Working From Home: The Good, Bad, & the Ugly

As the deadly Coronavirus spreads across China causing mass business closures, authorities are urging businesses to reopen. Instead of risking infection in major Chinese hubs, millions of workers are staying home, in what might be the world's largest work-from-home experiment. Coronavirus aside, there are major positives and negatives to a more flexible work schedule. Here are the pros and cons of offering a flexible work schedule:

PROS

1.    Increased Employee Productivity

For Millennials, work life balance is not only “nice to have,” but a necessity for happiness. Happy employees are more productive, engaged, and innovative. With proper expectations from employers, employees can be just as productive working from home as they are in the office.

2.    Enhanced Innovation

Researchers at the University of California Irvine found that a typical office worker gets only 11 minutes of work time between each interruption and it takes an average of 25 minutes to return to the original task after each interruption. These interruptions make it hard to think let alone come up with new ideas that solve company and client challenges. Allowing employees to control the environment where they’re most innovative is beneficial to organizations.

3.    Improved Team Communication

Working remotely requires that you check in with co-workers more frequently. This may sound like a con, but the added communication can help projects progress more smoothly with less potential for rework.

4. Employers Gain Commitment

With flexible work schedules, employers experience benefits as well. Giving up some control of work schedules gives increased employee morale, engagement, and commitment to the organization. The option also reduces employee turnover, absenteeism, and tardiness by allowing workers to flex hours around home and family obligations.

5. Employee Empowerment

Employees get an increased feeling of personal control over schedule and work environment. One reason people like to work for themselves is the control issue. By allowing employees to determine their own schedule and work environment, you appeal to the entrepreneurial spirit—which can be good for your employees.

CONS

1.    Not Every Employee Can Work at Home

Some Employees may not have the proper set up to work from home. It’s easy to become preoccupied with taking care of other tasks at home instead of devoting full attention to work. For others going through difficult personal situations, coming into the office every day can provide a reprieve.

2.    Managing Remote Employees Can Be More Difficult

According to Gallup, only 10% of the population are natural-born managers. New or struggling managers may have difficulty effectively managing employees especially in the remote setting.

3.    May Not Work for Non-exempt Employees

The 4-10 and 9-80 alternative schedules are gaining popularity, but may be better suited for salaried or exempt employees. In addition, shift work usually must maintain set hours at a set location.

4. Employees Take Advantage of the Situation

Unfortunately, not all employees are made equal. Some may abuse the power of flex scheduling and will come in at 11am and leave at 3pm, while others may simply say they’re working from home, but are actually catching up on laundry.

5. Difficulty with Client Handover

Compressed workweeks can make client handovers complicated—clients expect service 5 days a week during business hours and can be fussy when an employee isn't in on Friday. For this customer-centric reason, jobs that require customer-facing responsibilities only allow certain types of flextime. 

With the rising popularity of flexible schedules, it’s something you’ll want to keep on your radar for evaluation.