Other Views: The challenge of flexibility and equity
“Before (COVID-19) I didn’t pay much attention to one of my most important workplace benefits. (Now) it’s a perk I can’t stop daydreaming about. Eight precious hours, five days a week, when I could forget the unfolded laundry, unemptied dishwasher and kid-related clutter from one end of the apartment to the other. In short, the luxury of being able to focus on my work . ... Will the proposed flexibility actually result in greater equity, employee satisfaction and retention? (Working remotely) women will miss out on the connections, networking and mentorship that lead to advancement. Meanwhile, they will experience increased loneliness and the stress that comes from feeling that the division between their work and their home life has eroded.”
Art Markman, Harvard Business Review:
“At the University of Texas ... many of our faculty and staff have expressed that they’ve been productive working from home, have enjoyed it, and hope to continue doing much of their work remotely . ... The central problem is that many of the benefits of working from home are good for the individual, whereas many of the benefits of working from the office are good for the organization and affect the individual more indirectly . ... A lot of information sharing happens through short, informal conversations between people over the course of a normal workday. Working from home requires that every interaction be scheduled or take place over text. That extra effort can make people less likely to ask quick questions or share something they just learned informally . ... Another benefit of spending time with colleagues in the office is that it reinforces the sense that you share a common mission . ... Being around a group of people who are working toward a common mission reinforces that goal in everyone in the workplace. When people feel connected to the mission of the organization, it improves their overall satisfaction with their work.”
Anne Helen Petersen, New York Times:
“Let people do what they want and the pre-pandemic power dynamics of the office will simply reproduce themselves. No one, for example, should be allowed to go to the office every day – otherwise it’ll just become yet another way to prove yourself the better, more present worker . ... If the future of work is flexibility, our challenge now is to make sure that future doesn’t just worsen the ever-widening divide in American society between those promised a new vision of the good, balanced life, and those for whom ‘flexibility’ means effacing your wants and needs and dreams, once again, to the fickle demands of your employer.