tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/flexible-work-34829/articlesFlexible work – The Conversation2024-03-26T12:48:40Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2223642024-03-26T12:48:40Z2024-03-26T12:48:40ZNot having job flexibility or security can leave workers feeling depressed, anxious and hopeless<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581106/original/file-20240311-22-aqasrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=62%2C20%2C6934%2C4637&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Warehouse employees frequently lack control over their own schedules.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/exhausted-warehouse-worker-royalty-free-image/1413866834">Andres Oliveira/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When employees don’t have control over their work schedules, it’s not just morale that suffers – mental health takes a hit too. That’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.3439">what my colleagues and I discovered</a> in a study recently published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.bu.edu/sph/profile/monica-wang/">public health expert</a>, I know that the way our jobs are designed can affect our well-being. Research has shown that flexibility, security and autonomy in the workplace are strong <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.15">determinants of health</a>.</p>
<p>To understand how powerful they are, my colleagues and I looked at the 2021 <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/about_nhis.htm">National Health Interview Survey</a>, a major data collection initiative run out of the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/index.htm">National Center for Health Statistics</a>. We analyzed responses from 18,144 working adults across the U.S., teasing out how job flexibility and security may be linked with mental health.</p>
<p>The respondents were asked how easily they could change their work schedule to do things important to them or their family, whether their work schedule changed on a regular basis, and how far in advance they usually knew their schedules. They also rated their perceived risk of losing their job in the next 12 months.</p>
<p>We found that workers who had more flexible work arrangements were less likely to report feelings of depression, hopelessness and anxiety. Similarly, those with greater job security were at lower risk of mental health challenges. We also found that higher job security was linked with fewer instances of missing work over the past year.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>The average full-time worker dedicates <a href="https://www.gettysburg.edu/news/stories?id=79db7b34-630c-4f49-ad32-4ab9ea48e72b">a third</a> of their lifetime waking hours to work. Given that fact, understanding how job design affects mental health is key to developing policies that bolster well-being.</p>
<p>It’s clear why employers should care: When workers aren’t feeling well mentally, they’re <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-022-00761-w">less productive</a> and more likely to <a href="http://doi.org/10.1097/00043764-200104000-00010">miss work</a>. Their <a href="https://www.betterup.com/blog/mental-health-impedes-creativity">creativity</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2017.1304463">collaboration</a> and ability to <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-at-work#">meet job demands</a> also suffer, hurting the entire organization.</p>
<p>The impact of job-related stress extends beyond the workplace, affecting families, communities and health care systems. People grappling with work-related mental health challenges often require <a href="http://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-14-131">multiple forms of support</a>, such as access to counseling, medication and social services. Not addressing these needs comprehensively can cause <a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/jamahealthforum.2023.3535">serious long-term consequences</a>, including reduced quality of life and increased health care costs.</p>
<p>It’s important to note that the COVID-19 pandemic <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-022-01284-9">worsened mental health disparities</a> and that individuals in lower-wage positions, front-line workers and people in marginalized communities continue to face <a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.14136">additional challenges</a>. In this context, understanding exactly how job and work design can affect people’s mental health is all the more important.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>My research team plans to examine how race and gender affect the links between job flexibility, job security and mental health.</p>
<p><a href="http://doi.org/10.1037/a0034016">Previous research</a> suggests that women and people of color experience <a href="http://doi.org/10.1037/a0034016">unique workplace stressors</a> that harm their mental well-being. For instance, women continue to face <a href="https://sgff-media.s3.amazonaws.com/sgff_r1eHetbDYb/Women+in+the+Workplace+2023_+Designed+Report.pdf">barriers to career advancement</a>, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/gender-pay-gap-statistics/#">unequal pay</a> and a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-018-2025-x">higher burden</a> of unpaid care work.</p>
<p>Similarly, employees of color often experience <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/328394/one-four-black-workers-report-discrimination-work.aspx">discrimination</a>, <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/05/research-the-real-time-impact-of-microaggressions">microaggressions</a> and <a href="https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/104761/racial-equity-and-job-quality.pdf">limited opportunities for professional growth</a> at work, all of which can harm <a href="https://milkeninstitute.org/sites/default/files/2023-04/racialequitybrief.pdf">mental health</a>. Understanding gender and racial differences will help researchers and organizations develop targeted interventions and policy recommendations.</p>
<p>Mental health challenges are far from rare: More than 50 million Americans, or nearly <a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness">1 in 5 adults</a>, live with mental illness. By creating workplaces that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/08901171241233398">prioritize employee well-being</a> – through flexible work arrangements, supportive policies and access to mental health resources – organizations can help build a healthier society. </p>
<p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take on interesting academic work.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222364/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monica Wang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The way jobs are structured affects employee mental health, an analysis of more than 18,000 workers shows.Monica Wang, Associate Professor of Public Health, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2230802024-02-28T22:11:57Z2024-02-28T22:11:57ZStop breaking women’s hearts at work: 7 ways to make workplaces better for cardiovascular health<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578772/original/file-20240228-20-3fdqgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1581%2C73%2C6597%2C4329&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Research shows women are at higher risk for burnout and psychological, emotional and physical stress in the workplace in comparison to their male counterparts.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prominent heart health messaging focuses on the <a href="https://www.heartandstroke.ca/stroke/recovery-and-support/make-healthy-choices#:%7E:text=Be%20more%20active,disease%20and%20stroke%20by%2030%25.">role of lifestyle behaviours</a> (such as physical activity and nutrition) in cardiovascular health. However, the role of <a href="https://www.who.int/health-topics/social-determinants-of-health#tab=tab_1">social determinants of health</a> (or SoDH) — which include sex, gender, poverty, environment — is also well established. SDoH not only directly impact <a href="https://doi.org/10.1161/circresaha.121.319811">risk and progression</a> of heart disease, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajmo.2023.100047">but also health outcomes</a>.</p>
<p>Certain types of heart disease are <a href="https://www.heartandstroke.ca/what-we-do/media-centre/news-releases/system-failure-womens-heart-and-brain-health-are-at-risk">significantly more common in women</a>, compared to men. Moreover, compared with their non-Black counterparts, heart health for Black women is differentiated by a heavier burden of traditional risk factors, earlier development of the disease and nearly 20 per cent higher <a href="https://onlinecjc.ca/article/S0828-282X(23)01619-7/abstract#:%7E:text=Compared%20with%20their%20nonblack%20counterparts,higher%20rates%20of%20cardiovascular%20mortality.">rates of cardiovascular mortality</a>. </p>
<h2>Women, work and heart health</h2>
<p>Canadians spend an average of 7.5 hours per day at work, translating to roughly half of our waking hours. Several researchers have shown a relationship between <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/increasing-workplace-flexibility-associated-with-lower-risk-of-cardiovascular-disease/">workplace and heart health</a>. For instance, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2023.307413">research has linked</a> increased workplace flexibility (hybrid models, flexible schedule) with lower risk of cardiovascular disease. </p>
<p>Research also shows women are at higher risk for burnout and psychological, emotional and physical stress in the workplace <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/14/burnout-is-on-the-rise-gen-z-millennials-and-women-are-the-most-stressed.html#:%7E:text=Two%20types%20of%20people%2C%20however,burnout%20than%20men%20(37%25)">in comparison to their male counterparts</a>. This disproportionate burden has been attributed to several factors in and outside the workplace, inextricably linked to <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01400">gender roles, sexism, racism, ageism and misogyny</a>. For instance, women are more likely to experience gender-based violence, assumptions about gender-roles, and higher cognitive and emotional workload in and out of work. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman bringing a mug to an older woman" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578728/original/file-20240228-22-q2iddp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578728/original/file-20240228-22-q2iddp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578728/original/file-20240228-22-q2iddp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578728/original/file-20240228-22-q2iddp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578728/original/file-20240228-22-q2iddp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578728/original/file-20240228-22-q2iddp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578728/original/file-20240228-22-q2iddp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many women balance paid work with gendered labour in the home and care-taking roles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once again, these burdens are <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/ca/%7E/media/mckinsey/locations/north%20america/canada/gender%20diversity%20at%20work/gender_diversity_at_work_in_canada.pdf">higher in equity-deserving groups</a>, especially for women experiencing <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace">intersectional forms of discrimination</a>, such as <a href="https://canadianwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Resetting-Normal-Gender-Intersectionality-and-Leadership-Report-Final-EN.pdf">racism, colonialism, ableism and homophobia</a>. </p>
<p>It should not come as a surprise then that almost 90 per cent of reported <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/takotsubo-cardiomyopathy-broken-heart-syndrome#:%7E:text=More%20than%2090%25%20of%20reported,no%20long%2Dterm%20heart%20damage.">stress-induced heart disease</a> — or “<a href="https://www.heart.org/en/news/2021/10/13/broken-heart-syndrome-is-on-the-rise-especially-among-older-women">broken heart syndrome</a>” — is found among women, and five per cent of women suspected of having a heart attack actually have this disorder.</p>
<p>Women are often the heart of their communities, and assume multiple, and intersecting, gendered social roles. For instance, many balance paid work, with <a href="https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/diff/ace-women-health/Healthy%20Balance/ACEWH_hbrp_thinking_it_through_women_work_caring_new_millennium.pdf">gendered labour in the home and in care-taking roles</a>. To make matters worse, women are then <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/04/stop-framing-wellness-programs-around-self-care">bombarded with wellness and self-management messaging</a> that tells them they are <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-psychology-of-weight-loss/202308/going-on-vacation-wont-cure-your-burnout">responsible for managing stress</a> and <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-psychology-of-weight-loss/202306/the-burnout-burger">risk in a “healthy” way</a>.</p>
<p>In terms of workplace health, women and equity-deserving groups have been compared to the “canary in the mine.” Canaries were traditionally used in coal mines to detect the presence of carbon monoxide. The bird would succumb to the toxicity before the miners, thereby providing time to take action. </p>
<p>However, psychologists Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674251014">make an important point</a>: No one ever declared that the canaries needed to be more resilient or do more self-care to be less susceptible to the influence of carbon monoxide.</p>
<p>Women make up over half of the population, yet continue to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.neuron.2021.06.002">under-represented in the workplace in several ways</a>, including <a href="https://canadianwomen.org/the-facts/women-and-leadership-in-canada/#:%7E:text=Women%20are%2030%25%20less%20likely,%2C%20report%20finds%2C%202017">leadership and positions of influence</a>. </p>
<h2>Creating heart-healthy workplaces</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman at a desk looking at a tablet" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578730/original/file-20240228-24-sbksv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578730/original/file-20240228-24-sbksv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578730/original/file-20240228-24-sbksv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578730/original/file-20240228-24-sbksv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578730/original/file-20240228-24-sbksv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578730/original/file-20240228-24-sbksv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578730/original/file-20240228-24-sbksv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hybrid work models can increase productivity and workers’ locus of control and support flexible hours.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Workplaces can have a positive impact on women’s health by ensuring knowledge about women and heart disease is translated into actions that support prevention and treatment. Here are seven evidence-based recommendations for co-creating heart-healthy workplaces:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>Flexible hours</strong>: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716211415608">Inflexible work schedules</a> have been shown to increase stress for <a href="https://workplaceinsight.net/working-mothers-disproportionately-more-stressed-study-claims/">women and families</a> — including stressors transmitted to children. Effective “flex hours” initiatives (for example, flex hours to support physical activity) show <a href="https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/news/2023/workplace-flexibility-may-support-cardiovascular-health">positive impact on workers’ heart health</a>, physical activity and sleep patterns, especially in adults ages 45 and older and for those who had increased cardiovascular disease risks.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Flexible hybrid work models</strong>: Evidence on hybrid work models has grown exponentially since March 2020. It appears that when using a non-fixed, worker-led approach, hybrid work models can <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/increasing-workplace-flexibility-associated-with-lower-risk-of-cardiovascular-disease/">increase productivity, workers’ locus of control and support flexible hours</a>. Research supports that women are more likely to use this option, when offered, but also highlights that when employers fail to monitor impact, or properly design jobs for hybrid and remote working, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/sep/25/hybrid-working-may-hold-back-womens-careers-say-managers">hybrid work models can augment gender pay and promotion gaps</a>. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Invest in psychological safety</strong>: A <a href="https://theconversation.com/fostering-psychological-safety-in-the-workplace-4-practical-real-life-tips-based-on-science-204661">psychologically safe workplace</a> is where employees feel comfortable taking risks and being themselves without fear of judgement, lateral violence (for example stonewalling, bullying) or negative consequences. Psychological safety is positively associated with workplace engagement, innovation, job performance and job satisfaction — all desirable outcomes for institutions, organizations, the bottom line, clients and the community. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Offer health benefits</strong>: Mandatory benefits, also known as statutory benefits, are <a href="https://novascotia.ca/lae/employmentrights/docs/labourstandardscodeguide.pdf">required by Canadian employment law</a>. They include provincial health-care coverage, pension contributions, employment insurance, survivor insurance and workers’ compensation insurance. <a href="https://velocityglobal.com/resources/blog/employee-benefits-in-canada">Supplementary benefits</a> help attract and retain workers. Examples include dental care, medication insurance, disability insurance and many complementary medicine services. These <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF03403639">supplementary benefits</a> have been associated with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.33020">improved health outcomes</a>, and <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/universal-health-coverage-(uhc)">reduced chronic disease risk</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Invest in programs supporting health promotion</strong>: In addition to the examples above, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/initiatives/resource-center/pdf/WHRC-Workplace-Best-Practices-for-Heart-Healthy-Employees-508.pdf">workplaces can invest</a> in programming that supports health-promoting behaviours in and out of work. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/jom.0000000000000467">Such programming</a> has been associated with workplace satisfaction, productivity and favourable health-related outcomes. Additional examples of health promotion include health risk appraisals, lunch and learns, flexible and inclusive leave options, and time off for leisure activities, spiritual practices, volunteering or community engagement. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Engage in collective conflict resolution strategies</strong>: Evidence supports that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470432/">collaborative conflict resolution</a> approaches, like mediation, can provide a positive learning opportunity for those involved. This encourages workers to find a solution together, <a href="https://demlegaleagle.com/blog/2020/12/3-ways-workplace-mediation-may-beat-discipline/">rather than via formal disciplinary action</a>, where the root causes of conflict often go unaddressed.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Commit to policy, procedure and protocols that combat ‘isms’</strong>: Ibram X. Kendi’s book, <a href="https://www.ibramxkendi.com/how-to-be-an-antiracist"><em>How To Be An Antiracist</em></a>, provides rationale and examples for how to ensure policy and procedures are anti-racist. Adopting this approach requires a significant, but worthwhile investment, learning and unlearning, but gains can be made through small changes. Workplaces can also adopt policies that combat other forms of discrimination, including ageism and sexism. For instance, several employers have started to <a href="https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/stay-at-home-mom-resume">encourage applicants</a> to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2023/02/24/how-stay-at-home-parents-returning-to-work-can-overcome-common-barriers/?sh=f500d7f2c091">report “stay at home mom” as part of their work experience</a>, and the several transferable skills this experience offers.</p></li>
