More than one third of Scots home-workers struggle with work-life balance

SOME Scottish home-workers are struggling with work-life balance and excessive workloads amid the pandemic, new research shows.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found 37 per cent of those fully working from home said they find it hard to relax in their personal time because of their job, compared with 23% of those not working from home at all.

It also found 40% of those fully working from home report excessive workloads, compared with 31% for those not working from home at all.

The professional body for HR and people development also found 43% of Scots are in jobs that can’t be done from home. It found those who can work from home would like to continue working from home at least some of the time.

The CIPD said that while overall job quality in Scotland has been largely unaffected by the pandemic, it continues to fall short on several key measures.

The report highlights that concerns remain over issues like wellbeing, job autonomy and skills mismatch across the Scottish workforce, with for example 26% of employees saying their work impacts negatively on their mental health.

Report author Marek Zemanik, senior public policy adviser at CIPD Scotland, said it shows that “some of the concerns many had about a deterioration of relationships at work, mental health or employee voice during the pandemic have not materialised”.

“Investing in better people management, before or during the pandemic, coupled with a focus on communication and wellbeing, seems to have protected employees against some of the potential negative impact of the pandemic on working lives,” he said. “However, we continue to see concerning findings around the impact of work on wellbeing, challenges around work-life balance, or significant job design differences. This does not have to be inevitable – all jobs have the potential to be better.”

Lee Ann Panglea, head of CIPD Scotland and Northern Ireland, said that “the last 15 months have been extraordinary for all of us, but especially for the HR profession”, adding it “has been front and centre of navigating huge people and organisational challenges across Scotland”. She said: “Employers need to keep wellbeing top of their agenda and should be considering flexible working options beyond homeworking, like flexitime, job sharing or compressed hours if they want to retain and attract employees.

“Fair work and good people practice should be central to achieving inclusive growth and improving job quality and productivity for all employees and employers. Working Lives Scotland 2021 provides further evidence around some of the challenges, gaps, but also opportunities for progress.”