Flexible working is not the holy grail

5.1. Key Finding

Flexible working can and does create anxiety. As social animals we struggle with being cut off from others and we fear that we become invisible to those with the power to promote and reward.

Professor Adrian Furnham believes that flexible working – in the sense of working from home – can create anxiety:

“People at home feel cut off from what’s going on... If I am trying to manage you from a long way away, although you might deliver your stuff on time, I’ve really got very little sense of you as an individual and whether you are capable of working at a new level... ...promotability requires interaction. We are social animals and working from home can be very lonely.”

Also, a corporate culture can’t be expressed without community. Without a community, knowledge – our most precious resource – can’t be transferred naturally.

Our data shows a real paradox in attitudes to flexible working. Graduates, who have just spent three or four years studying independently seem less enthusiastic about home working while older people (for whom relationships at work are so important) are the most likely to work at home. This seems counter-intuitive at first but there is a logical explanation.

5.2. Age brings increasing flexibility

5.3. Graduates, young people and flexible working

The data we’ve collected shows a naivety among young (16 – 24 year old) workers. More than any other, this group believes that it is difficult to balance work and home life, so they are the most likely to believe that traditional working patterns will continue. They want this to happen too, so that they can be visible within the organisation, and so improve their chances of progress.

It’s not surprising that young people, new to work, have some skewed expectations of working life. What is concerning is the fairly gloomy outlook they have (a majority of them anticipate that flexible working will mean longer hours).

5.4. The sandwich generation and flexibility

“Everybody works better if they have the opportunity to have more influence over when they work. It’s an obvious one for the sandwich generation – the problem for them is that there is too much domestic and family related work to deal with. Flexibility doesn’t fully answer their problem. Indeed it’s fair to say that flexibility doesn’t answer anyone’s problems altogether.”  Mike Emmott, The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

In 2009 84% of the UK population wanted a society in which they would be able to devote more time to family life (Eurobarometer). Looking ahead and anticipating life in 2020 and beyond, only 38% of the population imagine they will have more time to spend with family. Another 43% think they will have less time with their family. We anticipate that family life will become squeezed. Flexible working may help in some ways but the majority of us still anticipate that flexible working means working more hours overall.

The consequence of this is that flexible working becomes more important in choosing jobs. Some people may not be able to take up jobs that they are qualified for because other commitments preclude a regime with rigid hours.

5.5. Older people and flexible working

Professor Adrian Furnham believes flexible working will be increasingly valued by older people and that they’ll see it as a key benefit. He believes that the ability to work less hours will suit their lifestyle. As a consequence of this, many older workers will be able to look after grandchildren.

Certainly grandparents are more often involved in childcare and so flexibility will be desirable. This is also the generation who approach retirement only to see their financial position being less robust than they hoped. For them staying on in the current job but on a part-time and more flexible basis may seem not just desirable, but essential.

5.6. The importance of real-life social networks

While a more flexible work style helps parents and carers, it simultaneously introduces new fears and anxieties. For many work flexibility is a problem and not a solution.

The debt burden that graduates will have in 2020 will be great and they will understandably be keen to progress within the organisation and maximise the return on their education. They will likely feel that working at home will hinder their progress as they will have a limited profile within the company.

Employers have their own concerns. Information is easily conveyed to employees whether they are in the office, at home or in the pub. The transfer of knowledge – the key commercial asset of the future - is more peculiar. Knowledge is transferred through face to face contact. Having a dispersed workforce is therefore counter-productive. Providing space (both in terms of place and time) for people to interact is critical in the development of knowledge-based businesses. How aware are business leaders of the way knowledge is transferred and in how to facilitate it?

“A lot aren’t. It’s essentially the difference between world leaders and the mediocre. It’s very hard to think of a world leading company that doesn’t at least aspire to create those working relationships within their offices.”  Ian Brinkley, The Work Foundation

5.7. Conclusions

The desire for flexibility is forced upon some but for many flexible working creates more problems than it solves. Flexible working, and especially working from home, can hamper team working (a guiding principle of work organisation), the transfer of knowledge, communication, the development of a work culture and can deny the satisfaction that comes from working with others (especially for older workers). The key in managing flexible working will be in applying it sensitively, to balance individual needs with those of the organisation.

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