</ol>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A yellow canary perched on a branch" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578731/original/file-20240228-18-alxd70.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578731/original/file-20240228-18-alxd70.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578731/original/file-20240228-18-alxd70.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578731/original/file-20240228-18-alxd70.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578731/original/file-20240228-18-alxd70.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578731/original/file-20240228-18-alxd70.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578731/original/file-20240228-18-alxd70.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Integrating health and safety strategies is a better option for workers than waiting until the ‘canary’ expires.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pixabay)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rather than waiting until the canary in the workplace coal mine expires, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/jom.0000000000000467">evidence shows</a> there are options available to integrate health and safety strategies that achieve measurable benefits to enhance the overall health and well-being of workers, their families and the community. </p>
<p>In acknowledging that factors like the built environment, social and health systems, and outdated policies are the problems needing to be addressed — rather than people, including women, those living with disability, and equity-deserving groups — we take a step towards healthier, safer and more accessible workplaces.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223080/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shannan M. Grant has received funding from Diabetes Canada, Dietitians of Canada and currently holds funding from Medavie, Tri-Council Funding Programs, Canadian Foundation for Dietetic Research, IWK Health, Mount Saint Vincent University. She is affiliated with Mount Saint Vincent University, IWK Health, Dalhousie University, Dietitians of Canada, Diabetes Canada, People in Pain (PIPN), and Dr. Lee-Baggley and Associates.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dayna Lee-Baggley dislosures: Consulting fees from: Bausch Health, Novo Nordisk; Clinical advisory committee: Tobacco Free Nova Scotia; Royalties: New Harbinger Publications; Funded by: Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention Fund, Employment and Social Development Canada, Government of Canada; Canadian Foundation for Dietetic Research, Research Grants; Owner or co-owner: Dr. Lee-Baggley and Associates Inc and ImpACT Workplace Solutions Inc.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacquie Gahagan receives funding from SSHRC and CIHR.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barb Hamilton-Hinch, Jessica Mannette, and Leigh-Ann MacFarlane do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Acknowledging that factors like the built environment, social and health systems, and outdated policies are the problems — rather than people — is a step towards healthier and safer workplaces.Shannan M. Grant, Associate Professor, Registered Dietitian, Department of Applied Human Nutrition, Faculty of Professional Studies, Mount Saint Vincent UniversityBarb Hamilton-Hinch, Associate Professor, School of Health and Human Performance, and Assistant Vice Provost of Equity and Inclusion, Dalhousie UniversityDayna Lee-Baggley, Adjunct professor, Department of Family Medicine & Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie UniversityJacquie Gahagan, Full Professor and Associate Vice-President, Research, Mount Saint Vincent UniversityJessica Mannette, Research Assistant, Department of Psychology, Saint Mary’s UniversityLeigh-Ann MacFarlane, Educational Developer, Mount Saint Vincent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2068112023-08-31T08:22:58Z2023-08-31T08:22:58ZFrom menstrual leave to chronic illnesses: what if workplaces were kinder to our bodies?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545224/original/file-20230829-15-cdhi8y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C0%2C1888%2C1276&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In 2021, more than one third of people in the EU reported from a long-standing health issue. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/fr-fr/photo/femme-appuyee-sur-la-table-3767411/">Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With schools due to reopen soon, many of us will also be returning to work after the summer holidays. For those suffering from health issues especially, the past weeks will have provided a well-needed break from the daily grind, or what the French would colourfully refer to <em>métro-boulot-dodo</em> (metro-work-sleep). </p>
<p>That chronological straitjacket may be in the process of being loosened, however. Some of the world’s biggest companies, Google included, are <a href="https://www.jumpstartmag.com/5-companies-that-let-you-take-power-naps-at-work/">now offering sleep pods</a> to help with workers’ sleep issues, while Spain passed a law this year allowing women suffering from severe period to take <a href="https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/02/16/spain-set-to-become-the-first-european-country-to-introduce-a-3-day-menstrual-leave-for-wo">menstrual leave</a>. Increasingly, corporations are also taking measures to accommodate employees with different neurological profiles. So, are timetables and workplaces based on our individual biologies the way forward?</p>
<h2>Considering biological factors</h2>
<p>That interrogation arose five years ago, when I was pregnant. I experienced a chronic condition myself and tried to adjust in my work as a professor at a school of management. As an expert in work and employment practices in the workplace, I knew companies may offer flexible work arrangement to accommodate the social life of their employees. But what about their health?</p>
<p>Before turning to that question, we could do well with identifying <em>how</em> our bodies differ from one another. Looking at current research from various scientific disciplines, it is possible to distinguish between three broad biological conditions that have repercussions on people’s ability to work:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>Chronic illnesses</strong>. Common debilitating conditions include diabetes, cancers, mental illnesses as well as lung, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular diseases. In 2021, <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Self-perceived_health_statistics&oldid=509628">more than one third (35.2%) of people in the EU</a>) reported suffering from a long-standing health problem. Women are particularly exposed through their biological cycles including periods, pregnancy and menopause.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Neurodiversity</strong>. Not all brains pan out the same way. Some go on to develop autism, Down syndrome, attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity, dyslexia, dyspraxia and other conditions beginning with <em>dy</em>. Like chronic illnesses, neurodevelopmental differences affect a significant sample of the population, with <a href="https://www.ameli.fr/medecin/exercice-liberal/prise-charge-situation-type-soin/troubles-neurodeveloppement-autisme">one in ten people in the world impacted</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Circadian rhythms</strong>. Far from a myth, the reality of early birds and night owls has long been backed by science. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013700609755344">Research</a> shows that health predispositions mean our most productive hours vary from one individual to another. Going against one’s rhythm can upset sleep, metabolism as well as cardiovascular and immune systems.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Band-aid solutions</h2>
<p>While <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/emploi/article/2023/05/29/la-qualite-de-l-emploi-et-du-travail-en-comparaison-europeenne-une-contre-performance-francaise_6175274_1698637.html">33% of European workers</a> say that their health is at risk because of their employment activity, arrangements to accommodate our bodies are lacklustre at best. Although remote working is often thought to empower employees to manage their health more effectively, we also now know that it can act as a double-edged sword by undermining their <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-workers-in-small-businesses-can-struggle-with-mental-health-and-presenteeism-208877">right to disconnect</a>.</p>
<p>More formal solutions are also riddled with shortcomings. In France, where I come from, an employee struggling with chronic health issues or a neurodiverse condition can apply for the status of disabled worker, which is conferred following a medical examination. The label then compels the workplace to accommodate the employee – for example, by providing a flexible schedule to a worker suffering from severe insomnia, an adapted desk for another suffering from a spinal injury, or by excluding the employee from particular types of activities.</p>
<p>That’s for the theory. In practice, workers are often reluctant to apply, partly due to the procedure’s medical complexity and cost, which is not covered by the national health insurance. Too often, the status also carries too heavy a stigma, with many opting out for reasons of pride. Finally, there is a real chance that companies, particularly small business, will not be able to accommodate the employee’s demands, and therefore lay them off for ineptitude.</p>
<p>For want of a medical diagnosis, certain employers may negotiate special employment terms with some employees. This is what is known in management literature as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20159261">“i-deals”</a>. For instance, work schedules or remuneration can be defined according to the employee’s preferences. The problem is that this solution hinges on the bargaining power they have over their employer. Hence, so-called key employees may get what they want by contrast with employees who are seen as underperforming.</p>
<p>To my knowledge, no government has yet thought out work policies to optimise our respective circadian rhythms. Rather, their focus is on limiting the damage of night- and shift work. While we could imagine to allocate early or late shifts to individuals whose metabolisms are better suited to it, the practices are not based on chronotype diversity. Instead, a growing number of companies offer the possibility of flexible working to their employees on the condition that they fulfil their obligations.</p>
<h2>When teamwork takes the hit</h2>
<p>Inevitably, such arrangements come at the cost of <a href="https://www.cairn.info/les-grands-courants-gestion-ressources-humaines--9782376874638-page-199.htm">the company’s teamwork and collective productivity</a>. Indeed, how can one possibly go about juggling the needs of a person working from home due to chronic pain, with those of another who comes in at midday while colleagues are there by 9 a.m.? And that’s without forgetting that colleague’s exemption from using certain work tools due to their neurodiversity.</p>
<p>Not to mention that managers in charge of overseeing these arrangements have their own health issues to contend with. Nearly half of French managers (48%) report that they are stressed at work. They are over-represented in terms of sick leave, and have scored <a href="https://newsroom.malakoffhumanis.com/actualites/avec-plus-de-40-de-salaries-arretes-chaque-annee-labsenteisme-maladie-reste-un-probleme-majeur-2f9e-63a59.html">2 to 5 percentage points higher than the employee average since 2018</a>. Nearly a quarter of managerial staff (24%) report using sleeping pills or anti-depressants compared to 18% of employees.</p>
<h2>Retraining managers</h2>
<p>In April, the French government released a report, <a href="https://travail-emploi.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/assises_du_travail_-_rapport_des_garants.pdf">“Rethinking work”</a>, aimed at sparking a debate with trade unions on these questions. It found that transforming managerial practices will be essential if companies are to “[give] employees more responsibility, autonomy and recognition” and calls for a shift from a “culture of control to a culture of trust”. Recommendations include training to raise managers’ awareness over possible health issues. The idea is to create and maintain a <a href="https://www.ips-journal.eu/work-and-digitalisation/improving-working-life-in-france-and-the-eu-6858/">culture of risk prevention</a> in work situations.</p>
<p>On the one hand, raising managers’ awareness of health issues has shown some promise. For example, research on the retention of employees suffering from <a href="https://www.ameli.fr/rhone/assure/sante/themes/polyarthrite-rhumatoide/comprendre-polyarthrite-rhumatoide">rheumatoid arthritis</a> showed the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09585192.2020.1737175">importance of managers having knowledge or personal experience of the disability</a> in terms of introducing policies that would be beneficial to both employee and employer.</p>
<p>If that approach is to be successful, managers will also need to <a href="https://www.hbrfrance.fr/chroniques-experts/2016/06/11208-comment-manager-sans-sepuiser/">abandon the idea of being the perfect supervisor and accepting their limits</a>.</p>
<h2>Collective, not individual solutions</h2>
<p>But training managers anew is hardly a silver bullet. For one, it still results in an uncoordinated organisation. Moreover, when I reviewed the <a href="https://www.cairn.info/les-grands-courants-gestion-ressources-humaines--9782376874638-page-199.htm">past 40 years of research on flexibility practices</a> in 2021, I found that companies’ organisation suffered biggest setbacks when they tailored work arrangements for specific individuals rather than for the collective of workers. </p>
<p>Looking away from a frazzled patchwork of individual solutions, an increasing number of companies and governments are contemplating organisational shifts benefiting all, including in terms of working days. In February 2023, Belgium became the first country to legislate to enable employees to choose to work four-day weeks if they want it, providing they worked the same hours as in a day-week. Others are <a href="https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/06/21/the-four-day-week-which-countries-have-embraced-it-and-how-s-it-going-so-far">also following suit</a>, with trials having taken place or about to take place in Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Iceland, Germany and the United Kingdom. The latter was the object of a scientific study with <a href="https://podcast.ausha.co/explorhation/semaine-de-4-jours-marie-rachel-jacob">results</a> showing that British companies have been able to transition to four-day weeks (with reduction in working-week hours) without losing productivity.</p>
<p>Placing the onus on the organisation of the whole company, or even country, has the merit of protecting team work, while also liberating time for caregivers. It can also prevent envy toward what can be perceived as the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewpulrang/2023/01/25/4-ways-people-with-disabilities-can-have-privilege-too/?sh=498f6ec87f3a">material privileges</a> of those living with a condition. After all, <a href="https://www.europe1.fr/economie/La-grande-histoire-des-allocations-de-la-Liberation-a-aujourd-hui-681878">this is the same logic</a> that drove French politicians in 1945 to vote for the same family allowances to be distributed based on the number of children, regardless of income; if all citizens benefited from the welfare state, then support for it would be stronger, or so the left and right argued at the time.</p>
<p>Most will agree that those living with chronic illness, neurodiversity or/and different circadian rhythms deserve our full support.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206811/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marie-Rachel Jacob ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Should companies offer tailored timetables and workplaces on the basis of our different bodies, or are universal solutions, such as the four-day week, the way forward?Marie-Rachel Jacob, Professeur-chercheur en management, EM Lyon Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2113152023-08-29T15:34:37Z2023-08-29T15:34:37ZBreastfeeding increased during the pandemic but what does that tell us about how to improve rates?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541982/original/file-20230809-25-3v08a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C30%2C6689%2C4436&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/serious-calm-careful-young-black-mom-1426845311">SeventyFour/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During the pandemic, there had been concerns from healthcare professionals that the restrictions placed on daily life would lead to a disruption in breastfeeding. But <a href="https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/7/1/e001907.full#ref-13">our new research</a> shows that the number of women who continued to exclusively breastfeed for six months increased. </p>
<p>And in fact, women were 40% more likely to exclusively breastfeed for six months during COVID than they were before the pandemic or now, post-pandemic. </p>
<p>The World Health Organization (WHO) <a href="https://www.who.int/health-topics/breastfeeding#tab=tab_2">recommends</a> exclusively breastfeeding for the first six months of a baby’s life. But the UK has had the <a href="https://www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/about/breastfeeding-in-the-uk/">lowest</a> breastfeeding rates globally. Only <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/series/maternal-and-child-nutrition">0.5% of women breastfed</a> their baby until they were one year old in the UK. This is compared to 27% of mothers in the <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/series/maternal-and-child-nutrition">United States</a>, 35% in <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/series/maternal-and-child-nutrition">Norway</a> and 44% in <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/series/maternal-and-child-nutrition">Mexico</a>, who were still breastfeeding after one year. </p>
<p>When COVID hit, there had been concern that the virus could be <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42399-020-00498-4">passed</a> from mothers to babies. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542294/original/file-20230811-4652-hn8w80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542294/original/file-20230811-4652-hn8w80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542294/original/file-20230811-4652-hn8w80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542294/original/file-20230811-4652-hn8w80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542294/original/file-20230811-4652-hn8w80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542294/original/file-20230811-4652-hn8w80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542294/original/file-20230811-4652-hn8w80.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
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</figure>
<p><em>This article is part of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/womens-health-matters-143335">Women’s Health Matters</a>, a series about the health and wellbeing of women and girls around the world. From menopause to miscarriage, pleasure to pain the articles in this series will delve into the full spectrum of women’s health issues to provide valuable information, insights and resources for women of all ages.</em></p>
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<hr>
<p>Numerous studies reported a lack of support for expectant and new mothers who were breastfeeding during the pandemic. For instance, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019566632031607X?via%3Dihub">one in three</a> women intending to breastfeed reported lacking assistance with proper positioning, while <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019566632031607X?via%3Dihub">one in four</a> women stated insufficient hospital-based breastfeeding support. This was probably due to strained healthcare systems and the push to minimise infection risks. </p>
<p>Support for new mothers lessened, which hindered breastfeeding. And pregnant women reported very high levels of <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0267176">anxiety and stress</a>, including uncertainty about the <a href="https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-022-07856-8">vaccine</a>. </p>
<p>We conducted surveys with women who gave birth in Wales between 2018 and 2021 and we examined anonymised NHS breastfeeding health data collected by midwives and health visitors. </p>
<p>Surprisingly, breastfeeding rates up to six months peaked in 2020, a time of strict pandemic restrictions. This conflicts with the anticipated decrease in breastfeeding rates due to reduced access to professional and social support. </p>
<p><a href="https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/7/1/e001907.full">Our research</a> also shows that approximately six in ten women in Wales breastfeed for their baby’s first feed, but only three in ten are still breastfeeding at ten weeks. And more than 80% of women are not breastfeeding at all by six months. </p>
