lots of people. are going to use today. redoubling dot com megacities the multimedia. clue. what a great novelty it was to work from home for the 1st time to be able to plunk yourself on the sofa open up your laptop and just get down to business but it didn't take long for the reality of the situation to sink in for many of us the coronavirus pandemic has changed our professional day today into something that's barely

recognizable from before the world of work 2020 that's our topic today here on made welcome along so we all worry about our jobs in these uncertain times but the many refugees who've come to germany in recent years have had a different set of worries for a start they've often arrived empty handed and had to find work in a completely strange environment but for some things change very quickly for years 4 years ago our reporter mario hooter met 2 refugees from syria who found work and a parcel sorting center in magnifique we met up with him again recently one of them still working at. it's another busy day at work for honest i'm not a. human you know that a 3rd of the workforce at this parcel sorting office in magdeburg are refugees like honest who is from syria he's now responsible for 14 people and says there are

career opportunities for everyone here. and none it's just. that if you show you have the potential to get up and you can really go far here imo there's always going back in 2016 on a starter not putting parcels under conveyor belts his 1st job in germany in damascus he'd been studying for an engineering degree before the civil war forced him to flee the country. all the young people with my old school they must go to the military and we don't want to go and kill other people so that's why i decided to leave working alongside him back then was fellow syrian gaia's diop 4 years on he's moved on from the parcel sorting center and now has better working hours. guy and no more night shifts. formerly the owner of a phone shop in syria he's now set up his own business in germany a car repair workshop called dr or alto it offers amateur car mechanics the use of

car lifts and tools and he has plans for expansion his own and of us i want to set up a 2nd shop offering express services. like a tire change in 10 minutes or an oil change in 10 minutes. ones are vital but there are obstacles in his way not least the bureaucracy he still only has a temporary residence permit which is bad for business. that's. it's really difficult i had a lot of ideas for my workshop and bought everything myself. except for 5000 euros from the job center which. i asked all the banks for a loan but they said no. i haven't why because you don't have german citizenship or permanent residence permit. that's the. gaia story all because determining to keep on investing and ideally get

their german citizenship. known he's very settled in monte borg and says he no longer sees a future for himself in syria. it's been the ones i've been in germany for 6 years now. syria is a total disaster there's no water or electricity it's really tough. but now my family and i have everything we need. it's better here. after leaving syria 6 years ago he was able to bring his family over to join him in germany his youngest daughter who was born here. she's now 4 years old. 2 she and her brothers have grown up bilingual. i only have a couple of friends he speak at school i mainly speak german. boy each. see

germany as their new home even if they've not always enjoyed a warm welcome they have encountered hostility but are reluctant to talk about it preferring to tell us about relations with their neighbors. it would take time for distance at 1st but that's all changed for the better now. photos from the past. most of their old friends have left syria and now live all across europe but the dire obs have at least been able to stay together. i know some are still thinks about syria a lot. doesn't know that's what it looks like now and this is in damascus deciding to make the perilous journey to europe was not easy and to divide you could say ok all hope is lost and i'll end up killing myself here i'm sure of

a good thing some people do think that but if you do have a small bit of hope then you say i have to get out. which most want us to. harness his own journey took him across 8 countries he's not seen his parents or his younger brothers and sisters for years. in this big. game and they did so you just can't help thinking about syria. but honest does find ways of getting his mind off the worry so much is hard work which will hopefully also see him continue his rise through the ranks at the moment to book sorting office. and good luck to him now office workers make up half of germany's workforce and it's hard to imagine a time without them but how long have offices existed here on earth invented them and will they still be with us far into the future as no house has the answer.

