Flexible Work Arrangements - Embrace or Leave?
By Faiza Zia Khan
Newport Beach, CA
What would an ideal job description look like for you? I start this article today by posing a rhetorical question to you all. Does a five-day weekend and two-day work week sound good to you? Yeah well! Nice try but this is not happening. Not now, not in the near future. However, what if I presented a utopian ideal of something similar to that.
You can wake up in the morning, go to work in your PJs all the while sipping fresh coffee and listening to your favorite song. You can log in at 6 am, pick up your children from school, take a yoga class, or be home when the repair guy comes by to fix that dryer of yours. Yet be on that three-hour conference call right on time.
Employers are highlighting flexible working hours in the job postings and providing an option for working from home to attract capable applicants who felt debilitated by the 9am-5pm grind. The philosophy behind this is truly fascinating. Employers are more focused on figuring out ways to make their work force productive. It is no longer a requirement for employees to sit at their desk for eight hours but deliver no value towards actual work. In our own South-Asian community this style of work arrangement has received rave reviews. No longer is motherhood an obstacle for a career woman. A senior executive who is also a new mother of Pakistani heritage was so thankful to her employers for allowing her to work from home after her third baby arrived. She had a burp cloth on her shoulder as she held her baby all the while talking to her team on a call. She said even though she was physically away from the office there was no change in her productivity. She could nap the baby whenever she wanted and reply to all the emails that needed to be dealt with. She said her flex hour combined with her work from arrangements allowed her to give equal attention to her twin toddler boys, the new baby, her household, and her job. For her this is nirvana.
Research shows there are both pros and cons to this style of work configuration. The fact of the matter is depending who you approach and the perspective they provide. Employees in bigger cities such as Los Angeles, CA or Houston, TX will incessantly complain about long commute. Aren’t we all amazed at how much faster you get to work if you leave your home at 10:00 am instead of 8:00 am. An employee engagement survey results showed employees save money by having a reduced consumption of commuting time, wear/tear on their vehicles, and fuel costs. In some areas, commutes of more than an hour each way are not uncommon. Once allowed to work from home, they were able to be productive for those two hours of time towards actual work instead of sitting on the road. Not to mention, fewer people driving eventually means less traffic on the road and less pollution to hit the environment.
Further, by offering flex hours, employees get an increased feeling of personal control. The flexibility to meet family needs, personal obligations and life responsibilities were more successfully met with career aspirations and goals. An HR recruiter observed, by allowing employees to determine their own schedule in the work environment, the built-in flexibility reduces employee burnout, and stress related absences due to overload. They can take a break when they want without their supervisors/bosses breathing down their necks.
Like my work from home friend I mentioned earlier I know several mothers who work as secondary paycheck contributors towards the household income along with their spouses. Flex work hours allow them to take care of younger non-school going children at home and significantly decrease external childcare hours and costs. Despite the flexibility, working from home still requires childcare because it is hard to work effectively while entertaining a toddler. However, an example demonstrates how this can work as an advantage for both the mom and the dad. A typical day would look like this: The mother can start a 6:00 am shift and the father can get the kids ready for school. After an eight hour shift is finished by 2:00 pm the mother can pick up the kids, while the father starts his workday at 9:30 a.m. Economically, two full-time jobs co-exist with minimal to non-existent child care costs.
On the other end of the spectrum, the cons for employees existed around communication and blurring of lines between work/life balance. Complaints from kids, spouses, or loved ones were around “Oh, she is always working.” Or, “…even if he is home is always checking his emails.” But, hey these issues can be handled with better time management and are trivial compared to the advantages discussed above. For employers if feelings of mistrust arise from a flex work arrangement there is nothing that can fix. Also, the employers cannot offer all jobs with this flexibility. Some jobs do require physical presence in the office depending on the nature of the job. Overall in my opinion I feel that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages towards a flex work schedule. This is why more and more employers are making the move towards this style and highlighting on their websites. Happy work force result in successful organizations. The takeaway here is, “Make up your mind. Pick a side and stick with it.”
(Faiza Zia Khan holds a Master’s in Journalism degree from the University of British Columbia, Canada. She has collaborated with news media outlets including Global National and actively volunteers for several community investment projects for the Red Cross, United Way and the Breast Cancer Foundation)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
