Working from home not best for work-life balance

MILLENNIALS and Generation Z are joining the workforce today with different expectations of their employers than previous generations.

They are more likely to look for flexible work arrangements, including the ability to work from home. While these flexible arrangements can seem to offer a better work-life balance, it’s not always the case.

Increased working hours, and a tendency for work commitments to impede on home life, are common in these situations. On the surface, a work from home arrangement may seem attractive. However, in practice it doesn’t always provide workers the work-life balance they seek.

Working from home has its appeal. There is increased flexibility to handle home commitments, more flexible hours, and the ability to create a comfortable personalised working environment.

With the availability of advanced communication tools such as video calls, social media and instant messaging, the technical limitations on remote work are less of an impediment than they have ever been. By working remotely, people with family or other responsibilities can continue as a productive member of the workforce and work through life events that would have previously made it difficult to continue working.

Although there are advantages in the flexibility offered by remote work, people who work from home tend to work longer hours and are less satisfied with the hours they work; the Melbourne Institute’s HILDA survey shows that the overall satisfaction with working hours decreases when working remotely. An employee working from home doesn’t have the advantage of a physical separation between the home and work domains, so work commitments will tend to intrude in to home life.

Communication can also be less efficient when performed remotely, regardless of the technology used. In areas where a high level of collaborative effort is required, such as in agile projects or detailed technical design, remote workers reduce the overall performance of the team, as face-toface communication is key to an effective collaboration.

IBM, once a vocal supporter of remote work, with more than 150,000 remote workers worldwide in 2009, found that remote work for these collaborative projects was simply not productive, and have taken more than 5000 workers back to the office as a result. As this trend towards flexible work continues, strategies to improve communication effectiveness and improve work-life balance will need to improve.

People will continue to want flexibility, and they will continue to work too many hours in flexible situations. Collaboration can sometimes be most effective when face-toface, so for workers who need to collaborate, a visit to the office could be a better approach. A smart business could tailor the arrangement to the individual situation, and the nature of the work required, rather than using a one-sizefits-all approach in offering flexible arrangements.