This is a longer article than usual, so you might want to make a cup of tea and get comfortable before you start reading…

It’s common, in 2023 for employers to find that they can only recruit the people they want if they are prepared to let them work at home.  Time and time again, I’m hearing tales from HR about good candidates who won’t accept a job offer unless they can work at home.  I’m also hearing from people who are job-hunting, that they want a contract that means they don’t have to commute to the office every day.

Not surprisingly, most employers are acceding to the demand for working at home, rather than lose a good candidate.

But is it the right thing to do?

Your employees might want to work from home, but what if it isn’t good for them?  Like a responsible parent who doesn’t give their child everything they want, should a responsible employer exercise some judgement over what’s good for their employees?  Or should you assume that your employees are responsible adults and can exercise their own judgement about what’s good for them and what’s not?

Given the amount of corporate resources that have been poured into the mental health agenda over the past few years, I think it’s safe to assume that a majority of employers have accepted some responsibility for the wellbeing of their people.  If that’s the case, my question about allowing your employees to work from home – even if it’s not good for them – is a serious one.

 

Why do people want to work at home?

Back in 2019 – before ‘lockdown’ was part, not only of our collective vocabulary, but also of our shared experience, lots of people would occasionally ‘work from home’ for a day.  Usually, it meant a day to focus on an important task that required that one person to give their all.  A day free from the distractions of a busy office was known and acknowledged to be a productive day.

Yes, sometimes ‘working from home’ meant devoting part of the day to non-work activities – a dentist appointment, a sick child or the need to finish work at a specific time to keep an evening commitment.  It was this that made some business leaders suspicious of requests to work from home and probably delayed the onset of the current wave of enthusiasm for avoiding the office.

All that shifted in 2020.  We HAD to work at home (no ‘from’ included) and we discovered that not only was it not impossible, but that it actually worked rather better than we expected.  Having had a taste of it, lots of people were reluctant to give up working at home.

Here are some of the obvious reasons:

• It’s convenient. There’s no commute, so you reclaim a couple of hours per day that would otherwise have been spent travelling. You can get up later or go to the gym before breakfast, do the school run or just get more work done.
• There’s no need to dress up. You can work in your pyjamas if you want, you spend less time getting ready to go to work and nobody is judging how smart you look.
• It’s cheaper. No commute means no bus/train fare, no fuel or parking costs.  It also means you’re not tempted to spend money on your favourite frothy coffee or lunchtime treat.  You also don’t walk past the shops on your way home and you don’t see your colleagues new phone/shoes/jacket to get you thinking about your own upgrade.  If you don’t leave the house, you’re less likely to spend money, right?
• It’s easier to concentrate. Many people feel they are more productive working at home.  They can focus, they don’t get distracted and they can have complete control of their working day.  (Apart from the incessant Zoom and Teams meetings!)

Before we turn our attention to the less obvious reasons, just take a moment to notice how the reasons for working at home indicate mainly avoidant motivation.  Apart from the improved productivity, people want to work at home because of something it enables them to avoid.

Here are some of the less obvious reasons:

• You feel less vulnerable working at home. Not many people would say they feel vulnerable at work – that has overtones of bullying and discrimination.  But the reality is that every time you go to work and complete a task you are open to the judgement of others.  In a healthy working culture, this is fine, feedback is given in helpful ways and every day is an opportunity to learn.  In a less healthy culture, that judgement might be painful to hear and difficult to process.
  During lockdown, the coaches at Brilliant Minds were involved in a lot of on-line coaching – some having not done it before.  One of the differences between coaching online and coaching in person, noticed across the whole team, was that people relaxed more readily and opened up about their situation more quickly online.  Presumably because they felt less vulnerable in their own space.
• If you don’t go into the office, you don’t have to face up to colleagues whom you find difficult or challenging. You can deal with them electronically.  You can’t hide completely, but you can keep yourself out of the firing line most of the time.  And when your boss rejects your brilliant idea or your request for a pay rise, you can switch off your screen and deal with it in private.

Again, these reasons tap into avoidant motivation.  Which means that working from home helps us avoid unpleasant things.

Surely there should be more to (working) life than that?

If all we’re doing is avoiding stuff we don’t want to do, we’re getting into a downward spiral.  The next objective being to eliminate something else that is a source of irritation or stress – or just mental exertion.

In the absence of a compelling goal, human beings tend to take the path of least resistance.  We do whatever is easiest.  If there are no unpleasant repercussions from our actions, we repeat them.

For example, if nobody complains the first time you leave the camera switched off in a meeting (because you’re still in your pyjamas) you’re very likely to do it again.  No harm done.  But now you don’t have a reason to look your best on a working day.

Like I said, it’s downward spiral.

Before I go any further, l want to acknowledge the people for whom working at home is the only way they can work at all.  I am aware that for some people, the opportunity to conduct their entire working day without leaving the house is not a convenience, but a necessity.  You know who you are and your employer knows it too.  I’m not talking about you.

