexibility for workers.
However, telecommuting is not without its constraints, as the pandemic has shown. Its effectiveness depends on a number of factors, including the nature of the work, the ability to work remotely, and the need for collaboration and communication within the company. What's more, some professions and industries do not lend themselves easily to telecommuting. At the French Post Office, for example, who delivers the mail?
Civil servants in the public sector (administrative departments and staff of state-run companies such as La Poste) are an important group in the teleworking debate. With over a million employees in the Île-de-France region, the government has proposed that they increase the number of teleworking days included in their contracts during this exceptional period.
A temptation far from unanimous: some unions, such as the CGT, are expressing concern about the redefinition of exceptional circumstances permitting telecommuting. They fear that this extension could set a precedent for the future, making telecommuting a habit, which would call into question the balance between workers' flexibility and companies' real organizational needs.
On the corporate side, the situation is complex. While many recognize the potential benefits of telecommuting, they also have to weave their way through every challenge associated with its implementation.
"We're thinking well in advance, because we don't want telecommuting to be suffered by default, like what we experienced during the Covid," explains Bernard Cohen-Hadad, president of Paris's Confédération des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises (CPME). "We know that we mustn't overwork, that we must make sure we don't get isolated, that employees don't stay at home and meet up again after a while".
The Paris-based Confédération des petites et moyennes entreprises (CPME) also stresses the importance of not making telecommuting compulsory, but rather seeing it as an option for managing workflows flexibly and efficiently.
In addition to telecommuting, other strategies are being considered to alleviate the pressures on public transport and employees. Among these, staggered working hours are emerging as a potential solution. This involves encouraging workers to modify their working hours to avoid peak periods, in the early morning or mid-afternoon.
Meanwhile, it’s 11.52 am on the platform of the metro station ‘Hoche’, and people are in uproar: "I can't believe it, another late train, it's always the same!" Already faced with an increasingly unreliable transport network, where equipment failures, detours and cancellations are piling up, Parisians are clearly waiting for the Olympic Games (and their train) with impatience.
