Greeks live and breathe shipping as a game of personal contact. It is no surprise, then, that many Piraeus players find lockdown a suffocating experience.
“After 50 days at home, I can say I begin to realise now how people in jail must feel,” said John Kokarakis, technical director for technology and business at Bureau Veritas in Piraeus.
However, it has turned out to be surprisingly pleasant for others.
“We found out that working from your laptop at home is just fine,” said Panos Zachariadis, fleet technical director at Atlantic Bulk Carriers Management.
Several others said they actually clocked up more hours than at the office. “I worked much better from my living room, and longer,” said Panos Kourkountis, technical director at Sea Traders.
Some have found it gratifying to be free of the daily stress of having to leave the office early to avoid irking partners waiting at home.
Others were grateful to be spared long assignments abroad. A three-day trip to Copenhagen for a Bimco session, for example, was instead handled in an online Teams meeting of about four hours, Zachariadis said.
“I expect video conferencing and remote working to become more prolific,” said Alex Hadjipateras, executive vice president of Dorian LPG, where he spearheaded its coronavirus response.
Upgraded internet facilities
To make this possible, Greek companies are expected to upgrade their internet facilities, from bandwidth to security. Before Covid-19, connectivity was an issue of limited concern. Now, it is considered essential in offices, even in onshore employees’ homes.
Covid-19 has also triggered a wider adoption of remote surveys, said Kokarakis, who saw his office become Bureau Veritas’ second remote survey centre in Europe.
Offices, however, are far from becoming redundant.
“Not everyone in their house has the space in order to work,” Hadjipateras said.
Greek brokers have been particularly aware of the limits of remote work. Quick decisions are difficult to make when superiors are not close at hand.
“It takes three separate phone calls to agree on one thing, when in the office a simple exchange of gazes would do,” one broker said.
However, it could be shipping’s natural reluctance to change that is the biggest obstacle to more fundamental changes ahead.
“I wish companies would take a lesson from Covid-19 and allow more remote work from home, but I don’t see this quite happening,” Zachariadis said. “Shipping is too conservative.”