the office past present and future. offices have been around for a long time in ancient rome parchment scrolls along with the wooden or bronze tablets were kept in them during the middle ages scribes would copy out texts from the bible in offices in the 17th century lawyers civil servants and business people set up offices in cities such as amsterdam london and paris. offices were exclusively for work separate rooms that allowed people to work alone and undisturbed. open plan offices emerged in the 20th century u.s. architect frank lloyd wright designed a record setting office block in which 250 people worked in one room. office buildings are intended to symbolize wealth and power but designed to maximize efficiency and productivity a production line for paper work. open plan offices are not well liked nowadays in

germany they're often noisy and dark workers feel crown turned constantly observed by bosses and coworkers will the pandemic mean the end for the office half of german office workers have been working from home to reduce the risk of infection. this saves time normally spent commuting to work and can better combine work and family some 77 percent of people who've tried it say they enjoy working from home. they might miss being together with their colleagues but the advantages outweigh the disadvantages the office of the future might start to look a lot like home. absolutely nothing against my marvelous colleagues here mate but working from home does have its advantages that all some things you can do

that might be frowned upon and a normal workplace as our very own olaf krieger can testify. more good morning. morning so what's on the agenda today. very interesting. yes very interesting. ok today i'm going to play a very ingenious a very ingenious opening. to. my nights goes there. yeah after dusk yes well i think that's a really good idea that we should definitely do it that way yes definitely.

say something on the chat show that you know that something interesting even if you don't really know what it's all about i don't always feel. yeah yes let's do it was right. just check. off. of all the well there's so many things to consider listen on sway has to be more involved i'm going. to get things in order you did this oh it's also about taking his initiatives. i think we have to get you know involved in running. it once once and sometimes their ideas

draw it as dust. beside mine we should make a show about food about sads what do you think about that right. ya whatever. yes i agree. months from elsewhere else apart from a chat do you get a chance to give goddess a break and do something nice for yourself. once and my thoughts are too subtle. a very good sign i don't have any when i ask you to turn on your camera. song it's gonna come it's from. our. very serious. last 10. yes that's

a very interesting topic that we've been missing we should i think about that definitely very nice c.m. . well there is 2 fevers and when it gets to be too much go offline with pleasure you can tell them no internet no exceptions nothing you have to take care of your brakes yourself. so and home office working from home has plenty of advantages much becomes the longer you don't have to travel to work you don't need to wear a suit let's you and if i want a great chance got so much good and lots of great new ideas new concepts super classic. i've certainly got a lot on top was that cuba cleared a cook to deal with but just have to empty the washing machine. gun that's exactly what we do take care we talk again tomorrow good bye everyone on board

yes and now the camera really should be off. so watch that web cam for some of us this is all we have a wanted flexible workplaces and flexible working hours before the coronavirus working from home was the big exception but now at a single strike that's all changed of a business school in new york university of analyze the work of more than 3000000 people around the world before the pandemic and now they found that on average people working from home tend to work one hour longer per day meetings usually have more participants than they did before the crisis and they're also more of them but on the up side meetings are on average shorter the pandemic has accelerated digitalisation more than year's worth of initiatives put together suddenly digital

processes that when even considered before have become possible but digital work during the coronavirus crisis has exposed a real lack of skilled workers in the area now firms are urgently looking for professionals who can drive digitalisation we sent philip falcon stein to an i.t. bootcamp to find out more. the global economy is in trouble supply chains spanning the planet have been disrupted the pandemic has highlighted the limits of the present economic system and the importance of digital technologies knowing official isn't helpful in hamburg that describes itself as a school and pool for digital talent but. we are seeing growing interest in training in digital professions because of the crisis. for short courses it calls boot camps to train people in computer related fields. 3 months course in data science for university graduates costs

a little under $9000.00 euros. training as a web developer costs just under 8000. digitalisation combined with coronavirus being forced to deal with these things now the. flexibility and the willingness to go new ways are more important than ever that holds for training courses to remote learning is the order of the day. we see people who want to change their lives some have been working in their profession 15 or 20 years and now want to change course. they spent 3 months with us doing intensive training and so they can work in an entirely new field. the need for many more digital professionals did not start with the pandemic but it has made it greater.