<p>This finding has surprised us and others working in healthcare since the pandemic had such a profound impact on daily life worldwide.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A mother holds the hand of her baby who is breastfeeding." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544600/original/file-20230824-28-x6xlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544600/original/file-20230824-28-x6xlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544600/original/file-20230824-28-x6xlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544600/original/file-20230824-28-x6xlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544600/original/file-20230824-28-x6xlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544600/original/file-20230824-28-x6xlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544600/original/file-20230824-28-x6xlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Breastfeeding rates up to six months peaked at the height of the pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/newborn-baby-boy-sucking-milk-mothers-1968727780">Nastyaofly/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/7/1/e001907.full#ref-13">Our study</a> also shows that when pregnant women report that they do not intend to breastfeed, then they are very unlikely to start breastfeeding. About 30% of women do not intend to breastfeed at all. </p>
<p>However, when women say in pregnancy that they intend to breastfeed, then approximately 90% of these women do start doing so. They are also 27 times more likely to breastfeed for six months compared to women who did not intend to breastfeed. </p>
<h2>The time factor</h2>
<p>But what is it that helps women who do want to breastfeed, do so for longer? We know that even without the support systems and training by midwives, more women who wanted to breastfeed were able to for longer during the pandemic. </p>
<p>These findings could mean that one thing women really need to help them to breastfeed is more time at home with their baby, more time with their partner at home with them, more privacy and more flexible working. </p>
<p>If we want to increase breastfeeding levels, it is possible that what the pandemic has taught us is the need to address working environments as well as medical services. </p>
<h2>Breastfeeding benefits</h2>
<p>Breastfeeding has many benefits, including fewer <a href="https://bmcpediatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12887-019-1693-2">infections</a>, increased <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8894195/#:%7E:text=Breastfeeding%20was%20positively%20associated%20with,%2Dbreastfed%20participants%20(19).">intelligence</a> and the prevention <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/1107563#:%7E:text=Breastfed%20babies%20seem%20to%20be,she%20is%206%20months%20old.">obesity and diabetes</a>. Breastfeeding also has <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)01024-7/fulltext">advantages for mothers</a> as it lessens the risk of cancers, postpartum bleeding and helps with weight loss after birth. </p>
<p>It is better for the <a href="https://www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/breastfeeding-and-climate-change/#:%7E:text=Breastfeeding%20also%20requires%20less%20water,footprint%20(Binns%2C%202021).">environment</a> and can be cheaper for some families.</p>
<p>But a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41372-023-01646-z">study</a> by Yale School of Medicine earlier this year found that a year of breastfeeding can also cost families up to US$11,000 (£8,700) with increased food intake, vitamins, supplements and supplies. It stressed that the barrier of cost may impact a mother’s decision to breastfeed. </p>
<p>But the cost of breastfeeding involves more than just money. Another more hidden cost is the time dedicated to breastfeeding or pumping breast milk. This highlights how women need more time at home and how we should be reassessing working environments, especially for lower income families.</p>
<p>The short term gains of getting parents back to work should not outweigh the long term benefits to our society from having healthier families. If we want to improve breastfeeding rates in the UK, then we need to look at the working lives of women and their partners across the nation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211315/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This work is funded by the National Centre for Population Health and Wellbeing Research and the National Core Studies funded by the Medical Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sinead Brophy receives funding from Health Care Research Wales for Born In Wales and the National Centre for Population Health, MRC for Health Data Research UK, ESRC for Administrative Data Research. </span></em></p>New research shows that breastfeeding rates peaked in 2020, a time of strict COVID restrictions.Hope Jones, Research Assistant at the National Centre for Population Health and Wellbeing Research, Swansea UniversitySinead Brophy, Professor in Public Health Data Science, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2057382023-05-28T11:32:26Z2023-05-28T11:32:26ZEmployers need to prioritize employee mental health if they want to attract new talent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528082/original/file-20230524-24637-qqcbz3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C11%2C7940%2C5161&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The job market is experiencing an influx of job-seekers at the moment, putting the responsibility on employers to attract employees to their organizations.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Canadian employers are currently facing <a href="https://www.roberthalf.ca/en/employment-trends-demand-for-skilled-talent">significant challenges in attracting and retaining talent in the workplace</a>, putting the responsibility on employers to attract employees to their organizations.</p>
<p>One key way for employers to achieve this is by prioritizing the mental health of their employees. Workplaces <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/01/trends-worker-well-being">are increasingly recognizing</a> that productive employees actively seek out workplaces <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/mhw.33627">that prioritize mental well-being and offer flexible working conditions</a>.</p>
<p>This recognition is well-founded, as employees tend to be more productive when they are <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-it-makes-good-business-sense-for-your-employer-to-look-after-your-mental-health-177503">not burdened by mental health challenges</a>.</p>
<p>As a teacher of current and future leaders, my experience confirms that employees want workplaces that facilitate well-being. Many of my students have indicated that <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/work-well-being/2022-mental-health-support">mental health support at work</a> is a must-have.</p>
<h2>Mental health stigma</h2>
<p>Mental health is a pressing issue for many. In 2021, <a href="https://www.bcg.com/en-ca/publications/2023/workplace-burnout-costing-canadian-companies-billions">a quarter of Canadians reported having symptoms of a mental health disorder</a>. Five million reported needing professional help, and over one-third said they were burned out. Forty per cent of workers aged 18 to 24 indicated they were at a “breaking point.”</p>
<p>Although many employers are starting to recognize the importance of mental health support in the workplace, <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-ca/news-polls/mental-illness-increasingly-recognized-as-disability">stigma still persists</a>, resulting in negative attitudes and discriminatory behaviours.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man and a woman having a discussion while seated at a table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527863/original/file-20230523-17-d9e2t0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527863/original/file-20230523-17-d9e2t0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527863/original/file-20230523-17-d9e2t0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527863/original/file-20230523-17-d9e2t0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527863/original/file-20230523-17-d9e2t0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527863/original/file-20230523-17-d9e2t0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527863/original/file-20230523-17-d9e2t0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One way to fight mental health stigma at work is by encouraging workplace leaders to share stories about their personal struggles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Leaders <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000312">play a crucial role in addressing mental health stigma</a> by modelling risk and vulnerability. By using <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsys.2023.01.003">informal communication</a>, like sharing stories about their personal struggles, leaders can support the mental health of their employees.</p>
<p>There is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0000000000002688">growing evidence that shows</a> stigma decreases when leaders disclose their own mental health and substance use problems. This reduction in stigma, in turn, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm11020438">encourages employees to share their own stories</a> and seek out treatment.</p>
<h2>Being mindful of language</h2>
<p>Leaders need to be careful about how they go about addressing stigma. Even those with good intentions can unintentionally cause harm. For example, using <a href="https://psychcentral.com/blog/words-can-change-your-brain">the word resilience to discuss mental health</a> can be problematic.</p>
<p>Framing resilience as a necessary skill for battling mental illness overlooks the fact that some mental health conditions are disabilities that cannot be toughed out. Assuming that mental toughness is an inextricable part of addressing disability <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/15344843221106561">is a form of ableism</a>.</p>
<p>Any employee who is suffering from mental health issues that cannot be fixed by resilience may avoid telling their story or seeking support for fear of being seen as weak.</p>
<p>It’s important for leaders to be mindful of the language they use to foster mentally safe and supportive working environments.</p>
<h2>Workplace flexibility</h2>
<p>Evidence-based research about the outcomes of mental health awareness and wellness programs <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cap0000084">is currently lacking</a>. These programs are well-intended, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/08404704221112035">experts are optimistic</a> that we will have a better idea of what really works once we have more data.</p>
<p>In the meantime, there is something employers can do immediately to prioritize the mental health of their employees: allowing them to choose when and where they work. </p>
<p>Flexibility has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3419405">been proven to work well</a> in many jobs over the past few years, including in larger organizations like <a href="https://www.benefitscanada.com/benefits/health-benefits/3m-incorporating-flexibility-digitization-into-benefits-plan-for-2023/">3M Canada</a> and <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/top-employers/article-flexibility-is-key-for-canadas-top-100-employers-2023/">Desjardins Group</a>, as well as small and medium employers like <a href="https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/flexible-and-agile-canada-s-top-small-amp-medium-employers-for-2023-are-raising-the-bar-for-all-employers--848783860.html">Auvik Networks</a> and <a href="https://www.thestar.com/sponsored_sections/2022/06/07/gsoft--how-technology-works-for-the-changing-workplace.html">GSoft</a>. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, flexibility can sometimes lead to boardroom debates about how many days in the office employees should work. As a result, what was initially intended as flexibility can inadvertently lead to rigid remote work policies. Workplaces need to be aware of this.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman working at a laptop at a desk in a room with large windows." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527872/original/file-20230523-21-ghwqkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527872/original/file-20230523-21-ghwqkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527872/original/file-20230523-21-ghwqkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527872/original/file-20230523-21-ghwqkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527872/original/file-20230523-21-ghwqkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527872/original/file-20230523-21-ghwqkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527872/original/file-20230523-21-ghwqkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Allowing employees to choose when and where they work can help mitigate mental health challenges.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Windows/Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>True flexibility, without the need for employees to justify themselves, can help mitigate mental health challenges. By allowing for downtime and encouraging employees to do activities unrelated to their work, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1664">stress and burnout can be minimized</a>. </p>
<p>Challenges can also be minimized by recognizing when employees are most <a href="https://hbr.org/2014/06/when-to-schedule-your-most-important-work">energized and productive</a> and adjusting work schedules accordingly. The success of a flexible workplace hinges on the ability of leaders to trust their employees and refrain from micromanaging them.</p>
<h2>A new way of thinking</h2>
<p>According to a recent job insight survey, when employees are forced to choose between <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/flexibility-not-in-this-economy-5651508/">flexibility and stability</a>, most will choose stability.</p>
<p>But do we need to choose one over the other? Why can’t we have both? As many know from the last few years, employees can be productive at different times and in different places when <a href="https://hbr.org/2021/09/the-future-of-flexibility-at-work">leaders provide the necessary resources and support to make flexibility possible</a>.</p>
<p>Leaders have the valuable opportunity to challenge the typical “either/or” way of thinking and instead using “both/and” thinking. A personal experience of mine exemplifies this.</p>
<p>Once, during a teaching session, a sales executive recounted a story about an employee of hers who asked to work remotely due to mental health challenges. This leader turned down the request, insisting the sales team could not successfully sell remotely. </p>
<p>A debate ensued among the other executives and a suggestion was put forth: Why not have the sales team try selling remotely and see how it goes? </p>
<p>Either/or thinking stops new solutions from emerging. It misses how creative tension — the gap between where a group is and where it wants to go — can help us <a href="https://store.hbr.org/product/both-and-thinking-embracing-creative-tensions-to-solve-your-toughest-problems/10481">challenge conventional assumptions about work</a>, like the belief that flexibility and stability are mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>In light of the prevalence of mental health issues, and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/diversity-in-the-workplace-isnt-enough-businesses-need-to-work-toward-inclusion-194136">importance of fostering inclusive workplaces</a>, leaders who act as agents of change can help reshape conventional notions of leadership and build better workplaces.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205738/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Friedman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Workplaces are increasingly recognizing that productive employees seek out workplaces that prioritize mental well-being and offer flexible working conditions.Stephen Friedman, Adjunct Professor of Organizational Studies, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1941702022-11-09T19:00:07Z2022-11-09T19:00:07ZMorning or evening type? Choice of hours is the next big thing in workplace flexibility<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494335/original/file-20221109-24-noeyg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C640%2C3882%2C1944&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Are you a morning or evening person? Studies show we have strong differences in when we feel most creative and do our best work during the day. </p>
<p>These differences go far deeper than just personal preference. Whether you like to get up early (a “lark”) or go to bed late (an “owl”), and when you are more productive, is a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article/21/6/569/2725974?login=true">biological predisposition</a> related to the settings of your <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(06)02609-1.pdf">internal body clock</a> that synchronises your bodily functions with the rotation of the planet. </p>
<p>Research suggests <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2007.00580.x">genetic effects</a> account for about half of the variability between individuals. Environmental factors and age explain the rest. </p>
<p>Yet most workplaces take a cookie-cutter approach to time, forcing us to work standardised hours. There are clear organisational advantages to this, but the disadvantage is that you (and your colleagues) may not be working at your most productive times. </p>
<p>In the past few years we’ve seen a revolution in where we work. The enforced experiment of remote working during the pandemic has done much to overcome decades of managerial resistance to greater flexibility. Is it now time for a revolution in when we work?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/even-google-agrees-theres-no-going-back-to-the-old-office-life-177808">Even Google agrees there's no going back to the old office life</a>
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</em>
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<p>If done well, my research suggests, it could lead be the next big gain in productivity – but only if the downsides are acknowledged and competing needs balanced.</p>
<h2>Variations in chronotypes</h2>
<p>Differences in the human body clock are often referred to as <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(06)02609-1.pdf">chronotypes</a>. </p>
<p>Chronotypes exist on a morningness-eveningness <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019188690100085X?casa_token=1Dn-A1lPQ5EAAAAA:KoMmLqt3BXswcN3bQkhmrkjyCgd0_N3CB7oTfiJ_hzUs7mQRFFnlhedPFrW0ZT5PrCG1U826Sw">continuum</a> but individuals are often broadly <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/07420528.2012.719971?casa_token=gFO7T7ForakAAAAA%3AarK5aCKAItp84XOJv5-OQUAlMCtsVK6aFNf8GMfWlH1iV4kLRDCeO_EhpwIcAJk2fzmk-ohlDvoR">classified</a> based on the timing of their daily performance peaks as either morning types, evening types or intermediate types.</p>
<p>Most kids are morning types. Most teenagers are evening types. In the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982204009285">working-age population</a> about 20% can be categorised as either morning or evening types while 60% are intermediate types. </p>
<p>Women are slightly more likely to prefer earlier hours than men up until menopause, when differences disappear. People who live <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep39976">further from the Equator</a> are more likely to be evening types. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman resting head on desk. Women are more likely to prefer earlier hours to men up until menopause, when sex differences in chronotypes disappear." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494303/original/file-20221108-14-ho3gjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C727%2C4500%2C2270&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494303/original/file-20221108-14-ho3gjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494303/original/file-20221108-14-ho3gjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494303/original/file-20221108-14-ho3gjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494303/original/file-20221108-14-ho3gjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494303/original/file-20221108-14-ho3gjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494303/original/file-20221108-14-ho3gjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Women are more likely to prefer earlier hours to men up until menopause, when sex differences in chronotypes disappear.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Chronotypes determine when during the day we feel energised and prefer to be active and perform demanding work. They also determine when we feel tired and prefer to work on less demanding tasks or to rest. So they are important to to productive you are.</p>
<p>If you’re a lark, you may be missing your best hours working 9am to 5pm. If you’re an owl you may be knocking off when you’re at your most alert.</p>
<h2>The pros and cons of time flexibility</h2>
<p>Could greater work-time flexibility be the next big key to unlock greater well-being and productivity? My research suggests yes, but only by acknowledging that increased work-time flexibility can also lead to negative consequences. </p>
<p>The downside – particularly if time flexibility is combined with remote working – is less interaction with colleagues, leading to greater <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/04/zoom-remote-work-loneliness-happiness/618473/">isolation</a> and lower <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work">creativity and innovation</a>. </p>
<p>The benefits of “serendipity” – unplanned hallway and cafeteria discussions – are <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-death-of-the-open-plan-office-not-quite-but-a-revolution-is-in-the-air-140724">well-recognised</a>. The less time we spend with coworkers, the less likely we are to connect, make friendships and develop team spirit. </p>
<p>But these problems are no more insurmountable than the challenges of remote work.
