Natural disasters disrupt the nature of work, promoting an urgent review of where work is performed. Home‐based telework (HbTW), a common form of telework, is increasingly promoted as a means to ensure continuity of operations in an emergency situation. While widely advocated, little is known of the challenges and outcomes of HbTW when employed in disaster situations. This article explores the organisational and employee experiences of HbTW in the aftermath of a disaster, drawing on data from over 240 public sector workers and their managers who worked from home following a series of earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand. Findings point to critical factors shaping the experiences and outcomes of HbTW in disaster situations. Significant variation in the experiences and perceptions of HbTW for team leaders highlights their pivotal role and heightened pressures to maintain control in complex disaster situations.

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Flexible work arrangements have traditionally been framed in terms of individual choice, where workers are regarded as having the ability to reconcile the demands of family life with those of work. In response to calls for greater workplace flexibility and worker choice, the New Zealand government has recently introduced ‘right to request’ legislation. This research reports on a large-scale survey of women public service workers’ experiences of flexible work arrangements in this legislative context. Against a backdrop of rising workloads and time pressures, it finds that while there is considerable choice in how women do their tasks and take their breaks, there is little voice in the organization and pace of that work. In this context, the burden of implementing flexible work arrangements and managing competing workloads is borne by the individual. This article argues that absent from, but pivotal to, the framing and discourse of workplace flexibility is the role of voice. Implications of this research include a broadening of the legislative framework that supports flexibility outcomes and the inclusion of more varied voice mechanisms into the implementation and management of workplace flexibility.

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