I’ve been working from home for the last 7 years, both self-employed and fully employed. With practice and a solid routine, I’ve made it work for me and I’m the most productive I’ve ever been.
I don’t waste endless hours in meetings about other meetings—the results of which could have been summed up in a brief email. I don’t spend hours commuting or travelling, but I do invest this ‘spare time’ trying to improve myself through training, studying, looking after my health and all in all—just trying to be a better version of myself.
Many of my friends have told me, “I could never work from home, I’d get too distracted”. Well now the time has come, where many people are being ‘forced’ to work from home, like it or not. Whilst this was of course not intended to be ‘an experiment’; at the end of this prolonged period of isolation, what will the results be? Will staff be able to prove that they can actually be trusted to get on with their job whilst not being micro-managed in the office?
Employees (particularly women with childcare responsibilities, carers and people with disabilities), have been fighting for years for more flexible working conditions, including being able to work from home when ‘little Jonny is sick’; when personal, family or health issues arise, or when the nursery is closed. But from my experience, companies have mostly taken a dim view of allowing people to work from home because they just don’t TRUST them.
Right now, they don’t have a choice. If people can prove that they can be trusted and are more productive at home, might this change the way we work in the future? Think of the costs that can be saved in office space alone. There’s also a lot of evidence that people do actually become more productive when they’re working in a way that makes them happy and fits in with their own lifestyle. Sometimes people are even prepared to take a pay-cut in order to be able to secure alternative work arrangements and create a better life/work balance.
Fear factor for businesses
The fear factor for companies is that people will be easily distracted when working from home. But, if you’re lazy in the office, you’re likely to be lazy at home too and vice-versa. It’s up to companies to identify their ‘dead wood’ and either sack them or re-train them. Whilst this is an ‘old’ article, it still rings true. Under-performing colleagues can pull everyone else down too and the question is, why are they not motivated? That’s a whole different blog, but as W. Edwards Deming once said, “Were they dead when you hired them? Or did you kill them?”.
Those of us that are self-employed know that if we don’t work, we don’t get paid—the fear of no money coming in, keeps us motivated. Once the crisis is over, the same should be the case for staff that are fully employed and working away from the office. Targets, goals and KPIs can be put in place to ensure that teams are working to their full potential and with international conferencing software such as Zoom and Skype, there’s really no need for people to have to work in a confined space all of the time. However, there are some people that really do need to be around others all of the time, to bounce ideas off, for reassurance—obviously these people might not be suitable as home workers.
What will your staff say about you in the aftermath?
So what options are you currently offering your work force? In a few months when the crisis is over. The press and others will be putting companies under the microscope and judging how they’ve treated their staff over this challenging time. It’s worth considering how your business would fare in the ratings. What would your staff say about you? Are you a company that people would still feel motivated to work for; or has the time away from the office prompted your team to question everything they do and why exactly is it that they carry on working for you?
Whilst there are flaws with ‘the experiment’ in that children are currently off school, making it very difficult for parents to focus on anything at all, and being in constant close proximity to your loved ones—who’ve been isolated with you, creates much more challenging working conditions than would occur normally; if people can still achieve results working from home, might this prove to be a way forward? A way of working which offers more flexibility and provides the credence that people can work flexibly and successfully without someone permanently looking over their shoulder? The pressure is undoubtedly on employees too to do a good job and prove that they deserve to be trusted.
Are you right for working from home?
Whilst working from home may seem like the ideal. Not everyone is suited to it. If you’re a person that needs to be reassured, patted on the back and to be told you’ve done a great job; or someone who needs to bounce ideas off others in order to get inspiration, or you’re not a good decision maker, or you’re a person that feels lonely—there’s absolutely nothing wrong in that, but working from home is probably not for you. It’s satisfying in so my ways, but only if you’re a person that doesn’t live for recognition or needs others to motivate them, as it really can be quite a lonely life.
Opening up opportunities
Obviously, the roles where you can ‘work from home’ are limited, but there are still a lot of them. It really would open up so many more opportunities for those caring for someone else, or with disabilities themselves – if companies could be more open to flexible hours and working from home for those that want it and are suited to it. It will be interesting to see whether attitudes to more flexible working change, once the crisis is over. Personally, I really hope they do.
Stay well and safe and remember to look after your staff, because they have long memories and those that are treated well during this testing time, if they’re worth keeping—will remain loyal to you.