Why the WFH dream is backfiring for women

Choosing remote work over the office is making many invisible altogether, reports Eleanor Mills

There is an old truism that there is no great loss without some small gain: the big loss of the pandemic was our freedom to meet people, to be together. But in work terms, the gain was finally fitting work around our lives, rather than our lives around the needs of work. For those with caring responsibilities, women particularly, it felt as if that mythical grail of ‘having it all’ might have arrived.

After all, when everyone from the CEO to the gopher is working from home, that familiar female domestic juggle of bunging in a wash, overseeing a kid and jumping on the next Zoom is just normal, not different.

In the great pandemic home-based economy all seemed equal (except for the poor sods who actually had to go out to work in full PPE in a hospital, or supermarket or drive a lorry…) For the white-collar rest of us, it felt as if the 21st-century promise of flexible working had arrived: the future was Zoom in slippers with the whole family happily humming along on the Wi-fi.

Of course, it was never that easy. And now vaccines have opened up the economy again and the push is on to get back to the office, a new “mummy track” is appearing where women who choose not to commute and be available to the boss in real life are in danger of derailing their careers by becoming invisible.

This week the chancellor warned about a K-shaped recession in which some accelerate out of the slump into a sunny future, while others head down into the dumps.

Companies such as Google and Facebook have already made it clear in the US that they may pay workers who operate from home less: up to 25 per cent in worst cases. And it’s not just current pay or conditions that could be affected. Catherine Mann, a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, said this week that if women are to progress in their careers it is “extremely important” they get back to the office, an instruction echoed by a chorus of government ministers and city bosses.

As a veteran working mother myself – two decades of juggling kids and high-wire executive life – I’d urge

‘No one ever spotted you as a future leader loading the washing at home’

women to get back into harness. I’ve always encouraged women not to go part time; in my experience going down to three or four days a week is the worst of all worlds. Such workers (usually carers, often mums) get paid less but often end up being on call and doing just as much as they did before.

My advice was always to stay full time but seek some flexibility.

The trouble is that currently many women have run out of puff, particularly mothers. A year ago, a survey from Sheryl Sandberg’s female empowerment organisation Lean In found that one in four women were considering jacking in their jobs because of burnout; now, after 18 months of the pandemic, that figure has gone up to one in three.

One mother I spoke to last week lamented her “endless day” – waking up with her toddler at 4.30am and then beginning the endless round of Zooms and childcare, which, as her job is for a global company, goes on late into the night as she talks to clients in Mexico and San Francisco. It is no wonder that now, getting suited and booted, getting the kids to nursery, and catching a train into London, feels like a bridge too far. “I’m exhausted,” she said, “I can’t cope.”

The truth is the office can be energising. For mothers who have spent the past year and a half juggling Zooms with home-schooling, sitting at a desk in peace is a massive bonus. The office is where you are not Mum, but a grown-up in your own right. It is where things happen: that random chat with a co-worker often provides an a-ha moment or a new idea.

For newbies, watching how senior people behave, what they do, how they react in different situations is how you get better at your job. No one ever spotted you as a future leader loading the washing at home.

Yet, according to a new study from the Harvard Business Review by Nick Bloom, the world of work is becoming polarised between those who want to be in the office all the time (20 per cent, mostly bosses) and those who would rather work from home (32 per cent, predominantly carers and women).

“I speak to many companies and managers who are worried about how to cope with this new hybrid working model,” says Christine Armstrong, author of The Mother of All Jobs and researcher on the future of work. “We already know about proximity bias, where those closer to the boss are more likely to get promoted or get better work.”

But now, “the data on flexible working, that those who go into the office do better than those who don’t, is in danger of being enacted on a grand scale,” Armstrong warns.

This presents headaches for business leaders, she says. “Companies are going to have to establish new boundaries – perhaps core days where people are expected to be present. ”

The background to all of this is the current war for talent. New data from recruitment firm Randstad show that 69 per cent of employees are confident about finding another role. Not surprising when there are more unfilled jobs in the UK than ever before. The New York Times has dubbed it The Great Resignation, as workers including millennials and Gen

Zs who have got to like their new, more home-focused lives hand in their notice in unprecedented numbers.

Forbes columnist and career guru Avivah Wittenberg-cox warns: “Currently the power resides in the hands of employees because of the war for talent, and let’s not forget that women make up the majority currently of the highest educated talent.”

Wittenberg Cox believes the answer could lie in hiring more older women who have huge reserves of talent, dedication and time. “They are a much better bet but they are currently leaving the workforce in droves to start their own businesses. We need to change the way we think about career management, allowing women to work more flexibly during caring years and powering up later on.”

Not all senior women agree that opportunities for home-working should be created. One global female CEO I spoke to agrees the pandemic has been tough for women, particularly mothers. “But what I’ve seen in the past few days is when they do come in [to the office], they realise the benefits of being able to have a chat, get a coffee, be out in the world, be their old selves again and they like it. We just have to be nurturing and help them through this transition.”

Catherine Mann would agree, her concern being the desire to stay home may be temporary but, in the long term, damaging and irrecoverable. “There is the potential for two tracks,” she said. “There’s the people who are on the virtual track and people who are on a physical track. And I do worry that we will see those two tracks develop, and we will pretty much know who’s going to be on which, unfortunately.”

So the world has changed but the pendulum which swung to home working during the pandemic is now swinging to presenteeism.

What I do know, from 25 years as a boss, is that the more you go out of your way to help your employees with their personal travails, including supporting them back to the office if that is in their interests, the more they will go the extra mile to make the business a success.