Varia Ranah - Sorotan Ilmiah Perkhidmatan Awam

92 Varia Ranah: Sorotan Ilmiah Perkhidmatan Awam stadiums and public as well as private offices included. The pandemic had resulted in the introduction of a new-norm which resulted in the change of social behaviour business practices. As a result of this, PSD on March 17, 2020 had issued a directive to all civil servants to work from home. Based on the directive, civil servants working from home are required to comply with the rulings as follows: i. to be at home during the designated working hours imposed; ii. to be ready to be present at the office or any other locations as directed by the head of a department; and iii. easy to be reached during working hours. While work from home has not been fully implemented in the public sector in Malaysia, the COVID-19 pandemic became a test case for the implementation of FWA. Work from home and a combination with flexible time became the options and a new normal for the civil servants as a result of the extension of the movement control order (MCO) by the government which was introduced since March 18, 2020. Furthermore, the work from home along with the flexible time is expected to continue to be implemented until the situation of the pandemic of COVID-19 is under control. With FWA to be the new normal for civil servants in Malaysia, it is vital that the issue of trust and performance management to be given focus. The element of trust and performance management focusing on output rather than the number of working hours to be completed need to be revisited and considered. The key question here is the public sector ready to embrace change in its performance management from traditional working hours to output based. As mentioned earlier, with the advent of new technologies and tools, the implementation of FWA should be highly considered within the public sector.