COVID-normal workplaces: Should working from home be a ‘collective flexibility’?

Williamson, Sue; Pearce, Alicia

doi:10.1177/00221856221094894

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Research shows working from home and hybrid working can lead to work/family spillover (Ramani & Bloom, 2021), and managers require support to ensure staff do not work long hours. While flexible hours are highly valued by employees, working outside standard bandwidth hours may trigger overtime and penalty rates in industrial instruments (Williamson & Pearce, 2022). The public sector may need to reconsider what a standard ‘day’ looks like and how this can be regulated.…”

Section: Implications For the Public Servicementioning

confidence: 99%

The future of working from home in the public sector: What does the evidence tell us?

et al. 2022

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The COVID‐19 pandemic created a working from home experiment for the public sector. This paper examines what might happen next as countries move towards a COVID‐normal environment. Since the academic literature on public sector agencies and working from home since the onset of the pandemic is scant, we focus on the non‐peer‐reviewed literature as our evidence base. This paper identifies the main issues public sector agencies need to consider as new ways of working emerge. The key facets are emerging preferences for hybrid working, productivity and remote working, and impacts of working from home on employees, especially gender equality. We highlight a range of emerging challenges, including how to maintain productivity, the need to redevelop employee value propositions to attract and retain employees in this changing landscape, and the risks of proximity bias. We conclude by identifying questions to be addressed in subsequent research.

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Section: Implications For the Public Servicementioning

confidence: 99%

The future of working from home in the public sector: What does the evidence tell us?

et al. 2022

Self Cite

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“…The lack of legal frameworks for how workplaces in the home office should be equipped is a common problem in many countries (Niebuhr et al 2022). Likewise, it is commonly agreed that there is a lack of regulation at a collective level (Williamson and Pearce 2022). The results in this paper reveal that more regulation on these issues is needed.…”

Section: Practical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 80%

Perception of the Effects of Working from Home on Isolation and Stress by Spanish Workers during COVID-19 Pandemic

2023

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This paper tests the explanatory capability of the individual, organizational, environmental and job factors regarding Spanish workers’ perception of isolation and stress owing to working from home (WFH). We used a survey of the Spanish agency Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas on the Spanish population’s perceptions of several aspects of information technologies that was carried out in March 2021. Information overload, work overload and isolation are perceived to be the principal factors involved in WFH. Because WFH could be inhibit professional development, drawbacks in the infrastructure include overload and impediments to career development as the most relevant variables to explain the perception of isolation. Age and balance between family and work also have explanatory power, but less so for isolation and stress. While people with intermediate ages are less sensitive to isolation and stress, having a correct balance between work and personal life is a protective factor against these effects. From the results in this paper, we outline several questions that must be addressed by labour authorities via legal regulations and by firms and workers to adapt organizational and working culture to ensure the efficient implementation of WFH settings compatible with employees’ well-being.

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“…The pandemic has raised important questions about the future of flexible work and ‘family-friendly’ workplaces in this new era of remote working and ‘visible’ caring (Allen and Orifici, 2021; Williamson and Pearce, 2022). Future research must investigate how the pandemic has shaped parents’ (in)ability to work flexibly, including the persistence of gender and social inequalities, and the long-term impacts on the work–family interface, employee and family well-being, and ultimately, productivity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flexible work patterns and experiences of the work-family interface among Australian parents

Hokke,

Mason,

Crawford

et al. 2024

Journal of Industrial Relations

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Flexible work is often heralded as a key solution to the work–family ‘juggle’, yet evidence of its effectiveness is mixed, and few studies consider how parents combine flexible work options to balance work and care. This study aimed to examine the interplay between formal (employer-provided) and informal (self-directed) flexible work arrangements and identify usage patterns that support parents’ management of the work–family interface. We examined data from 3669 coupled Australian parents collected in 2016–2017. Using latent class analysis, we identified three distinct patterns of total flexibility use (low, moderate and high). Parents who were low users had the poorest work–family experiences, reporting higher work-to-family conflict, lower work–family enrichment and less balance than moderate or high users. However, high users experienced higher family-to-work conflict, and greater flexibility uptake did not ease perceptions of time pressure. Overall, findings demonstrate that formal and informal flexibility is a beneficial resource for mothers and fathers.

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COVID-normal workplaces: Should working from home be a ‘collective flexibility’?

Cited by 8 publications

References 17 publications

The future of working from home in the public sector: What does the evidence tell us?

The future of working from home in the public sector: What does the evidence tell us?

Perception of the Effects of Working from Home on Isolation and Stress by Spanish Workers during COVID-19 Pandemic

Flexible work patterns and experiences of the work-family interface among Australian parents

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