 

Having looked at some of the reasons why people think they want to work at home, let’s check the reality of working at home:

Environment

In an ideal world, working at home means sitting in a comfortable/ergonomic chair at your desk in your home office, with plenty of natural light and clean air.  It means closing the door on your home office at the end of the working day and detaching yourself from all things work-related.  In an ideal world.

For many people, it’s far from ideal.  For young people who still live at home with their parents it can mean working in their bedroom, in some cases sitting on the bed.  That is not only uncomfortable, it’s also unhealthy.

Human beings in general separate experiences by a process known as ‘compartmentalisation’.  It enables us to function well in the face of the immediate demands of the situation regardless of what we may be concerned with in other aspects of life.  Hence, you can go to the office and put in a good day’s work even if the bathroom ceiling is falling down and the plumber can’t get to you for another two days.  This is also the reason why you can ‘switch off’ when you go on holiday or you can enjoy a stroll around the park at lunchtime even though you have a stressful meeting to attend later.  You’re in a different place and different things are required of you. (I know some people don’t compartmentalise as well as others, but it is an innate skill.)

Continual working at home denies us the ability to compartmentalise.  There isn’t enough distinction between home life and working life.  It means you can never fully ‘get away’ from anything – or anyone – that is a source of stress or irritation.  It’s hard to get a different perspective when you can’t detach from your problems by literally going somewhere else.

For young people working from their parents’ home, this can lead to the need to go out every evening, to literally get away from their place of work.  Home ceases to be a sanctuary and becomes a source of stress.  Working at home not only denies them the opportunity to compartmentalise, it also denies them the opportunity to develop the skill at all.

Of course, not everyone who works at home is balancing a laptop on their knees as they perch on the end of the bed.

You might be working at the kitchen or dining room table.  You might have your own office or a nook in the corner of a room.  The same issue applies – it’s harder to compartmentalise and thus harder to get any perspective on what happens at work.

 

People

For lots of people, working at home means no human contact.  No eye contact, no handshakes or hugs and no spontaneous chat by the coffee machine.  If you live with a partner or have your family around you, that might not seem important but if you live alone working at home can be lonely and isolating.

A good virtual meeting can provide some interaction and a sense of belonging.  While it lasts.  I can’t be the only person who finds the moment of disconnection from a meeting to be a brutal shift of focus.  There’s no gentle one-to-one chat as you prepare to leave the meeting.  No holding the door for each other or strolling down the corridor together for lunch.  No, it’s ‘end meeting for all’ and suddenly I’m alone at my desk looking at a meaningless screen.

For some people and companies, this is nothing new.  Working as part of a team that is distributed around a county, continent or indeed the entire world has been possible for many years and lots of people are accustomed to it, both as team members and as virtual leaders.

However, virtual team-working hasn’t always meant working at home.  More often, it has meant having an office base where you could interact with colleagues who might be part of other teams but who were doing similar work.  There were opportunities to chat over a cup of coffee or to exchange ideas, problem-solve together or walk to the station together after work.  The team may have been virtual, but there were real people around!

Those real people provided vital stimulus to the working day.  They gave you information about activities that weren’t strictly your domain but had relevance.  They recommended books, podcasts and TV programmes.  They shared recipes and restaurant recommendations.  In short, they engaged your mind with things outside of your normal sphere.  We all know how valuable that can be.

In fact, it’s not just the people you work alongside who are important.  Your network of casual acquaintances contributes greatly to happiness, knowledge and a sense of belonging.  These are the people with whom you may have a brief conversation occasionally, the friends-of-friends who may the source of interesting new information or insights into different industries or jobs.  It might even be the person who makes your morning coffee at the train station.  Each of these individuals are examples of what sociologist Mark Granovetter calls ‘weak ties’.  If your close friends and family are your ‘strong ties’ this network of casual acquaintances is your ‘weak ties’.  They’re important because the relationship can enhance your life and rarely demands anything.  It’s a low-intensity interaction that nonetheless can make you feel good about yourself.  Just a smile from the ticket collector at the station can set you up for the day.

But no, you’re working at home because it’s cheaper, more convenient and more flexible.  You’re in danger of sliding into that downward spiral where the less you go out, the less you want to go out.  The fewer people you see, the fewer people you want to see.  The less time you spend working, the less time you want to spend working.

 

Which brings me to…

Productivity

There’s no denying that personal productivity usually gets a boost when you work at home.  But what about the collective productivity?  Are you collaborating as well as a team as you were when you used to sit around a table and problem-solve or dream up a new project?  If you are, brilliant.  You’re probably in the minority.

In the early days of the pandemic, researchers discovered that productivity had not suffered from the move to working at home.  Employers heaved a huge sigh of relief and turned their attention to other matters.  (Possibly the disposal of office accommodation?)  More recent research maintains that workers are more productive when working at home.

So that’s all good, right?

Well, it’s good if you’re the kind of employer that is only interested in productivity.  But if you’re interested in the wellbeing of your workers, you might be willing to sacrifice that extra few percent of productivity for the sake of a mentally healthy workforce and a sparkling employer brand.