There are comparatively easy ways to mitigate unintended side-effects through designing work-time arrangements that balance individual and organisational interests.</p>
<h2>How to manage chronotype diversity</h2>
<p>The key is for organisations to segment work time into four parts.</p>
<ol>
<li><p><em>Fixed on-site working hours:</em> during these times employees are expected to attend office and be available for in-person meetings, collaborative work and social gatherings. There is no hard-and-fast rule on how many days this should be, but surveys suggests employers generally want <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/best-day-return-office">at least three days</a> a week, while workers want less.</p></li>
<li><p><em>Fixed flexible-location working hours:</em> during these hours all employees can work remotely if they want, but work a set number of standard work hours – say 10am to 3pm. These hours will depend on the needs of the organisation and the degree of teamwork required. </p></li>
<li><p><em>Flexible working hours:</em> beyond fixed working hours, workers can choose when to work to make up their full hours.</p></li>
<li><p><em>Lockout hours:</em> it is important to prevent excessive, potentially self-harming behaviour by setting limits through “lockout hours” – 7pm to 7am, for example – during which employees are strongly discouraged from working unless absolutely necessary. </p></li>
</ol>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-many-days-a-week-in-the-office-are-enough-you-shouldnt-need-to-ask-166418">How many days a week in the office are enough? You shouldn't need to ask</a>
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<p>Increased work flexibility is one of the few positive outcomes of the pandemic. But revolutions are rarely smooth. We have to be conscious of the potential pitfalls to avoid them. </p>
<p>Through careful attention to unintended consequences, and developing new work structures, there’s no reason to think we can’t have more flexibility over where and when we work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194170/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stefan Volk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>More choice over when we work be the next big gain in productivity.Stefan Volk, Associate Professor and Co-Director Body, Heart and Mind in Business Research Group, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1578362021-03-26T12:30:11Z2021-03-26T12:30:11ZWhat the great work from home experiment has taught us about the way we work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391485/original/file-20210324-15-vn3jsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=132%2C44%2C7216%2C4858&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ready to go back to the office?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/closeup-young-man-office-holding-briefcase-1712819545">nito via Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This is a transcript of episode 8 of The Conversation Weekly podcast, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-great-remote-work-experiment-what-happens-next-podcast-157795">The great remote work experiment – what happens next?</a> In this episode, four experts dissect the impact a year of working from home has had on employees and the companies they work for – and what a more hybrid future might look like. And we talk to a researcher who asked people to sit in bath tubs full of ice cold water to find out why some of us are able to stand the cold better than others.</em> </p>
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<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-561" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/561/4fbbd099d631750693d02bac632430b71b37cd5f/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><em>NOTE: Transcripts may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.</em></p>
<p>Gemma: Hello. In this episode of The Conversation Weekly, we talk to experts about the impact that a year of working from home has had on employees and the companies that they work for. And what a more hybrid future might look like. </p>
<p>Ruchi Sina: There’s a new kind of subgroup forming now, those who are on the video call and those who are in person. </p>
<p>Dan: And I speak to a researcher who asked people to sit in bathtubs full of ice cold water to find out why some of us are able to stand the cold better than others. </p>
<p>Victoria Wyckelsma: We got about 40 men to sit in this ice bath at 14 degrees. </p>
<p>Gemma: I’m Gemma Ware in London. </p>
<p>Dan: And I’m Dan Merino working remote this week actually, from the mountains of Lake Tahoe, California. And you’re listening to The Conversation Weekly, our world explained by experts. </p>
<p>Gemma: Dan, when the internet age properly dawned back in the 1990s, a lot of academics hoped that it would revolutionise the way we work. No more office.</p>
<p>Dan: Seems like such a natural technocratic dream, right. The internet comes in, everyone’s completely flexible, no pollution, working from home, cities change, it would have been great, right? </p>
<p>Gemma: Except that it didn’t really happen, and actually the number of employees who work from home full time has remained pretty flat, until the pandemic that is. </p>
<p>For many people who can do their work from home, and we’re talking predominantly here about those people who are employed in what’s called the knowledge economy, so jobs that don’t have to be done face to face, 2020 saw a dramatic shift to remote working. </p>
<p>Dan: But whether this remote work normal is going to stick around is still kind of up in the air.</p>
<p>Gemma: Yeah, some company bosses really don’t like it. Barclays chief executive Jes Staley said <a href="https://www.cityam.com/barclays-boss-jes-staley-working-from-home-not-sustainable-as-collaboration-and-culture-take-a-hit/">it just wasn’t sustainable</a> … and the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/25/goldman-sachs-ceo-solomon-calls-working-from-home-an-aberration-.html">called it an aberration</a>.</p>
<p>Dan: But other companies think working from home is the future … In San Francisco, a huge number of office buildings are just sitting empty as companies and their employees have left. </p>
<p>Gemma: And some companies are announcing hybrid policies, so the energy giant BP has said that it <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/08/bp-to-tell-25000-office-staff-to-work-from-home-two-days-a-week">expected staff to work two days a week from home</a> once the lockdown lifts here in the UK. </p>
<p>Gemma: To find out more about how remote working has changed the way we work, and about some problems of a more hybrid future, I’ve spoken to four experts who’ve been researching remote and flexible work during the pandemic. </p>
<p>Gemma: Before the pandemic turned many people’s lives upside down, around 3%-5% of employees in North America worked from home full time. In the European Union, it <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/jrcsh/files/jrc120945_policy_brief_-_covid_and_telework_final.pdf">was around 6%</a>. Some reports had suggested that numbers were increasing – one 2016 survey found that <a href="https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/206033/america-coming-workplace-home-alone.aspx?utm_source=link_wwwv9&utm_campaign=item_236222&utm_medium=copy">nearly half of US employees</a> worked from home occasionally. Still, the massive shift to remote working that was envisaged back in the 1990s just didn’t happen. But why? </p>
<p>Jean-Nicolas Reyt: Managers tend to dislike the idea of managing remote employees, it’s more complicated. </p>
<p>Gemma: This is Jean-Nicolas Reyt. </p>
<p>Jean-Nicolas: I am an assistant professor at McGill University in the Desautels Faculty of Management and my research focuses on the distances people consider when they’re working, such as, when they’re working remotely.</p>
<p>Gemma: Part of the resistance to full-time remote working seemed to stem from a misconception among employers, that their staff just wouldn’t work as hard if they were not physically in the office. That productivity would go down. But decades of research shows that the opposite is actually true. </p>
<p>Jean-Nicolas: Research has shown consistently that actually there is an increase in productivity when people work from home, and there are several reasons for this. One of them is that people tend to reallocate their commuting time to work time but you also have the fact that people tend to be able to structure their days better and they’re less interrupted than when they’re in a physical office. </p>
<p>Gemma: And yet before the pandemic, managers were often reluctant to allow their employees to work from home. </p>
<p>Jean-Nicolas: So in a lot of organisations, what you see is that, managers get requests, by employees to telework and they often deny it saying, you know, it’s impossible. But we’ve seen, right, recently that it turns out we could actually do it. And we did it.</p>
<p>Gemma: And much of the world did it, very quickly. </p>
<p>In the European Union, <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/jrcsh/files/jrc120945_policy_brief_-_covid_and_telework_final.pdf">estimates suggest that 40%</a> of the bloc’s employees started working from home because of the pandemic. Of the rates vary, depending on the type of job somebody can do, and by country. </p>
<p>Marie-Colombe Afota: My name is Marie-Colombe Afota, so I’m a professor in management, organisational behaviour and leadership in a French business school, ISEG school of management. </p>
<p>Gemma: In France, Marie-Colombe says employers reacted to the sudden imperative to stop office-based work in two phases. When France went into its first lockdown in spring 2020, many companies went into crisis-management mode, shifting to remote working en masse. But after restrictions lifted, and then the second lockdown came around in October, compliance slipped.</p>
<p>Marie-Colombe: On the one hand, we started to see that many organisations were initiating negotiation with unions in order to implement telework programmes that would persist after the pandemic. But on the other hand, we saw these very same organisations, requiring their employees to come to the office, even though they could do their job from home.</p>
<p>Gemma: And data indicates that, before a new wave of restrictions were announced in parts of France last week, only <a href="https://www.linternaute.com/actualite/guide-vie-quotidienne/2524752-teletravail-nouvelles-regles-et-conditions-de-retour-en-entreprise/">a third of the people</a> who could actually work from home, were doing so, five days per week. Marie-Colombe thinks this is partly because there is no legal obligation on companies to use remote working. </p>
<p>Marie-Colombe: But, I think that part of the explanation also lies in the specific managerial culture of control that still persists in many French companies. To some extent, they were perfectly expressing a form of suspicion that maybe remote workers were not really working. </p>
<p>Gemma: Marie-Colombe and her colleagues wanted to find out more about the way that employees were affected by these suspicions. They managed to get the agreement of a large French multinational to conduct two surveys of 4,000 of its employees, one in September and once in November last year. She can’t reveal the name of the company because of confidentiality reasons.</p>
<p>Marie-Colombe: This is a large company, the headquarters is based in France, but the company has offices in many countries. But most of our respondents were located in France, Spain and the US.</p>
<p>Gemma: The research has been submitted to an academic journal, though not yet published – but Marie-Colombe and her colleagues recently published some of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/face-au-scepticisme-des-employeurs-les-teletravailleurs-se-rendent-plus-disponibles-pour-signaler-leur-engagement-154431">initial findings in French on The Conversation</a>. One of the survey questions they asked was how many hours were people working, and because not all the respondents were actually working remotely full time, they were able to compare those in the office, to those working from home. </p>
<p>Marie-Colombe: And, it turned out that this number of hours was exactly the same for these two populations: 45 hours a week. And no significant difference also between countries.</p>
<p>Gemma: So no, those working from home weren’t working less, and this has been backed up by <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-02/remote-working-s-longer-hours-are-new-normal-for-many-chart">other studies too</a> that show people have actually been working longer hours during the pandemic. But Marie-Colombe was also interested in the perception that these employees had, of how important being present and visible in the office, was to their organisation. She calls this a “climate for face time”. </p>
<p>Marie-Colombe: What we found is that the more employees felt that their organisation generally values being visible in the office, the more they felt expected to be constantly available while in remote work. And in turn, two months later, the less they felt productive and happy in remote work.</p>
<p>Gemma: This working environment isn’t just created by the top bosses of a company, it can be down to individual line managers or supervisors, and the way that they communicate to their teams. And it often means employees feel they need to be physically present in the office to demonstrate their dedication to the job.</p>
<p>Marie-Colombe: But now these employees are home and that don’t have any possibility to signal their dedication performance through this visibility. So it seems like they’re replacing this signal of visibility by another signal, which is extended availability. The problem is that this constant extended availability tends to impinge on their wellbeing and self-rating productivity. </p>
<p>Gemma: Practically, what do they do to compensate for not being in the office? </p>
<p>Marie-Colombe: So, some say: “I’m not moving from my desk. I feel guilty, each time I get up. And each time I have a coffee or take a break, I feel guilty because I need to be able to answer any phone calls, any message, any email as soon as I get it to signal that, yes, I’m there, I am working.”</p>
<p>Gemma: The results varied depending on where the employees were based.</p>
<p>Marie-Colombe: We saw that this climate for face time was much more important in France, Spain than it is in the United States.</p>
<p>Gemma: And take that from the other side, do you think that the employees are right, that their employers actually need that from them?</p>
<p>Marie-Colombe: We know that employees tend to think that if they are visible in the office employers will think that they’re are dedicated, and research shows that this is true. Employers will tend to think that face time equals dedication, equals performance, and research suggests that face time equals promotions. And this is a huge problem for women, for example, it’s a real cause of discrimination at work. </p>
<p>Gemma: This is because women tend to take on more childcare or caring responsibilities, which has tended to make them less visible in the office. And that was before factoring in the negative impact that the pandemic has had on women’s employment, including their likelihood of getting a promotion. </p>
<p>Other ongoing research on people’s experiences of full-time remote working during the pandemic suggest that it has taken a big toll on some. </p>
<p>Dave: I’m Dave Cook. </p>
<p>Gemma: He’s an anthropologist and psychologist studying for a PhD at University College London. </p>
<p>Dave: I’m conducting a seven-year study on remote workers. And I was almost five years into the project when the pandemic hit a year ago.</p>
<p>Gemma: When the pandemic began, he joined a group of academics researching work-life balance as part of a project called <a href="https://www.eworklife.co.uk/">eworklife.co.uk</a>. They’re interviewing people in the UK about their experiences of working from home.</p>
<p>Dave: During in-depth interviews I noticed the main issues were not being able to unplug at the end of the day, difficulties with collaboration and communication and obviously as we all know now distractions at home. They were a nice little diversion and there were some viral videos, but by the time we got to this lockdown that started at Christmas and then went on into January and February this year and kids weren’t going back to school, that was really eroding people’s wellbeing and mental health over time.</p>
<p>Gemma: And you’ve actually described your findings of this initial survey as it’s kind of a public health issue. Why do you you say that?</p>
<p>Dave: I would say that burnout and work-life balance is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/work-life-balance-in-a-pandemic-a-public-health-issue-we-cannot-ignore-155492">forgotten public health emergency that’s emerging throughout this lockdown</a>. Obviously we’re focusing on trying to beat this pandemic, but while we’re looking the other way, our work-life balance is kind of like falling into tatters. So, things like overwork and not being able to manage distractions at home. Not being able to divide between family time and work time and caring responsibilities, is decreasing people’s sense of wellbeing. </p>
<p>Gemma: Nevertheless, the shift to remote work for those whose jobs allow it, has been a good experience for many other people during the pandemic. Here’s Jean-Nicolas Reyt again.</p>
<p>Jean-Nicolas: A lot of CEOs and a lot of employees are saying, like, it was forced but it’s actually pretty good. And I think one of the reasons is because it addresses a lot of problems that were unaddressed for a really, really long time. For example, I’ll always say, before the pandemic a manager could say for sure to an employee, “Your personal life is completely your problem.” But it’s true that now in a pandemic where we’re asking employees to go and work from home and so work is invading the private space, you know we’re realising that people need the flexibility and people need to to be able to structure their days better.</p>
<p>Gemma: Since the pandemic began, Jean-Nicolas <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-canadas-top-ceos-think-about-remote-work-149778">has been tracking what chief executives of companies</a> listed on the NASDAQ and NYSE say about the shift to remote work in their quarterly updates to investors and analysts. </p>
<p>Jean-Nicolas: So I’m following around 250 Canadian CEOs and around 3,000 US CEOs. </p>
<p>Gemma: At the start, many said they didn’t believe in remote work, or that they were worried about productivity and would bring their employees back to the office as soon as possible. But that shifted over the course of the year. </p>
<p>Jean-Nicolas: What you see is that actually that misconception, that telework is just not as efficient as co-located work, has vanished for a lot of CEOs. A lot of CEOs actually say that were very surprised that it was working so well. A lot of CEOs are announcing that they will make remote work permanent. Some CEOs are still maintaining that they want to have co-located work, but I would say the very very vast majority of them talk about hybrid arrangements. </p>
<p>Gemma: Offering some form or remote work is also a way to recruit and retain staff. </p>
<p>Jean-Nicolas: I see now that some companies are doing permanently the switch to remote work. This is going to be something that’s going to be a desirable attribute for a lot of workers, whether or not they can be hybrid workers. A lot of companies are pointing out how remote work also helps them recruit people from other countries or recruit people who live in other places. So it does have some advantages. </p>
<p>Gemma: Flexible working, of course, is not new. And there’s lots of evidence already out there on what works.</p>
