The new mantra – Working from Home
Post the pandemic the perceived wisdom was that Working From Home was here to stay. We even had a new acronym for our calendars – WFH. Flexible working was THE management mantra adopted by CEOs. Large expensive group offices were going to be converted into apartments, and some staff may never need to go near an office throughout their employment.
With super-fast broadband, working from home on a company laptop, no commuting costs and essentially flexible start and finish times, employees no longer needed to relocate to be nearer the office. Some employees even argued they would work longer hours for the same pay. It was all so logical and sensible.
After the initial surge of relocation cases post the pandemic, the number of relocation cases began to fall as WFH became the norm. New employees were now working from other countries, let alone other counties. Pub anecdotal evidence was of people working on their laptop from a beach in Thailand or Majorca, using a work branded Zoom background to disguise their location.
More remote working management tools appeared as more ‘remote working consultants’ persuaded HR that remote working can be managed and in fact productivity will be increased. Often these tools revolved around measuring email traffic, time spent on the keyboard, unread emails or when the laptop was switched on and off. It was a case of measure the inputs and QED the outputs increase too.
Sadly, this wasn’t the case. In fact, researchers found that email traffic did increase between colleagues but that actually resulted in less output as employees raced to respond to the number of emails flying around. In turn this led to higher stress levels as one University of California study found. It revealed that the longer someone spent answering emails the higher someone’s stress levels became.
There have been cases of ‘mouse jigglers’ being bought to simulate keyboard activity to fool the monitoring tools that the system is not idle, so even the argument that productivity would increase WFH is being challenged.
The repercussions – personal impact
However, as time went by, it became clear that remote working on a full-time basis had a profound impact on learning by osmosis, the unconscious absorption of information. In fact, the reasons started to mount up for returning to the office.
Some employees missed the commute. They missed that time to decompress from the stresses of the working day before working through the door at home. Some missed the routine with a set start and finish to the day and the externally imposed discipline of dressing for work and leaving the house, pets and children for the employee not being there all day.
Employees missed their work friendships and the stereotyped ‘water-cooler’ moments. Many a long-term relationship has been created through a work environment. For new employees in a new area, it is the first real opportunity to build a new set of local friends. The spouse or partner was pleased to get their partner out of the house and into the office, for their own peace. Even the most loved up of couples and families need some ‘me time’.
Organisations saw silos building higher and higher between departments as the opportunity for inter-departmental interactions diminished. This led to more insular thinking, a decreased understanding of other perspectives and requirements, impacting innovation and continuous improvement. Zoom & TEAMS can never replace a face-to-face chat because they supress contributions from more introverted people on the video call. Video calls are by their nature more transactional and more verbal in nature, whereas face-to-face meetings are more open and rely on more non-verbal communication.
The repercussions – data security impact
WFH also impacted data security. During the pandemic close-down, those working may find themselves using their Wi-Fi still with the factory password settings to access closed systems. We heard of families all sitting around the kitchen table working together and over-hearing Personally Identifiable Information (PII) that shouldn’t leave the office.
The CEO needs to lead by example
It is hardly surprising that many CEOs are telling staff to return to the office, at least 3 days a week. Ironically, they need to also do the same and lead by example. Academics in Denmark discovered that companies whose CEO lives within 3 miles of their headquarters report better workplace conditions and higher productivity.
The Danish study which investigated thousands of companies found that CEOs and by extension senior Directors, who live in the geographical connected neighbourhood feel connected with the local community. Interestingly, the study found that living in the vicinity didn’t mean employees and senior management had to occupy the same social spaces. It was a connection through emotional and psychological attachment to the neighbourhood and therefore the employees, that drives the better work environment and employee welfare.
By living close to the workplace, CEO’s stay longer and build stronger local ties, reducing their own commute time and are seen as more involved by the staff.
A considered balance
The WFH pendulum is swinging away from full time remote working to a more balanced working week where attendance at the office is expected. With mounting evidence that proximity to the workplace is a benefit to the company, employees and the neighbourhoods, Government needs to act to encourage relocation and take this opportunity as employees return to the office to encourage them to live closer to the office. For example, they could do this by increasing the Relocation Tax Allowance, stuck in a time warp since 1993 at £8,000 and allow more services that qualify for the allowance.