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‘If you don’t swipe in, you won’t be promoted.’ Remote working is still a battleground

Remote working has revolutionised our working lives, but the boundaries are still being thrashed out in many workplaces

Managing the boundaries between work and time off was a struggle, and remains so for many. Photograph: Getty Images
Emmet Malone's picture
Emmet Malone
Sun Sept 01 2024 - 07:05

“American CEOs are like orchestra conductors. They need all of their people in front of them – it’s in their DNA. They can’t cope with anything else,” says Frank, a tech worker who left his job with a multinational’s Irish operation and went out on his own as soon as the firm started bringing people back into the office post-Covid.

“For me, it was a no-brainer to leave. I have family responsibilities that mean I need to be in the house more, but a lot of others have been victims of what is a philosophical war… a generational war,” he says.

“They’ve been told to come back in and we’ll check how many times your badge is swiped on the security system. If it’s not enough, you won’t be promoted. It’s crazy.”

Gerry, also in tech, is looking for work now having spent a couple of years away since the pandemic, and says his second question to prospective employers, after how much he will be paid, is how much of each working week will have to be spent onsite. Four days or more and he simply moves on.

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The pair are among a number of workers who responded a year ago when The Irish Times asked readers what remote working during the pandemic had done for them and how they viewed the prospect of a return to work.

Almost all identified major benefits to being able to stay at home, often related to caring responsibilities or the avoidance of long commutes. Others cited personal health benefits and most actually claimed to be more productive.

Contacted again this week, they generally said their own views were largely unchanged. What had changed was their employers’ outlook. Many are happy to be back in the office some of the time, but several complained that policies were being set without any evidence that they really benefited either party. Several felt the upsides of having people back onsite routinely overblown.

Things have, in any case, certainly evolved.

Trish recalls taking breaks to go for a swim and holding online meetings while she, or others, were out for a long walk. That level of informality, she says, no longer feels acceptable but she is still fully remote, working for an American multinational and enjoys the benefits of being able to make doctors’ appointments and other commitments, then make up the time with the minimum of fuss.

Managing the boundaries between work and time off was a struggle, and remains so for many. If a commute had one benefit, it was to prove an opportunity for mental adjustment between work and home, or vice versa. Without it, managing time for family commitments needs to be consciously managed in much the same way work time does.

[ Irish employees now have upper hand in the debate over working from home ]

The Government’s attempt to provide for the post-Covid landscape is largely reflected in the codes of practice set out with regard to the right to request remote working and, separately, the right to disconnect, which was introduced in 2021. The newly elected British Labour government has suggested it may use the Irish approach as a model,but it may discover the code and the practice aren’t always the same thing. The actual code provides for a significant degree of flexibility but at least acts, says Laura Bambrick at Ictu, as “a reminder to employers of their responsibilities under a number of pieces of pieces of legislations”.

The evidence suggests, however, that engagement on the issue between employers and their staff can sometimes be uneasy with uncertainty persisting over issues such as monitoring, flexibility, illness and time off. Trish acknowledges that the lines are blurred regarding illness, for instance. Feeling too unwell to go to the office is one thing, but what about heading to the next room? When are you too sick to join an online meeting? Should you be taking calls while in bed? Sometimes, she says, colleagues have to tell each other during Teams calls that they really don’t seem well enough to be working.

“The risks are higher because of the way we are working now,” says Mary Connaughton, director of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). “Because of remote working . . . there has been a shift towards people being responsible for their output rather than being at their desk at certain hours.”

The potential for mental health and other impacts needs to be considered by managers as a health and safety issue, she says, but can be a challenge for both sides as both employers and their workers seek to navigate the still-evolving landscape.

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The demand for remote working remains undimmed, however. Ibec research suggests the desire for it among prospective employees is a key consideration when hiring. Connaughton cites the example of one firm she knows of in the tech sector that struggled to recruit, until a neighbouring firm started to bring people back into the office. CIPD’s research suggests that where remote working is possible one third of organisations have their people in two days a week, and one third three days a week, with public sector employers more forming a higher proportion in the former cohort.

The wider evidence, however, suggests a continued drift back to the office. Perhaps most worryingly for workers, the outcome of a case taken to the Workplace Relations Commission on the issue of a request made to work remotely effectively confirmed the ultimate right of employers to make the final decision on the issue.

And as for the effectiveness of the right to disconnect? It did not even merit a mention in the WRC’s annual report for last year, which covered the almost 70,000 calls the commission took last year as well as the 6,500 inspection visits it carried out the more than 14,000 specific complaints it fielded.

But that shouldn’t be taken to read that white collar workers are entirely happy with their lot. For now, they are mostly calling the shots. In the event the buoyant jobs market changes, there may be tense times ahead as some of these issues become flashpoints.