<p>Jean-Nicolas: The less you are trying to make everything transactional by clocking in, clocking out, counting the number of clicks on a computer, the more you do that the less people are intrinsically motivated to work. Managers who have a much easier time switching to remote work are the ones who understand that employees are self-motivated that there is excellence in everyone and there is ambition in everyone. So what you have to do is you have to provide them with the resources so that they can do the work. It doesn’t mean you’re not checking that the work is being done, it just means you tell them the why they’re doing it because they need to know why. You let them figure out the how, and then you measure the output. And a lot of research actually has found that it helps a lot with intrinsic motivation.<br>
Gemma: And I guess it’s also about choosing what they do when they’re actually in the office?</p>
<p>Jean-Nicolas: Yes. So this is something that’s very important which is team identification right, the extent to which you feel like you belong to a team. There are issues when somebody is a hybrid worker because they’re not here all the time. And so I’ve seen you know in my CEO data set that there is a concern among CEOs in terms of organisational culture. But it’s true that in a time where everybody would be hybrid workers, then you need to make it more intentional. It’s not just something that happens on its own by the coffee machine. </p>
<p>Gemma: The gravity of the coronavirus situation, and the speed of vaccine rollout is of course different around the world – and so it’s possible to see what the future has in store in countries where life has pretty much returned to normal. Like Australia. </p>
<p>Ruchi Sinha: I live in Adelaide where we’ve been without community transmission for a very long time. </p>
<p>Gemma: This is Ruchi Sinha, a senior lecturer at the University of South Australia business school, who studies organisational behaviour and psychology. </p>
<p>Ruchi: The transition back to work has still allowed people the flexibility to work from home if the nature of the work allows that. But yes, there is an expectation now to have more face-to-face meetings at work than it was last year. </p>
<p>Gemma: People who work in the knowledge economy, at least, are settling into a more hybrid routine. </p>
<p>Ruchi: It’s now become the norm when you schedule a meeting and it’s primarily face-to-face that you also send across a video conference link into the calendar. </p>
<p>Gemma: But these hybrid arrangements come with their only challenges. If some people are in the room and some people on a video call, it can be disruptive if you have to ask someone to unmute themselves or the connection keeps dropping. And this makes for some difficult decisions for employers.</p>
<p>Ruchi: They’re going to find it hard to make a choice. Should we mandate people to be all on a video conference call, even though they’re present in person? Or should we mandate people to start coming back to work?</p>
<p>Gemma: For employees, Ruchi says the issue is how to maintain the quality of relationship with their colleagues. Trust is often built up outside of work meetings - sitting next to somebody, walking to lunch with them. </p>
<p>Ruchi: There’s a lot of research on fault lines and how subgroups form at work. And typically they used to form based on similarity in values, you know, how much you work together. But there’s a new kind of subgroup forming now, which is the subgroup of those who are on the video call and those who are in person. And I think those fault lines can cause teams to have differing level of relationship and thus affect coordination.</p>
<p>Gemma: Ruchi is currently conducting research within a large Australian company on a new type of flexible work arrangement that it’s begun to pilot since the pandemic. It includes an element of working remotely, but also allows people to change when they do their work. She’s still analysing the data, but so far one of the biggest predictors of success is the support of the manager.</p>
<p>Ruchi: So even though you have all of these work arrangements, at the end of the day, your one-on-one relationship with your immediate line supervisor determines how much flexibility you have within that arrangement.</p>
<p>Gemma: Flexible working, of course, is more than just working from home, and flexibility comes in many forms: where you work, when you work, how you work and even what you’re doing. I asked Ruchi whether, after the pandemic, she’s been hearing Australian employers talk more about introducing more truly flexible work policies, ones that aren’t just determined by how many days somebody needs to be in the office.</p>
<p>Ruchi: I see a lot of conversation happening on the topic, and it’s happening from two or three different angles. And one is the fact that you see it as an efficiency tool. So, you start rethinking about how space needs to get utilised, on whether we need to have offices the way we used to traditionally have. I think in the last one year, at least in Australia, you’ve realised that how much time was sucked into walking over to meetings, getting out of meetings, going to the next one, that the efficiency argument for supporting this is pretty strong. </p>
<p>However, what I still think we are lacking in that conversation is on talking about autonomy. So we talk about flexibility and flexibility by definition means something that bends, that is adaptable to change. But we forget that in order to adapt, bend and change, individuals need autonomy. So the autonomy is choice and choice is very important in flexibility. So, I don’t think we are spending enough time thinking about are we giving people choice to shape their jobs?</p>
<p>Gemma: Ruchi wonders whether opportunities to really embed a more flexible way of working are being missed. </p>
<p>Ruchi: Once the work from home becomes the new normal, I think we will still fall back to having that as a rigid form. So, what I mean is that you start making policies that, “Oh, we will now allow you to work this many days from home, and we don’t need you to come to the office. You don’t need a desk.” And I do think all of that is going to happen. But I really think, it’s going to be tough for employers to accept giving choice, that this is all going to eventually become the new normal with more rigid work arrangements that just look different from what it used to be.</p>
<p>Gemma: For those parts of the world still in the grip of the pandemic, Australia offers a glimpse of the conversations that will be happening over the new few months. But once the public health crisis eventually subsidies, there will be many factors that determine whether or not a company decides to bring back their employees into the office – and for how much. I asked Dave Cook where he thought we’re heading. </p>
<p>Dave: It’s really important for individual companies, whether they’re going to want to take a moral position that remote working is a good thing or a bad thing is to start communicating that with their employees so their employees can get on with planning the rest of their lives. And then if we step back from that and we accept that not all companies are going behave in the same way, there is a very important and active role for policy and for government to bring in new legislation to make sure that companies do create a flexible and interim flexible working policies. </p>
<p>Gemma: Whatever happens next, it’ll be hard to please everybody.</p>
<p>Dave: It’s going to be quite polarising. So some people are going to be asked to come back into the office and they’re gonna feel really resentful, and some people are going to be required to work from home when they want more collaboration. And I think it’s going to be quite hard. I think, you know, we have been in a period of hibernation I think that the changes we come out of this is going to be a shock.</p>
<p>Dan: I totally agree with that. It’s gonna be super weird to either be forced to stay or at home, or to be back in the office, having to deal with all the things we’ve forgotten how to do over the last year. </p>
<p>Gemma: Yeah, and the habits of working from home have already formed right, whether or not they’re good habits or bad habits. I mean, I’m not getting out nearly enough.</p>
<p>So you can read more about the research of <a href="https://theconversation.com/work-life-balance-in-a-pandemic-a-public-health-issue-we-cannot-ignore-155492">Dave Cook</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/face-au-scepticisme-des-employeurs-les-teletravailleurs-se-rendent-plus-disponibles-pour-signaler-leur-engagement-154431">Marie-Colombe Afota</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-canadas-top-ceos-think-about-remote-work-149778">Jean-Nicolas Reyt</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/thinking-about-working-from-home-long-term-3-ways-it-could-be-good-or-bad-for-your-health-141374">Ruchi Sinah</a> in their articles on The Conversation. Find the links in the episode notes. </p>
<p>Dan: Coming up, why one single gene might be the reason some people never seem to get cold.</p>
<p>Gemma: But first, we’ve got a message from our colleague Sunanda Creagh in Sydney. </p>
<p>Sunanda: I dunno if you can hear that. It’s rain on my roof in Sydney, where I live. I’m Sunanda Creagh from The Conversation Australia. Here on the east coast of Australia in the state of New South Wales, it’s been raining for more than a week, non stop. We’re in the grip of a one-in-100-year flooding event, and whole suburbs in the city are being evacuated. Homes everywhere are being inundated and Warragamba dam, which is the main dam that supplies Sydney’s water supply, is overflowing.</p>
<p>Now in the wake of all this thousands of people have already rushed to file insurance claims, but people are wondering how quickly will those claims actually be assessed and how many of them are actually going to succeed? We asked researcher Chloe Lucas from the University of Tasmania to write about that, and she’s done a really fantastic piece called <a href="https://theconversation.com/they-lost-our-receipts-three-times-how-getting-an-insurance-payout-can-be-a-full-time-job-157588">“They lost our receipts three times.” How getting an insurance payout can be a full-time job</a>. She shares some really heartbreaking stories she’s collected from people who’ve battled insurers in Australia after previous floods and makes some suggestions on how the system can change for a future that we’re flooding is likely to be more intense and more frequent.</p>
<p>Another piece we’ve published is titled <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-people-try-to-drive-through-floodwater-or-leave-it-too-late-to-flee-psychology-offers-some-answers-157577">Why do people try to drive through floodwater or leave it too late to flee? Psychology offers some answers.</a> That one’s by Gary Stevens and Spyros Schismenos from Western Sydney university, co-authored by Mel Taylor from Macquarie University. And they talk about what clues psychology can offer to explain why people take really big risks in the middle of a flood. You can read all about that on The Conversation.</p>
<p>Gemma: That was Sunanda Creagh from The Conversation in a very damp Sydney. And a special shout out to our colleagues in Australia where The Conversation started ten years ago, this week. </p>
<p>Dan: Happy birthday to our colleagues in Australia. </p>
<p>OK, for the next story, we’re looking at cold tolerance actually and how it’s tied to genetics. Everyone has that one friend who seems impervious to cold, right. It’ll be absolutely freezing out. And they’re just like walking around with shorts and a sweatshirt on, happy as can be. </p>
<p>Gemma: I know the person you mean Dan. It’s not me, I am always there with four jumpers and five scarfs on, but I know. I have friends like that. </p>
<p>Dan: So it turns out that there’s actually a gene closely tied with susceptibility to cold. Some people have a mutation in this gene that turns it off and makes them able to handle the cold much better than other people. </p>
<p>Gemma: So I can blame being called on my genes?</p>
<p>Dan: You can blame it on just one single gene, and that’s super rare to find a single gene that has such a clear effect. So let’s jump into it. And by it I mean, let’s jump into some nice ice cold bathtubs. </p>
<p>Victoria Wyckelsma: My name is Victoria Wyckelsma, and I’m a post-doctoral researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. And primarily my research is on skeletal muscle and how it influences our ability to respond to exercise and environmental challenges.</p>
<p>Dan: OK, muscles, but not just in terms of strength and stuff. You also study how muscles help people deal with environmental factors like cold. So how did your most recent research look into this? </p>
<p>Victoria: We had these people and, we convinced them to have an ice bath for two hours and we wanted to see how people would respond to this ridiculous cold bath.
Some people obviously respond pretty well. You can chuck some football players in an ice bath and they’re like, “Yeah, no worries, be here all day.” And you put other players in an ice bath and they’re like, “Get me out as soon as I can.” Some start shivering like crazy. I mean, there’s obviously a reason why two different people can have such insanely different reactions. And so we kind of wanted to see why.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/your-genetics-influence-how-resilient-you-are-to-cold-temperatures-new-research-155975">Your genetics influence how resilient you are to cold temperatures – new research</a>
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<p>Dan: I have friends who wear a T-shirt and shorts like 365 days a year. Meanwhile, I’m putting a jacket on the minute the sun goes down. Has this difference always been a mystery?</p>
<p>Victoria: Generally speaking, people don’t really understand the mechanisms and some of the molecular reasons, I suppose, why some people are better than others.
There’s a lot of research suggesting that this gene is super important in maintaining your body temperature, which is the thing that’s going to make you want to get in and out of the ice bath. </p>
<p>Dan: So what is this gene? What does it do? And why were you looking at this gene in particular?</p>
<p>Victoria: Yeah, so this gene is called the ACTN3 gene. A group of researchers actually in Sydney and Melbourne, looked at this in a mouse and they noticed a few molecular, physiological things happening on a muscle level itself. And the results from that study sorta led us to think that maybe the lack of this gene is going to be really beneficial in a cold environment. So we thought, all right, let’s test it out.</p>
<p>Dan: OK, OK. So some people have a working version of the gene, some people don’t. And what you were trying to get at is how this genetic mutation can affect a person’s ability to withstand the cold, right? </p>
<p>Victoria: Yeah, absolutely. So we know that about 20% of people don’t have it. Which means they don’t express a particular ACTN3 protein in your muscle. And there’s no consequence. I mean, you aren’t, you’re not susceptible to any illness. The only thing that it does is it can enhance your athletic performance or have a detriment to your athletic performance depending on the sport. And apparently it can influence your ability to sit in an ice bath. </p>
<p>Dan: How do you test that please? And, I hope it wasn’t too terrible for your subjects?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man swimming in freezing water." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391909/original/file-20210326-17-aj7bdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391909/original/file-20210326-17-aj7bdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391909/original/file-20210326-17-aj7bdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391909/original/file-20210326-17-aj7bdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391909/original/file-20210326-17-aj7bdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391909/original/file-20210326-17-aj7bdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391909/original/file-20210326-17-aj7bdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People with a particular gene variant shivered less and had a higher core body temperature when exposed to cold water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-man-bathing-ice-hole-237474358">Dudarev Mikhail/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Victoria: We did this testing in Lithuania and we got about 40 men to come in and we set an ice bath at 14 degrees, which is probably as cold as we could make the water and have it be medically safe for the amount of time that we wanted to put them in the water for. So we asked these guys to sit in this ice bath, the water up to their shoulders. So they completely covered. 20 minutes in, and then they got 10 minutes to sit out just in a chair next to the ice bath, watching it. And then the in between the researchers dump more ice and make sure it’s at 14 degrees. And then they go back in for 20 minutes. </p>
<p>Dan: How long did they have to do this for? </p>
<p>Victoria: They repeat this for 120 minutes of sitting in the water or until their core temperature dropped to 35.5 degrees. So that was our cutoff. Once they got to that, then we said, OK, you’re done. </p>
<p>Dan: Is it like dangerous? </p>
<p>Victoria: I think, it’s not safe to go much, much colder than that. We didn’t want to put anyone in any sort of risk for this. So, and then just to figure out if they had a gene or not, all you have to do is take a blood sample and you send it off to a lab and then they do a very quick analysis for us. So then we could separate the people. </p>
<p>And then actually we just found that about 70% of those people who actually could complete the challenge, didn’t have the gene compared to only 30% of the guys with the protein. I mean, pretty, pretty strong contrast. And it was, it was pretty shocking to see like, just the differences in how strong this was.</p>
<p>Dan: Are you saying some of these people lasted for a full two hours in like frigid icy water? </p>
<p>Victoria: Yep, absolutely. </p>
<p>Dan: OK. So they jump in an ice cold bath. How do you measure what their body is doing? </p>
<p>Victoria: I mean, they had things everywhere, like to measure rectal temperature so we can get an idea of their core temperatures, things to measure like their muscle activation. And we actually check their respiration and their heart rate and all sorts of things. And, obviously the drop in muscle temperature was different and the drop-in core temperature was different. But otherwise, I mean, when you look at your heart rate and oxygen consumption, they were basically identical.</p>
<p>Dan: What was the difference between those with and those without the mutation? </p>
<p>Victoria: The key thing that is the difference is the guys who have the mutation and can stay in the bath for longer – they actually shiver less. And this is something that we’re related to, to the fibre type of the muscle. So within your muscle, you have fast muscle fibres, which are a really good for athletic events, like 100m sprint, high-jump, whatever you want to do. And then we’ve got really slow muscle fibres, which are important for marathon running, and you can go all day. And when you have this mutation, you have more of these slow fibres. And then so overall your, your pattern is rather slow. </p>
<p>And when you do have this gene, then you have more of like a fast muscle phenotype. So your, your muscle behaves more like a fast muscle. And shivering is associated with fast-twitch muscles. So when you’re shivering, you’re activating a lot of your fast-twitch muscles. And if you have this gene, you have more fast-twitch muscles, and it’s a lot harder for you to produce energy because your muscles are always shivering.</p>
<p>So, you need to use more energy to generate heat, to keep yourself immersed in the water. When you have more of a slow-twitch phenotype in your muscle, they don’t need to go into the shivering space. And what we’ve found is they have sort of low-lying levels of contraction. So they’re activated and they’re working, but they’re not really working as hard. They don’t need a large amount of energy, like the guys who shiver a lot, do. And that’s what we found was the key difference. </p>
<p>Dan: To make a metaphor that might actually work here, you’re cold in the morning. One guy decides to go and sprint up a hill until he gets warm, but he can’t do that for very long. The other guy just kind of goes for a nice, slow jog, and that’ll also warm him up, but it definitely doesn’t use anywhere near as much energy.
