Technology allows many people, particularly white-collar workers to work from anywhere at any time. The ideal work model being promoted is people blending both their work and private lives. They can choose when and how they work in a 24/7 period, just as long as they get the work done.
It is promoted as both glamorous and convenient. There are photos of people working on their computer while sipping cocktails on the beach, or sipping latté’s in coffee shops or balancing babies on knees.
It has been a very seductive option for many organisations and individuals. It reduces costs of floor space on one hand and allows people to manage their own time on the other.
More recently countries, organisations and individuals are realising there are downsides of blending lives and being available 24/7 and they are experimenting with other options.
The area of most concern is people are not switching off. They are always on. This is contributing to mounting levels of stress and anxiety levels which reduces the ability to remain focused and as a subsequence can reduce productivity.
According to Hugh Mackay, one of Australia’s leading social researchers, Australians are in the grip of anxiety with 2 million suffering from an anxiety disorder in one year and another million with depression.
New ways of work are being experimented with as people and organisations try to find more productive and healthy ways to work in our high-tech work environments.
Currently, 27{01332a80e2e652688e18927fa9a6162580960d47bc08263a3993439d666dcd52} of Australians work more than 50 hours a week and Australia is ranked 27 out of 35 on work-life balance
Changing work hours
The new experiments include reducing work hours to five or six hours a day. They focus on nothing else but getting the job done while at work. They don’t go to coffee, do internet banking, pick up dry cleaning, have irrelevant meetings. They just focus on doing their work as efficiently as possible and then go home.
Collins SBA Finance firm in Tasmania has adopted a five-hour workdaywithout changing salaries. They have increased productivity, reduced sick leave, and have become more efficient. Countries like Sweden have experimented with a six hour work day as well, with mixed results.
France has passed laws giving employees the right to disconnect outside work hours, and companies like Volkswagen and AXA insurance are reducing access to emails after hours.
Other companies, like KPMG are implementing a compressed work week. This is working the hours of five days into four. This allows people time to recoup and rebalance themselves for work.
Spotify a music streaming company is one of many companies allowing employees to trade off public holidays based on their values.
Working from home
Another experiment is working from home. Dan Schawbel in his new book Back to being Human has extensively researched the impact of disconnecting the workforce. He states globally one third of people work from home sometimes or often. The reasons are to provide flexibility, reduce costs and to assist with work life balance.
He highlights that two thirds of people who work from home are disengaged. They are less likely to make deep friendships due to isolation and are less committed to the organisation. Remote workers are less likely to work for the company long term and are less creative.
Interestingly, Apple, a pioneer in working from home is now encouraging people to work more in the office. Their new building seats 16,000 employees and they believe people who come to work are more creative, collaborative more loyal and more committed.
Transfering of risk
Yet another experiment is waterfalling. It is an unofficial term that describes organisations actively transfering their cost of employment to the employee and it has added to the rise of insecure employment.
The fear of insecure employment is not an argument about how many casual employees there are. Australias casual workforce has remained steady at about 25{01332a80e2e652688e18927fa9a6162580960d47bc08263a3993439d666dcd52} since the 1990’s. It is about the emergence of other types of insecure work above and beyound casualisation. These include fixed term contracts, outsourcing overseas contracting and labour hire companies and platform companies like Uber.
A government inquiry it commissioned into insecure work, estimated 40 per cent of Australian workers were in insecure work.
Although this trend continues, there is a widespread public debate about the impact of increasing levels of insecure employment, the contibution of financial insecurity to mental health, regulatory changes and tax implications to name a few.
Technology has the opportunity to create fabulous work options, which would have never before been possible. However, we must not believe the utopian spin doctors perfect world of work. Instead, we need to keep experimenting, challenge assumptions and ensure the future world of work is valuable for the many not the few.