Ah, but wait…

Your employees want to work at home and won’t give you good employer reviews if you don’t let them.

And we’re back to the question:

Should you allow your employees to work at home, even if it’s not good for them?

So far, I’ve looked at the ins and out of working at home.  The benefits and the sacrifices.  I’ve highlighted the human tendency, in the absence of a compelling goal, to take the path of least resistance, that is, the easy option.

Let’s look at the alternative.

The benefits of office life

Up until 2020, if you were a knowledge worker, you worked mainly in the office.  You accepted the commute as part of the deal and you made yourself presentable every day because it’s what was expected of you.

And it wasn’t all bad.

You had:

• Human interaction – with all that entails!
• Compartmentalisation – a split between work life and personal life
• Knowledge derived from hearing your colleagues at work
• Shared experiences
• A sense of belonging – crucial for full engagement

It’s my view that these things all contribute to your mental health.  Especially human interaction.

Human beings are social creatures.  We didn’t evolve to function alone.  Paradoxically, that makes us very sensitive to slights and anything that may feel like rejection.  Our primitive ancestors relied on the tribe to survive and thus those who survived were those who noticed when their behaviour was earning them hostility or rejection and immediately mended their ways.  Exclusion from the tribe meant death.  You had to be alert to the moment someone turned against you.  And we are still alert to that today.

Learning how to interact with other people and how to make amends when there is tension between people is an essential life skill.  Sadly, it’s one fewer and fewer people are learning.

My Mum grew up during World War 2.  She is the youngest of five siblings and as a child shared a bedroom with her three sisters in a classic ‘two-up, two down’ terraced house.  The house was heated only by the fire in the kitchen/living room and so life was lived in that room.  If you had a disagreement with a family member you either left the house or you faced the discomfort.  You had to learn how to rub along together because there wasn’t any other option.  (I wonder if this is why my Grandad loved his allotment so much?)

From the age of eight I had my own bedroom.  If I argued with my sister or got told off by my parents, I could go and sulk in my own centrally-heated bedroom (and I did).  I could avoid the conflict, as can most people in the modern world.

Our desire to withdraw from conflict, to go away and sulk, plot revenge or just calm down is normal and healthy to some extent.  Even better, and much healthier, is to learn how to ride the waves of interpersonal differences and to be able to disagree with respect, without ‘falling out’ or crumbling in the face of opposition.

Where better to learn these vital skills than in the office?

Let’s be honest…

Life is messy.  People disagree.  People unintentionally hurt each other.  People sometimes intimidate others or stun them into silence.  We’re not all the same.  Nor do we want to be. But unless we can get comfortable with the differences and respect everyone for who they are, we’re always going to be avoiding something or someone.

I know, this isn’t a compelling reason for people to come back to the office, ‘you’ll have to face up the discomfort of working with people you don’t like’.  Or the benefits of compartmentalisation.  Even the feeling of belonging isn’t a big enough motivation to get people to undertake the daily commute.

The saddest thing is, I think lots of people are starting to forget what it feels like when you make eye contact with a colleague.  That moment of connection across a meeting table, when you both know what each other is thinking?  Impossible on Teams or Zoom.  I think people are starting to forget the buzz you get from an experience shared with several colleagues working in the same space together.  We are beginning to believe that the online experience is as exciting and effective as in person experience.  It isn’t.  When get in the same room and breathe the same air, something completely different occurs.  (Cue smart quips about breathing in the COVID virus)

The 2023 Gallup ‘State of the Global Workplace’ report shows that only 13% of workers in Europe are engaged with their employer.  The global figure is 23%.  So, if your UK workplace is representative, a staggering 87% of employees are not engaged.  I’d be willing to bet that work is not the only area of life where many of the are disengaged.  It’s a symptom of poor mental health and lack of connection to other people, to meaningful work and to a sense of personal significance.

So, if you are convinced as an employer that it’s good for your people to work in the office together – at least some of the time – there is only one solution.

If you want people to work in the office…

You have to make it attractive.  You need to make it enjoyable and interesting and worth the effort it takes to go to work as opposed to working at home.  Yes, you.  The leaders in a business are the ones with the power to make working in the office an attractive option.

I’m not talking about doughnuts and pizza or ping-pong tables and meeting rooms with beanbags instead of chairs.

I’m talking about helping your employees discover a compelling goal.  About making them feel valued and valuable.  About creating a working environment that feeds the mind and the soul.  About providing exceptional role models and exemplary leadership.  About stimulating conversation and productive meetings.  Every day.  Every week.  Every month.  For ever.

I’m talking about everyone raising their game and refusing to accept this downward spiral of only doing what’s easiest and hurts the least.

I’m talking about employers engaging with their employees and providing effective leadership.  Leadership that creates the sense of being part of a winning team, a sense of belonging, or doing something worthwhile.

Above all, I’m talking about bringing some humanity back into the workplace.  Is that too much to aim for?