Is that what’s happening on like a muscular level? </p>
<p>Victoria: Yeah, basically. So your muscles are sort of contracting either really rapidly, as you say, like you would in a sprint, if you do have this protein and that’s chewing up all your energy and making your muscles fatigue. And it’s, I mean, then it’s hard to continuously use as much energy to make heat. Whereas like you said, if you just go on for a slow jog, you’re burning energy, but not as much. And then you can maintain the effort for a lot longer period of time. </p>
<p>Dan: What did those people kind of look like at the end of this, compared to the people that were shivering and had this more fast-twitch muscle?</p>
<p>Victoria: There’s not real difference in, in anything, I mean about them physically. So they weren’t, they had the same amount of body fat. They had the same amount of muscle mass sort of thing. Similar weight, similar height, similar. Yeah, from that perspective, it was more about the underlying muscle activity. </p>
<p>Dan: You really kind of discovered that people with this mutation, meaning they’re missing this gene and missing this protein are just kind of built different, huh?</p>
<p>Victoria: Yeah, their muscles are absolutely built different. Like, I guarantee you, anyone at the Olympics who is in the 100m final has absolutely got this. But then when you go to the other end and you go your marathon runners and all your cross country skiers, then these guys are probably more likely to have this mutation. And it’s 20% of the population. </p>
<p>Dan: That’s a tonne of people with the mutation. How is it distributed amongst people on earth? Is it some areas have a lot, some areas have less?</p>
<p>Victoria: Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, this gene is more prevalent in colder climates, obviously. So if you’ve got less people with this mutation living in super hot places, but then when you’re looking at more of a colder climates, I think this is definitely more prevalent.</p>
<p>Dan: So like we got gene therapy coming down the pipeline pretty dang soon here. Can you imagine some future where people like double up on this gene. And so therefore they’re extra fast and strong, or they like take the mutation cause they’re like swimming and love swimming cross the English Channel. Is that a possibility?</p>
<p>Victoria: I recommend, just doing maybe some just gradual cold exposure and a safe, over a safe, prolonged period. </p>
<p>Dan: Thank, you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. It’s been fun. It’s been interesting. </p>
<p>Victoria: Thanks for having me on. It was fun.</p>
<p>Dan: That’s it for this week. You can find <a href="https://theconversation.com/your-genetics-influence-how-resilient-you-are-to-cold-temperatures-new-research-155975">links to Victoria’s article</a>, and all the expert analysis we’ve mentioned in the show notes. You can also find a link to sign up to <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter?utm_campaign=PodcastTCWeekly&utm_content=newsletter&utm_source=podcast">The Conversation’s free daily email</a>. </p>
<p>If you want to reach out – tell us what you think about the show or what questions we should be asking academics, find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a> or on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/?hl=en">theconversation.com</a>. Or you can email us on podcast@theconversation.com </p>
<p>Gemma: Thanks to all the academics who’ve spoken to us for this episode. And thanks too to The Conversation editors Lee-Anne Goodman, Thibault Lieurade, Liam Petterson, Heather Kroeker, Sunanda Creagh and Stephen Khan. And final thanks go to Alice Mason and Imriel Morgan for helping with our social media and promotion. </p>
<p>Gemma: This episode of The Conversation Weekly is co-produced by Mend Mariwany and me, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. </p>
<p>Dan: Thank you so much for listening everyone, and we’ll talk to you next week.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157836/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
A transcript of episode 8 of The Conversation Weekly podcast, including new research on why people react to cold temperatures differently.Gemma Ware, Head of AudioDaniel Merino, Associate Breaking News Editor and Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly PodcastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1558822021-03-07T19:09:51Z2021-03-07T19:09:51ZFlexible work arrangements help women, but only if they are also offered to men<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387628/original/file-20210304-21-1jk0bvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=213%2C79%2C4253%2C3382&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ErsinTekkol/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Flexible workplace policies designed to improve gender gaps in employment and pay might actually make things worse for women.</p>
<p>Flexible work has been on offer to both men and women in many companies for decades. However, it is usually women who are in <a href="https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/3398464/HILDA-Statistical-Report2019.pdf">non-standard employment such as part-time work</a>, often to meet the demands of <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/who-is-doing-what-on-the-homefront">children</a>, sick parents or partners needing extra care.</p>
<p>Flexible arrangements might support women in maintaining a work-life balance. But policies that make it easier to transition to a part-time job or take leave may actually be weakening their position in the labour market and their lifetime earnings potential, therefore widening gender gaps in pay.</p>
<p>This highlights the need for equal policies for women and men.</p>
<h2>COVID-19 and the labour market</h2>
<p>The world changed under COVID-19 and the movement towards more flexible work may be one of the silver linings of the pandemic.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-women-get-paid-less-than-men-hours-and-commuting-provide-clues-155883">Why do women get paid less than men? Hours and commuting provide clues</a>
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<p>This <a href="https://www.internationalwomensday.com/">International Women’s Day</a> (March 8), we are in a unique position to tap into the learnings from the COVID-19 lockdowns, during which many men and women were working from home and sharing housework, home-schooling and childcare responsibilities. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-forced-australian-fathers-to-do-more-at-home-but-at-the-same-cost-mothers-have-long-endured-154834">Research</a> shows Australian fathers stepped into more involved roles in the household during the lockdowns and have maintained higher levels of involvement in housework and childcare as things return to normal. </p>
<h2>Job flexibility and gender pay gap</h2>
<p>New <a href="https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/3620390/ri2021n02.pdf">research</a> from the Melbourne Institute suggests flexible work conditions such as part-time hours could be a driving factor in the career decisions of women, but not men, and a key reason why the gender divide in employment is not narrowing.</p>
<p>Gender differences in labour force participation, wages and working hours in Australia are very similar to those in the Netherlands, so a study from there offers valuable insights for policymakers in Australia.</p>
<p><iframe id="TY1Ka" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/TY1Ka/6/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><a href="https://www.iza.org/de/publications/dp/13779/fired-and-pregnant-gender-differences-in-job-flexibility-outcomes-after-job-loss">Researchers (including one of us, Jordy Meekes)</a> used data from Statistics Netherlands to analyse how men and women respond to job loss.</p>
<p>The study found women remained unemployed for longer than men. When they did find new jobs, women also experienced a larger reduction in working hours than men, which reduced their annual earnings. </p>
<p><iframe id="2e1pX" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/2e1pX/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>It appears women tend to put more emphasis on job flexibility than men, an explanation for <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-it-so-hard-for-women-to-return-to-the-workforce-men-provide-a-clue-155883">why it is hard for women to return to the workforce</a>. Women may even be willing to pass up job opportunities in favour of the flexible work conditions they rely on to balance work and family life.</p>
<p>Women remain largely responsible for the organisational and physical work of making sure kids are completing homework, lunches are prepared and attending numerous after-school activities.</p>
<p>Since work and school schedules are seldom aligned, someone has to do the juggle. To keep the family humming, mothers <a href="http://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/2874177/HILDA-report_Low-Res_10.10.18.pdf">spend more time on housework and care and less time on employment</a> after the birth of the first child.</p>
<h2>Part-time mothers</h2>
<p>The career penalty for women that comes with having a child in the current system is felt long beyond the period of maternity leave.</p>
<p>It is commonly acceptable for women to return to work in a part-time capacity. And it is often women who are culturally and socially expected to use flexible conditions to leave work and care for a sick child, for example. Less so for men.</p>
<p>The Melbourne Institute <a href="https://www.iza.org/de/publications/dp/13779/fired-and-pregnant-gender-differences-in-job-flexibility-outcomes-after-job-loss">study</a> found men who worked part-time in their previous role took longer to secure another job and were more likely to have to take a pay cut than men who worked full-time.</p>
<p>Men who previously worked part-time earned on average 10% less in the new job. This finding suggests employers attach a penalty to part-time work for men, explained by the fact it is relatively uncommon for men. </p>
<h2>Equal policies for women and men</h2>
<p>Our beliefs about <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/who-is-doing-what-on-the-homefront">gender norms are shifting</a> but this is not reflected in workplace and government policies on paper or in practice. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/that-extra-youre-about-to-get-in-super-most-of-it-will-come-from-you-but-dont-expect-the-ads-to-tell-you-that-154723">That extra you're about to get in super, most of it will come from you, but don't expect the ads to tell you that</a>
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<p>A review of existing policies is an important step in determining how suitable workplace policies are to support all employees.</p>
<p>Having written policies to support diversity and inclusion or flexible work practices is positive but it is not a sign of success. Particularly if, in practice, only a small number of employees can avail of the benefits – and at what cost?</p>
<p>The COVID-19 lockdowns, while challenging for many, have given us an insight into what flexibility could truly look like for men and women alike.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155882/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leah Ruppanner receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jordy Meekes is affiliated with the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course</span></em></p>Flexible arrangements might help women maintain a work-life balance, but can also weaken their position in the labour market and lose them earnings in the long term.Leah Ruppanner, Associate Professor in Sociology and Co-Director of The Policy Lab, The University of MelbourneJordy Meekes, Research Fellow, Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1522682020-12-18T14:54:21Z2020-12-18T14:54:21ZFlexible working: lessons from the great work-from-home mass experiment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375874/original/file-20201218-57996-r2ntio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The right to flexible work should be extended to all employees from the start of their contracts. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-working-home-telework-on-laptop-1679636683">Vera Petrunina/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For years, politicians and employers alike have <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/flexible-working-rights-extended-to-more-than-20-million">talked up the promise of flexible working</a>. And it looked like change was happening.</p>
<p>Last year, the UK government announced a consultation around whether flexible work should not just be available, but become employees’ default option in its annual <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/queens-speech-december-2019">Queen’s Speech</a>. But 2020 rapidly became a hugely different year in Westminster and flexible working rights seemingly ground to a halt at the political level.</p>
<p>In the end it took the COVID-19 pandemic, with its attendant government-enforced lockdowns, for working from home to sit at the centre of an unanticipated global experiment and to become the catalyst for a real discussion about flexible work. </p>
<p>The changes set in place this year have radically highlighted how employees’ diverse commitments and characteristics affect their work on a daily basis. And employers have taken vast strides in appreciating how well-managed flexibility keeps workforces productive. Working arrangements that reflect these differences and keep all staff motivated and working to their best effect will play a key role in organisations’ survival and ultimately the UK’s financial recovery.</p>
<p>But in this new world of work, organisations cannot afford to let flexible working arrangements remain a perk reserved for their their higher-level staff after the pandemic. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Human hand stopping a line of dominoes from falling. concept image for recovery plan and solution for cascading failures and problems. Dominoes are placed on a white table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375876/original/file-20201218-17-1vdg49j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375876/original/file-20201218-17-1vdg49j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375876/original/file-20201218-17-1vdg49j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375876/original/file-20201218-17-1vdg49j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375876/original/file-20201218-17-1vdg49j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375876/original/file-20201218-17-1vdg49j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375876/original/file-20201218-17-1vdg49j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Flexible working could be one of the many solution for the UK’s current woes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/human-hand-stopping-line-dominoes-falling-274807505">PTstock/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Unequal privilege</h2>
<p>Before the pandemic, we knew that flexible work was an <a href="https://www.southampton.ac.uk/publicpolicy/support-for-policymakers/policy-projects/parry-flexible-working.page">unequal privilege</a> in organisations – that you were more likely to get it if your work was highly valued, or if you had a sympathetic manager. Organisations had found that an accepted opposition to flexible work requests was that certain jobs simply couldn’t be done remotely. And so many much-needed flexible work requests faltered.</p>
<p>Now this thinking has been disproved. We have seen that most formerly office-based jobs can be performed from home. </p>
<p>Our research suggests that many people even think they are more productive away from the distractions of the office – incredible as this seems, considering that lockdown offered no normal working from home conditions. Children and very often partners were at home too, competing for space and time. </p>
<p>Yet productivity gains are borne out by the organisational evidence from lockdown. <a href="https://www.workafterlockdown.uk/">Our Work after Lockdown</a> survey, which I carried out with colleagues, found that nine out of 10 people felt that they got more – or at least as much – done at home as they had in their offices. Seven out of 10 people who responded to our survey want to continue to work from home at least part of the week after offices reopen.</p>
<p>It will therefore be difficult for the managers who had been so suspicious of working from home to reinforce standard business hours now that they have seen their employees going over and beyond their role expectations for month after month. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Online Video Conference Call. Work From Home Meeting" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375880/original/file-20201218-15-omtuoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375880/original/file-20201218-15-omtuoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375880/original/file-20201218-15-omtuoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375880/original/file-20201218-15-omtuoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375880/original/file-20201218-15-omtuoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375880/original/file-20201218-15-omtuoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375880/original/file-20201218-15-omtuoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Employees should be able schedule their time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/online-video-conference-call-work-home-1805271250">Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>We now find ourselves on the cusp of change. There is a desire for action and as organisations start to seriously engage for the first time in <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-workplace-trends-will-shape-life-after-lockdown-138077">hybrid working</a>, it’s becoming evident that this is not a binary discussion about whether work is performed in or outside of organisations. More important is how employees schedule their time and key to this is engaging with a much broader range of flexible working arrangements that reflect people’s different circumstances. </p>
<p>For so long, flexible work has lagged because organisations had not bought into its business case. Now, with the kind of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/nov/29/families-facing-hardest-period-in-five-decades-as-britains-economy-stalls">looming recession</a> that no one could have foreseen, the benefits of flexible work are very clear in the ability to help managers deal with complex working arrangements, maximise productivity and hold onto their skilled workforces when they will be most needed to weather the storm.</p>
<h2>Sustaining productivity gains</h2>
<p>It will be vital that flexible work is deployed in ways that are mutually beneficial to employees and employers. With workforce wellbeing at a low ebb during lockdown (our survey respondents scored 47.5 out of 100 on
<a href="https://www.corc.uk.net/outcome-experience-measures/the-world-health-organisation-five-well-being-index-who-5/">The World Health Organisation’s wellbeing index</a>), it is critical that employers respond quickly. </p>
<p>The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s <a href="http://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/productivity-gains-from-teleworking-in-the-post-covid-19-era-a5d52e99/">review</a> of the evidence collected from member countries in recent years concluded that remote workers’ wellbeing is important in sustaining productivity gains. </p>
<p>Lockdown has made managers more aware than ever of staff diversity, with different home circumstances, styles of working and personality characteristics. Managers got more creative with their fixes and in the process developed a more sophisticated sense of workforce needs. </p>
<p>One of the key recommendations driven by the first wave of findings in our <a href="https://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2020/07/long-term-implications-wfh.page">ESRC-funded research</a> is that the right to flexible work should be extended to all employees from the start of their contracts. This will help employers keep their valued staff working effectively through the next challenging period of recession, whilst also negotiating a new relationship with the EU.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152268/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Parry receives funding from UKRI/ESRC.</span></em></p>2020 has been the greatest ever global experiment in working from home. The pandemic will be the catalyst the flexible work discussion really needed.Jane Parry, Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour and HRM, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1448902020-08-26T14:21:38Z2020-08-26T14:21:38ZWe lose about 30 minutes of sleep each night of the working week, new study shows<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354877/original/file-20200826-7352-vo3xst.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C5861%2C3930&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's recommended that most adults get at least seven hours of sleep a night.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-african-woman-turning-off-alarm-363134597">Andrey_Popov/ Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For many of us, work often competes for time with sleep – which is why many of us look forward to the weekend for a chance to “catch up” on sleep. But how much sleep is lost on days when we work? Our <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13157">latest research shows</a> that we get about 30 minutes less sleep than we would ideally need on each night of the working week.</p>
<p>We followed 100 people aged from 60 to 71 over two years, covering their transition into retirement. We measured their sleep on three separate occasions, with one year in between, and compared the sleep habits while they were working against when – and for how long – they slept after retirement.</p>
<p>After retirement, we found that every day was like a weekend – at least when it came to how long people slept for. Sleep duration increased, but only on weekdays, from 6.5 to seven hours a night on average. This meant retired people got about an equal amount of sleep every night of the week. </p>
<p>The amount of sleep people tended to get on their weekends while still in work seemed to be their preferred sleep duration, rather than “catch-up” sleep. If weekend sleep was prolonged to compensate for the working week’s sleep loss, we would have expected a drop after retirement (when there’s no sleep loss to compensate for) – but we this wasn’t the case.</p>
<p>Given that participants’ weekend sleep was their preferred sleep duration, weekend lie-ins will not compensate for sleep lost on weekdays while working. This means that our study participants had chronic partial sleep deprivation when they were working, of about 2.5 hours each week. </p>
<p>While adults are recommended to get <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4434546/">at least seven hours</a> per night for optimal health, sleep needs vary both between people and as we age. We need less sleep when we are older than when we are younger. </p>
<p>Different people need different amounts of sleep, which makes it hard to estimate what constitutes “too little” sleep for any given individual, but <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1365-2869.2003.00337.x">other</a> <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12683469/">studies</a> have in experiments found that getting only six to seven hours of sleep affects attention and reaction time negatively compared to getting eight to nine hours of shuteye. This performance drop remained, even after getting a full night’s sleep three days in a row. </p>
<p>Partial sleep deprivation as a result of work can continue for years, which is why the accumulated effects needs to be considered. Sleeping less than seven hours on a regular basis is related to increased risk for <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4434546/">various health conditions</a>, including diabetes, stroke and depression. It’s also <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4434546/">associated with</a> impaired immune system function, as well as increased risk of accidents. </p>
