The Paradox of Remote Work Policy in Times of the Pandemic: Unpacking the Experience of Software Engineers in Germany and Indonesia

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments around the globe implemented remote work policies as a universal solution to curb virus transmission while maintaining economic productivity. However, these measures often failed to consider the diverse contexts in which they were applied. Software engineering, a profession that was applauded for its compatibility and adaptability with remote work, was not even immune to the complexities of these dynamics. Our empirical findings show that software engineers in Germany and Indonesia experienced remote work in significantly different ways—despite certain similarities emerging—revealing paradoxical outcomes which led to a certain extent of inequalities. We identified five key factors that shaped these experiences: (i) distinctions between technical and managerial roles, (ii) individual preferences and capabilities, (iii) family dynamics and cultural context, (iv) infrastructure disparities, and (v) legal and policy frameworks. Building on our results and analysis, we propose the idea of the inevitable paradoxical consequences of policy, where a well-intentioned, universal measure—such as remote work mandates during the pandemic—can produce unintentional and uneven outcomes across different sociocultural and socioeconomic contexts, inadvertently reinforcing or recreating new forms of inequalities. We highlight three dimensions of these paradoxical consequences of policy, i.e., (i) a misalignment between the intended objectives of the policy and its actual outcomes; (ii) insufficient consideration of contextual differences in policy design and implementation, and (iii) simultaneous positive and negative effects of the policy across diverse groups.