Is Flexible Working Just One Thing, Or Can It Mean More?
A sudden change in work environments and work hours has sparked a conversation around flexible working. With the protocols for social distancing, lockdowns and other precautions – COVID-19 has triggered a new wave of work ethic and environment.
Confined to a home office, or simply just your bed – the way we work has changed, whether it has changed for the better or worse is a debate for another time. What we can say, is that the focus on flexible working has reintroduced the way we work.
But what does flexible working mean?
Flexible working can mean more than just one thing. For different people, flexible working looks different. Though flexible working has always meant “non-traditional working arrangements”, it’s hard to point out what it includes.
The purpose of flexible working is to create an easier path to a work-life balance. A work-life balance becomes hard to maintain for a lot of people, especially with the world around us being so fast-paced and career-oriented.
Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is not only important for our own health and relationships, but it can also improve productivity, and performance at work and home.
In the same way that work-life balance means different things to different people, flexible working outlooks can also differ.
Does it mean flexible working hours? Flexible deadlines? Flexible workplace? Or flexible timelines? While some may argue that it can only mean one of these, it includes all these elements.
For some, flexibility of work simply means varying your start and finish times. For example, instead of following a 9-5 pattern, assessing your efficiency and creating a timeline accordingly is flexibility.
For others, deadlines are more variable. For example, setting your own deadlines after being assigned a project – a format many freelancers follow. Speaking of freelancing, we can also classify freelancing into “flexible work” where you only work on certain projects and jump in and out as required. Even part-time work can see itself in a flexible setting.
In some cases, remote work or working from home – away from your typical workplace environment is also considered. Often clubbed together with varying paid leaves and unplanned leaves.
WGEA (Workplace Gender Equality Agency), an Australian Government statutory agency, outlines the various types of flexible working arrangements very well and then goes further to point out what it is not. They talk about how working at a location other than the official place of work, part-time work, unplanned leaves, remote work, and other choices about hours, patterns and leaves come under a broad spectrum of flexible working.
As mentioned earlier, the main purpose of flexible working is to allow employers to maintain a work-life balance and also to reduce stress and pressure. Stress, pressure and balance are variables that constantly change from person to person. Confining flexible working to a boundary then becomes impossible.
For employers, a huge logistical task associated with flexible working is managing and monitoring each employee’s hours to ensure they are still fulfilling their duties. Employees, on the other hand, believe that lesser monitoring ultimately leads to better work and productivity. However, there’s not enough research that can prove either to be true.
There are HR systems though, that are being introduced to keep track of work and timing – asking employees to log in time and work every day on their systems.
While many still believe that the benefits of flexible working remain open only to employees, employers also benefit. Greater motivation and productivity, fewer overheads, an improved sense of trust and a better employee-employer relationship are just some of the benefits.
So, when we talk about flexible working, we have to remember to accommodate different ideas and perspectives – it cannot stay stuck in a box.