<h2>Social jetlag</h2>
<p>Not only did sleep duration change with retirement, but people also went to bed later and woke later. Getting rid of the alarm clock seemed to be what drove the increase, as retired people went to bed about half an hour later and woke up an hour later on average during weekdays compared to when they were working. </p>
<p>Going to bed in time to get plenty of sleep before getting up for work is not always easy – especially for the majority of the population who have a late “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1087079207000895">biological clock</a>”. This means they naturally prefer to go to sleep later and wake up later than people with an early biological clock. </p>
<p>Those with a late biological clock also have a tendency to postpone their bed and wake times on weekends more than others, which unfortunately sets their biological clock even later – making it hard to go to bed early on Sunday and even harder wake up early on Monday morning. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman holding cup of coffee yawns in front of her laptop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354879/original/file-20200826-7211-b5mz1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354879/original/file-20200826-7211-b5mz1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354879/original/file-20200826-7211-b5mz1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354879/original/file-20200826-7211-b5mz1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354879/original/file-20200826-7211-b5mz1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354879/original/file-20200826-7211-b5mz1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354879/original/file-20200826-7211-b5mz1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Monday morning may be even harder for night owls.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tired-sleepy-woman-yawning-working-office-367741853">Stokkete/ Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When our biological clock is out of sync with the social clock (which is the timetable imposed on us by society) it can result in “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6784249/">social jetlag</a>”. Social jetlag acts a bit like regular jetlag, and can make us feel down and tired. It’s also associated with higher risk for <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6784249/">metabolic disorders and depressive symptoms</a>.</p>
<p>Longer and more stable sleep across the week could, at least partly, explain why so many people experience <a href="https://journals.lww.com/epidem/Fulltext/2011/07000/Is_Retirement_Beneficial_for_Mental_Health__.20.aspx">improved mental health</a> and drastically <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c6149">lower levels of fatigue</a> after retirement. </p>
<p>But even though sleep patterns became more stable after retirement, people still went to bed and woke up around half an hour later on weekends compared to weekdays. This hints that other social factors – such as visiting with friends – also affect when and how much we sleep.</p>
<p>We also found that retired participants with a full-time working partner changed their sleep timing to a smaller extent than the rest, highlighting that sleep is social, as opposed to a purely individual phenomenon. </p>
<p>But there are some things you can do yourself to adjust your sleep patterns more to work and avoid “social jetlag” on Monday morning, including making sure you get plenty of daylight in the mornings. Morning light pushes our biological clock backwards, making it easier to fall asleep at night. However, the opposite is also true, so bright light should be avoided in the evenings and bedrooms should be dark.</p>
<p>It also helps to prioritise your sleep and keep a more regular sleep schedule, even on weekends. Allow yourself some extra time in bed on weekend mornings if you need it, but try to avoid throwing your weekend sleep schedule off too much in order to stay away from the vicious cycle of sleep loss and social jetlag. </p>
<p>That being said, our study suggests that work generates sleep loss and hinders people from sleeping in line with their natural rhythm. But just as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1087079215000891?via%3Dihub">later school start times</a> are an effective way to improve sleep in adolescents, later (or flexible) start times at work could potentially have the same effect for working people – and may mean people won’t have to wait until retirement to get enough sleep.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144890/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Johanna Garefelt receives funding from the Swedish Council for Health, Working life and Welfare (Grant numbers: 2012-1743, 2017-00099).</span></em></p>Our latest research also shows that retirement allows us to finally get as much sleep as our body needs each night.Johanna Garefelt, PhD Candidate in Public Health at the Stress Research Institute, Stockholm UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1394722020-06-03T02:45:02Z2020-06-03T02:45:02ZWorking from home remains a select privilege: it’s time to fix our national employment standards<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339115/original/file-20200602-133860-me0tew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5000%2C3293&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The number of Australians working from home has soared during the COVID-19 crisis. Latest data from the <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Previousproducts/4940.0Main%20Features229%20Apr%20-%204%20May%202020?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=4940.0&issue=29%20Apr%20-%204%20May%202020&num=&view=">Australian Bureau of Stastistics</a> shows 46% of the workforce worked from home in late April and early May. </p>
<p>By comparison, the bureau’s <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6333.0">2019 data</a> showed slightly less than a third saying they “regularly worked from home” – a number likely inflated by those catching up on work from the office. </p>
<p>For many this has been the first real taste not just of full time teleworking, but any flexible working arrangements – something that under minimum employment laws remain a privilege for a select few. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/50-years-of-bold-predictions-about-remote-work-it-isnt-all-about-technology-135034">50 years of bold predictions about remote work: it isn't all about technology</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But it will be important for all organisations to keep extending flexible working arrangements to as many staff as possible as we move to the next phase of our COVID-19 response. </p>
<p>While social distancing rules are now relaxing, until there’s a vaccine we still need work flexibility for as many people as possible. To ease, for example, morning and afternoon congestion in central business districts and on public transport.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-coronavirus-restrictions-ease-heres-how-you-can-navigate-public-transport-as-safely-as-possible-138845">As coronavirus restrictions ease, here's how you can navigate public transport as safely as possible</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<p>Over the past few months we’ve been been part of a research team looking at how organisations have coped with the abrupt shift to remote work. Our findings are promising. But they also highlight a deficiency in Australia’s national employment standards, which do little to encourage employers embracing flexible working arrangements.</p>
<h2>Still more a privilege than a right</h2>
<p>Your rights to flexible working arrangement are likely to be set out most strongly in your favour in an enterprise agreement. Or, if you don’t have one of those, an industry award. Or possibly an individual contract. Provisions will differ.</p>
<p>If you aren’t covered by any of those, you’re out of luck. </p>
<p>The right to flexible working arrangement set down in the <a href="https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employee-entitlements/national-employment-standards">National Employment Standards</a> – the minimum entitlements employers must give all employees – is no right at all.</p>
<p>Instead, the <a href="https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employee-entitlements/flexibility-in-the-workplace/flexible-working-arrangements">Flexible Working Arrangements</a> standard stipulates only that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some employees who have worked for the same employer for at least 12 months can request flexible working arrangements, such as changes to hours, patterns or locations of work.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To even have the right to make that request, you must also:</p>
<ul>
<li>be the parent or carer of a child who is school-aged or younger</li>
<li>have a disability, or be a carer<br></li>
<li>be 55 years and older </li>
<li>be experiencing violence from a family member, or supporting family or household members experiencing family violence. </li>
</ul>
<p>If you meet these criteria, you have the right to receive a response to your request within 21 days. If your request is rejected, your employer <a href="https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/decisionssigned/html/2018fwcfb5753.htm">must detail the reasons</a> for the refusal, “including the business grounds”. </p>
<p>What constitutes “reasonable business grounds” is broad. It includes your employer deciding your request: </p>
<ul>
<li>is too costly</li>
<li>can’t be made to fit with the working arrangements of other employees</li>
<li>“would not be practical” to accommodate</li>
<li>will result in a “significant loss of productivity” or “significant negative impact on customer service”.</li>
</ul>
<p>The Fair Work Commission does have the power to adjudicate a complaint about an employer’s grounds for refusing a request. But <a href="https://www.fairwork.gov.au/how-we-will-help/templates-and-guides/fact-sheets/minimum-workplace-entitlements/requests-for-flexible-working-arrangements">according to the Fair Work Ombudsman</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This generally only happens if the parties to the dispute have agreed in an employment contract, enterprise agreement or other written agreement for that to occur.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Tracking the transition</h2>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has provided us and our colleagues at Curtin University with an opportunity to see how organisations have managed with a big shift to teleworking. </p>
<p>These arrangements they might easily have been rejected previously on “reasonable business grounds”.</p>
<p>Our research involved interviewing 34 human resources and industrial relations managers and implementers. They worked for organisations that included a hospital, a school, a financial services company, and multiple mining companies, government departments and not-for-profit organisations. Their employee numbers ranged from as few as five to as many as 60,000. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/working-from-home-what-are-your-employers-responsibilities-and-what-are-yours-133922">Working from home: what are your employer's responsibilities, and what are yours?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We interviewed them between April and May to see how their organisations coped with the move. Thirty said they were unprepared for such a large-scale transition. Yet after four weeks, 27 were enthusiastic about the benefits and wanted flexible work arrangements to continue. </p>
<p>As the senior human resource advisor of a mining company, put it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I don’t have kids and before I did not think about working from home. Now I would like to do it at least for one day a week and definitely see I can 100% get my work done from home. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Amending the Fair Work Act</h2>
<p>Our findings suggest employers have little to fear from strengthening flexible working arrangements in the National Employment Standards. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-could-spark-a-revolution-in-working-from-home-are-we-ready-133070">Coronavirus could spark a revolution in working from home. Are we ready?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The onus on employees to prove the “business grounds” for employers’ refusal should be eased. The Fair Work Act should be amended so all employees can have access to challenge a refusal for flexible work arrangements. </p>
<p>Greater flexibility is both possible and productive for most workplaces. Now it’s also in a wider social interest. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>The authors would like to acknowledge the work of their colleagues John Burgess, Eileen Aitken Fox, Amy Tian, Jane Coffey and Chahat Guptar in contributing to the research.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139472/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott is affiliated with the National Tertiary Education Union and is the union's Curtin University branch vice-president (academic).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kantha Dayaram and Steve McKenna do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our research shows most organisations have adapted well to staff working from home. But there’s a hole in workplace laws we need to address.Kantha Dayaram, Associate Professor, Curtin UniversityScott Fitzgerald, Curtin UniversitySteve McKenna, Associate Professor of Management, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1274882020-01-09T13:31:32Z2020-01-09T13:31:32ZTelecommuters create positive change – so why aren’t employers more flexible about people working from home?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303529/original/file-20191125-74603-r64hh9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">More workers are demanding the flexibility to work out of the office.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Finance-amp-Business-Califor-/e5af733ee5e3da11af9f0014c2589dfb/34/0">AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>More Americans are <a href="https://transweb.sjsu.edu/research/1860-Flexible-Workplaces-South-Bay">using flexible workplace practices</a> – including telecommuting, co-working and off-peak start times – to add flexibility to their lives and eliminate or improve their commute. </p>
<p>One motivation? Rush hour traffic is getting worse, and <a href="https://mobility.tamu.edu/umr/report/">commute times are getting longer</a>.</p>
<p>For example, the average American today <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045218">spends close to an hour</a> getting to and from work. It’s worse in big cities. In the greater New York area, commutes average 1 hour 14 minutes round-trip.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RahmY6UAAAAJ&hl=en">We’re experts</a> in <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mohja_Rhoads">urban planning and development</a>, and started wondering why worsening traffic wasn’t encouraging more people to telecommute.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305050/original/file-20191203-66998-1fk1zm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305050/original/file-20191203-66998-1fk1zm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305050/original/file-20191203-66998-1fk1zm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305050/original/file-20191203-66998-1fk1zm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305050/original/file-20191203-66998-1fk1zm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305050/original/file-20191203-66998-1fk1zm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305050/original/file-20191203-66998-1fk1zm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As more people work from home, others will take their places on roads and crowded public transportation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-york-july-14-2014-passengers-205552573?src=154c83a8-ad03-4005-9f2e-dd1a056c776c-1-14">stockelements/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What do we know about workplace flexibility?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/what-telecommuting-looked-like-in-1973/418473/">Telecommuting</a> – <a href="https://www.jala.com/definitions.php">or working at home</a> – has many benefits. Workers have been modifying commutes ever since the phone and portable computers made it possible.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/8156-future-of-remote-work.html">Advances in technology</a> within the last decade have greatly expanded our ability to work from anywhere at any time. Many of us are taking advantage of this flexibility.</p>
<p><a href="https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2012/demo/p70-132.pdf">Census estimates</a> show that <a href="https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2012/demo/p70-132.pdf">the percentage of the workforce working from home</a> the majority of the week <a href="https://www.enotrans.org/article/2018-acs-survey-while-most-americans-commuting-trends-are-unchanged-teleworking-continues-to-grow-and-driving-alone-dips-in-some-major-cities/">grew from 3.3% in 2000 to 5.3% in 2018</a>, and <a href="https://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/telecommuting-statistic">is growing faster than additions to the workforce</a>.</p>
<p>Most people adopt flexible workplace practices just a few times a month rather than full-time, and these <a href="https://transweb.sjsu.edu/research/1860-Flexible-Workplaces-South-Bay">numbers are also growing</a>.</p>
<h2>How workers win</h2>
<p>What are the benefits of telecommuting?</p>
<p>For one thing, it allows workers to <a href="https://www.newgeography.com/content/003082-the-rise-telework-and-what-it-means">seek cheaper housing, yet still have access</a> to a large job market. </p>
<p>They can also use time previously spent commuting in more productive ways. </p>
<p>Companies that offer flexible workplace practices <a href="http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll3/id/528426">have a competitive edge</a> because they are more attractive to workers. Many high-tech businesses and startups cater to their employees’ needs in order to attract and retain talent because talent is <a href="http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll3/id/528426">critical to innovation</a>. </p>
<p>Flexible workplace practices can also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/01409171211238820">increase an organization’s productivity</a>. Studies have shown that workers who have control over their schedules and places of work are more satisfied and productive. They don’t quit as often or take as many sick days.</p>
<p>But even with these benefits, most organizations are still not comfortable granting flexibility to their workers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305049/original/file-20191203-67023-1mapf7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305049/original/file-20191203-67023-1mapf7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305049/original/file-20191203-67023-1mapf7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305049/original/file-20191203-67023-1mapf7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305049/original/file-20191203-67023-1mapf7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305049/original/file-20191203-67023-1mapf7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305049/original/file-20191203-67023-1mapf7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Traffic concerns have led some cities to encourage telecommuting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/traffic-jam-rush-hour-554001493?src=132f66ba-8623-4957-a3df-1f12659c898a-1-3">bibiphoto/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Obstacles to flexibility</h2>
<p><a href="https://transweb.sjsu.edu/research/1860-Flexible-Workplaces-South-Bay">Our recent report</a> showed that many workers we surveyed viewed managerial and executive resistance to telework as a major obstacle. </p>
<p>Through interviews, we learned that executives saw the benefits of using flexible work to their advantage as a negotiating tool for recruitment, promotion, retention and motivation, but they often worried about the costs of training and potential culture change.</p>
<p>They expressed concern that allowing telecommuting could create inequitable outcomes in the workplace, and possibly negatively impact morale.</p>
<p>Because flexible workplace practices provide so many benefits, we believe policymakers should encourage its implementation. In Atlanta, which has seen one of the fastest-growing commute times of any city, policymakers have implemented <a href="https://atlanta.curbed.com/2019/11/15/20966041/atlanta-georgia-telework-week-telecommute">telework programs</a>.</p>
<p>It has paid off. From 2008 to 2017, the number of commuters working from home increased from <a href="https://whatsnextatl.org/data-dive-how-metro-atl-gets-to-work/">5.7% to 7.3%</a>.</p>
<p>There are no easy fixes here. Even if organizations become more willing to allow flexible workplace practices, we will likely never see a future in which the roads are free of congestion. </p>
<p>That’s because any traffic decreases will result in people that were previously using alternatives joining the roads. This is called “<a href="https://www.accessmagazine.org/fall-2004/traffic-congestion-stay-will-get-worse/">triple convergence</a>” in the field of transportation research, and it is the principle that congestion self-adjusts.</p>
<p>In other words, you can add more lanes to a highway, but after a while people will catch on, begin using the route and congestion will <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/traffic-why-its-getting-worse-what-government-can-do/">stay the same or increase</a>.</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127488/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fynnwin Prager receives funding from CSU Transportation Consortium and South Bay Workforce Investment Board.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mohja Rhoads does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>More workplaces are allowing employees to telecommute, but there are still barriers to more flexible arrangements.Mohja Rhoads, Research Consultant and Lecturer in Policy, Planning and Development, California State University, Dominguez HillsFynnwin Prager, Assistant Professor of Public Administration, California State University, Dominguez HillsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1231652019-09-11T20:05:42Z2019-09-11T20:05:42ZFancy an e-change? How people are escaping city congestion and living costs by working remotely<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291449/original/file-20190909-109923-5g118p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Digital communications technology means many high-skill workers don't need to be in the office to do their jobs.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/side-portrait-view-smart-professional-woman-158376815?src=rrkA_7GlI5Uy1_pJYxZrvQ-1-8">MJTH/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many Australians have longed to live outside the city. The treechange and seachange movements – migration from urban areas to rural and coastal towns – have been responsible for much of the <a href="http://www.regionalaustralia.org.au/home/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/2019_RAI_NationalPopulationPlanForRegionalAustralia_Final.pdf">population growth outside urban areas</a> in recent years.</p>
<p>Now a newer migration trend is under way: <a href="https://www.nbnco.com.au/content/dam/nbnco2/documents/Super%20connected%20lifestyle%20locations_nbn%20report_FINAL.PDF">e-change</a>. E-changers are people who move away from the large capital cities to nearby regional and coastal “lifestyle” towns, where they use broadband internet connections to perform work remotely.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-the-new-seachangers-now-its-younger-australians-moving-out-of-the-big-cities-103762">Meet the new seachangers: now it's younger Australians moving out of the big cities</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A limiting factor for moving to regional areas has always been the lack of high-skill job opportunities. But remote work allows people to have more flexibility in where they live – they can work from anywhere.</p>
<p>Information and communication technology is making this possible for more and more people whose work primarily requires digital connectivity rather than constant physical presence. Email, video conferencing, online project management software and even <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2013/06/27/rise-of-the-telepresence-robots/#21553286ac03">telepresence robots</a> are all tools that people can use to work remotely outside an office.</p>
<h2>Getting away from the rat race</h2>
<p>Our large capital cities like Sydney and Melbourne are experiencing significant challenges. As they expand outward and increase in density, traffic congestion is intensifying. Despite significant investment in road construction and public transport, Infrastructure Australia this year <a href="https://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-08/Urban%20Transport%20Crowding%20and%20Congestion.pdf">reported</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Road congestion is expected to increase in all Australian cities between 2016 and 2031.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Average daily commutes in Australia’s cities are already at <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-city-workers-average-commute-has-blown-out-to-66-minutes-a-day-how-does-yours-compare-120598">all-time highs</a>. The results of long commutes include <a href="https://theconversation.com/walking-and-cycling-to-work-makes-commuters-happier-and-more-productive-117819">lower job and life satisfaction</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-city-workers-average-commute-has-blown-out-to-66-minutes-a-day-how-does-yours-compare-120598">Australian city workers' average commute has blown out to 66 minutes a day. How does yours compare?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Commuting in the city is also a public health hazard. This is because the time spent on transport reduces the time we have for other activities. And activities like exercising, socialising or spending time with our families are important for our well-being.</p>
<p>City <a href="http://theconversation.com/housing-affordability-has-improved-slightly-but-people-on-lower-incomes-will-continue-to-struggle-117898">housing prices are increasingly unaffordable</a>, particularly in well-serviced areas reasonably close to the CBD. Buying a home in suburban Sydney or Melbourne is now <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/901-Housing-affordability.pdf">out of reach</a>for many young people.</p>
<p>E-changers seek the best of both worlds: doing skilled work that has traditionally been available only in the city, while avoiding the congestion and high cost of city living.</p>
<h2>Who are e-changers?</h2>
<p>Obviously, not everyone can work away from their place of employment. Some jobs require people to be physically present all or most of the time.</p>
<p>But for many professional or creative workers in today’s digital economy, being productive doesn’t have to mean being in an office in the city every day.</p>
<p>One of Australia’s most successful new companies – software developer <a href="https://www.atlassian.com/company">Atlassian</a> – is in the midst of a <a href="https://www.afr.com/technology/atlassian-goes-national-in-remote-working-revolution-20190313-h1cbxp">remote working revolution</a>. The tech company <a href="https://stripe.com/au/about">Stripe</a> is also forgoing the traditional office by opening a new employment hub that is <a href="https://stripe.com/gb/blog/remote-hub">entirely remote</a>. These companies recognise that valuable employees shouldn’t need to live in Sydney or Melbourne if they can perform their role while living elsewhere.</p>
<p>However, remote workers need not be completely absent from a workplace. Instead of commuting every day, an employee might come into an office once or twice for face-to-face meetings. They can then work the rest of the week remotely at or near their home.</p>
<p>Flexible work arrangements like this mean a higher quality of life for employees. Cities will also benefit from <a href="https://theconversation.com/flexible-working-the-neglected-congestion-busting-solution-for-our-cities-122130">reduced commuting congestion</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/flexible-working-the-neglected-congestion-busting-solution-for-our-cities-122130">Flexible working, the neglected congestion-busting solution for our cities</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>It doesn’t have to mean working from home</h2>
<p>Remote workers don’t always work from home. Many people find it difficult to mix work and home life in the same physical space. That’s why remote workers often frequent cafes, libraries, satellite offices, or co-working spaces.</p>
<p>Co-working spaces are a multibillion-dollar industry globally and are <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/it-will-become-the-norm-co-working-office-space-tipped-to-rise-20190529-p51shw.html">becoming popular</a> in Australia. While mostly still located in cities, co-working spaces are increasingly appearing in <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-coworking-spaces-cater-to-a-more-diverse-crowd-than-just-young-tech-entrepreneurs-79497">smaller coastal and regional towns</a>. This trend indicates a demand from e-changers to work outside the home.</p>
<p>In the US, towns and small cities outside the large metropolitan areas are <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/21/7-us-cities-that-will-pay-you-thousands-of-dollars-to-live-there.html">encouraging people to move to their area</a>. They are offering remote workers subsidised housing, free access to co-working spaces and even paying them thousands of dollars in cash as an incentive.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291450/original/file-20190909-109952-1gj4d95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291450/original/file-20190909-109952-1gj4d95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291450/original/file-20190909-109952-1gj4d95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291450/original/file-20190909-109952-1gj4d95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291450/original/file-20190909-109952-1gj4d95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291450/original/file-20190909-109952-1gj4d95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291450/original/file-20190909-109952-1gj4d95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291450/original/file-20190909-109952-1gj4d95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Co-working spaces are booming overseas – this one is in Turin, Italy – with some towns and small cities offering free access to attract remote workers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/turin-italy-june-20-2017-physical-666791590?src=38XMZlwzmNhzfeJlB_PIsg-1-1">MikeDotta/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/co-working-spaces-are-part-of-the-new-economy-so-town-planners-better-get-with-the-times-95923">Co-working spaces are part of the new economy, so town planners better get with the times</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Is e-change the future for Australia?</h2>
<p>Reducing the need for people to commute to their place of work every day could be an effective way to ease pressure on our congested city roads and public transport systems.</p>
<p>Remote work allows people to live outside our largest cities, where they’re more likely to be able to buy a home.</p>
<p>As more people adopt an e-change lifestyle, it might help to reinvigorate the economies and civic life of regional and coastal towns.</p>
<p>Making remote work more widely available might also increase workforce participation among groups that aren’t able to commute to an office every day. They include people with caring responsibilities, people with disabilities and those already living in regional areas.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>If you think your organisation would benefit from understanding e-change and remote work, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/andrew-glover-3254">authors</a> would like to hear from you.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123165/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>E-changers are the latest group to move from the big cities to escape high living costs and congestion. But because they remain very productive remote workers some employers are embracing the trend.Andrew Glover, Postdoctoral research fellow, RMIT UniversityTania Lewis, Co-Director of the Digital Ethnography Research Centre and Professor of Media and Communication, RMIT University, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1221302019-09-01T19:48:58Z2019-09-01T19:48:58ZFlexible working, the neglected congestion-busting solution for our cities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290018/original/file-20190829-184196-16zkxh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5130%2C2748&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">If more of us were free to work from home, fewer of us would be stuck in traffic.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daria Chichkareva, fkigali/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/traffic-congestion">Traffic congestion</a> is one of the most significant challenges facing our cities. Melbourne’s population is growing by around <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/PrimaryMainFeatures/3218.0?OpenDocument">325 people a day</a> and is <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/booming-melbourne-to-become-nation-s-largest-city-by-2026-20190327-p5186v.html">projected to overtake Sydney’s</a> within a decade. <a href="https://www.aaa.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/AAA-Congestion-Report-2018-FINAL.pdf">Identified as the most congested city in the country</a>, this was a factor in Melbourne <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/nation/melbourne-loses-title-of-most-liveable-city/news-story/f5145850143b5801db36c75ed7d73133">losing its seven-year grip on the “world’s most liveable city” title</a> last year.</p>
<p>One obvious solution to traffic congestion, caused mostly by workers commuting to jobs in the city centre during peak hours, might appear to be building more, or bigger, roads. But a less obvious answer, and potentially a more cost-effective one, might be to increase flexible working arrangements. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162518301549">Our research</a> has looked into ways to ease congestion by reducing the need for travel in congested areas in the first place. It shows city workers definitely have an appetite for flexible work hours and practices. </p>
<p>However, many (36%) still can’t or don’t work remotely. Those who do work remotely do so for a small fraction of the week – 1.1 days on average – even though a high percentage of their work tasks can be done anywhere.</p>
<h2>More roads don’t solve the problem</h2>
<p>Traditionally, congestion has simply been accepted as the starting point, with infrastructure being built to accommodate it. However, as a report on <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w15376">US research</a> findings about so-called induced demand <a href="https://www.wired.com/2014/06/wuwt-traffic-induced-demand/">explains</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you expand people’s ability to travel, they will do it more. […] Making driving easier means that people take more trips in the car than they otherwise would.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This increase in travel uses up any extra capacity improved infrastructure might bring. As a result, <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w15376">traffic levels and congestion remain constant</a>. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-08/Urban%20Transport%20Crowding%20and%20Congestion.pdf">2019 report</a> from Infrastructure Australia observes that the huge number of road and rail projects in Sydney and Melbourne, both current and planned, will not prevent crippling congestion by 2031.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/do-more-roads-really-mean-less-congestion-for-commuters-39508">Do more roads really mean less congestion for commuters?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What did the flexible working study find?</h2>
<p>This issue was the motivation for our study into alternative ways to ease congestion. It identified flexible working as one possible solution. </p>
<p>The term <a href="https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employee-entitlements/flexibility-in-the-workplace/flexible-working-arrangements">flexible working</a> refers to arrangements that enable employees to adjust the number of hours they work, the pattern of those hours, or where they work. Flexible working has risen significantly in recent years, with many potential <a href="https://fortune.com/2019/02/20/four-day-work-week-research-benefits/">benefits</a> for both <a href="https://www.recruitment-international.com.au/blog/2018/06/73-percent-of-australian-employees-value-flexible-working-hays-reveals">employees</a> and <a href="https://employsure.com.au/blog/rewarding-retaining-employees-flexible-work-arrangements/">employers</a>. Yet few studies have examined its potential to reduce traffic congestion. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/working-four-day-weeks-for-five-days-pay-research-shows-it-pays-off-100375">Working four-day weeks for five days' pay? Research shows it pays off</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162518301549">study</a>, we surveyed 263 city workers from ten of Melbourne’s biggest employers. We asked them about their commuting habits, existing flexible working arrangements, attitudes toward flexible working and the nature of their work tasks. </p>
<p>We found 64% of workers were already taking advantage of some sort of flexible working arrangements that allowed them to work from a remote location, usually at home, an average of 1.1 days a week. And 83% of them either “liked” or “loved” the ability to do this. </p>
<p>Only 2% said none of their work could be performed from an alternative location. A majority of participants, 58%, indicated they could do at least half their work duties out of the office. Some 30% of the workers indicated 80% or more of their work duties could be performed remotely.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288868/original/file-20190821-170951-a5jci6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288868/original/file-20190821-170951-a5jci6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288868/original/file-20190821-170951-a5jci6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288868/original/file-20190821-170951-a5jci6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288868/original/file-20190821-170951-a5jci6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288868/original/file-20190821-170951-a5jci6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288868/original/file-20190821-170951-a5jci6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288868/original/file-20190821-170951-a5jci6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Breakdown of participants in flexible working survey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162518301549">Author's research</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Technology enables these flexible working opportunities. Laptops, smartphones, high-speed internet and cloud access were highlighted as the must-haves for remote working. </p>
<p>Many of us no longer need to travel to a fixed location to work because the tools of our labour are located there. The tools of our labour are now in our back pockets or work satchels. </p>
<h2>Finland shows what’s possible</h2>
<p>Urban congestion is a growing problem worldwide. Today, <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html">55% of people live in urban areas, a figure expected to reach 68% by 2050</a>. The use of motor vehicles is also growing rapidly. </p>
<p>But access to flexible working is growing around the world too. </p>
<p>Finland, a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20190807-why-finland-leads-the-world-in-flexible-work">pioneer of flexible working practices</a>, recently adopted a new <a href="https://nordiclaw.fi/new-working-hours-act-of-finland-enters-into-force-1-january-2020/">Working Hours Act</a>. It will give a majority of full-time employees the right to decide when and where they work for at least half of their working hours. </p>
<p>A similar flexible working bill was introduced to the UK Parliament in July by Conservative MP Helen Whately. She <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49003413">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The 40-hour, five-day working week made sense in an era of single-earner households and stay-at-home mums, but it no longer reflects the reality of how many modern families want to live their lives.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162518301549">evidence from Melbourne suggests</a> the appetite for, and availability of, flexible working will continue to increase as more people do it and more millennials take up leadership roles. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290005/original/file-20190829-184234-ircnwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290005/original/file-20190829-184234-ircnwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290005/original/file-20190829-184234-ircnwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290005/original/file-20190829-184234-ircnwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290005/original/file-20190829-184234-ircnwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290005/original/file-20190829-184234-ircnwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290005/original/file-20190829-184234-ircnwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290005/original/file-20190829-184234-ircnwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A small reduction in peak-hour commuter numbers could make the difference between being able to squeeze onto a train or not.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/14027144@N00/94288580">Runs With Scissors/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>If the 64% of workers who now work remotely 1.1 days a week increased this to five days a fortnight, this could cut the number of daily commuters to Melbourne from <a href="https://www.bitre.gov.au/publications/2011/files/report_125.pdf">572,000</a> to 440,500 a day. If the remaining 36% of workers were also able to work remotely 50% of the time, daily commuter numbers would fall further to around 337,500, a total reduction of 41%. </p>
<p>Even much smaller reductions in commuter numbers could have significant impacts on congestion. An <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/DBAssets/InquirySubmission/Summary/52831/Sub13%20NRMA.pdf">NRMA submission</a> that advocated flexible working hours and practices to a 2013 NSW parliamentary inquiry noted: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>As a rule of thumb, when traffic on congested roads reduces by 5%, traffic speeds increase 50% (even if this only means going from 20 to 30km/h) […] A small reduction in the amount of passengers during peak hours can sometimes make the difference between being able to squeeze onto a bus or train, or not.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this era of growing urban congestion, an increase in flexible working practices appears to have serious potential for easing the strain on our roads and transport networks. Isn’t it about time we asked ourselves if we could all be a bit more flexible?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122130/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John L Hopkins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Two-thirds of surveyed workers work from home one day a week on average, but could do at least half their work out of the workplace. If they commuted less often, congestion could be greatly reduced.John L Hopkins, Theme Leader (Future Urban Mobility), Smart Cities Research Institute, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/824362017-08-22T19:24:52Z2017-08-22T19:24:52ZMore of us could work in part-time roles if they were designed better<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182879/original/file-20170822-4964-vnqyv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Part-time roles become difficult if that employee is the only source of knowledge, contact or sign-off.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Lisa was a young accountant with plenty of experience, solid references and was looking for work. She approached a large accounting firm she had previously worked for in another city in the hope of working with them again.</p>
<p>They were interested, except one thing stood in her way - she could only work part-time. Despite having award winning flexible work policies, this accounting firm wouldn’t employ her, citing the role could not be done on a part-time basis. </p>
<p>Lisa (not her real name) is typical of the 24 people I <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-management-and-organization/article/facilitating-sustainable-professional-part-time-work-a-question-of-design/01CCD63207028BB519184BF7F5C3E849">interviewed as part of my research</a>. These men and women had requested to move to part-time roles in legal, information technology, accounting and consulting firms, having previously worked full-time. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-charts-on-how-part-time-work-is-growing-more-slowly-but-more-men-are-doing-it-79352">Three charts on: how part-time work is growing more slowly, but more men are doing it</a>
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<p>The roles for nearly half the participants I studied, and across all industries, had not been changed at all when moving to part-time. Performance targets and workload remained the same; only the pay had changed.</p>
<p>The employees had reduced their hours by getting rid of non-urgent tasks such as networking and meetings, and delegating work to team members.<br>
In one case, a female employee had been told by her employer that she wasn’t meeting the same high performance ratings she had in her full-time role, despite achieving the same performance targets for less pay. </p>
<p>My research finds there are actually effective ways to change a full-time role into one that’s part-time. The size of an organisation, the industry, gender of employees or complexity of work have little bearing on this. </p>
<p>However businesses are not considering that these roles need to be redesigned in the first place and this causes problems in managing employees’ workloads and interacting with other employees. </p>
<h2>The problems in redesigning roles as part-time</h2>
<p>Even though it is possible to design a full-time role into a part-time role that works, there is little guidance on how to redesign. One of the places to start is reducing the number of people the employee interacts with, for example, the number of clients they look after, or the number of people who directly report to them. </p>
<p>Part-time roles become difficult if that employee is the only source of knowledge, contact or sign-off. For example if the employee is an IT manager who needs to be on call for clients for 37.5 hours a week, when typical part-time hours are less then 30 a week. </p>
<p>To redesign these roles, businesses can assign work to a team rather than individual, or team senior employees with junior employees. Employers can also provide systems to share knowledge rather than having one single point of expertise. I found that hospital pharmacists had a lot more flexibility in their roles because they use systems that allow them to share information effectively and quickly between colleagues. </p>
<p>Contrary to findings from other <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/job.229/full">studies</a>, deadlines are not necessarily problematic for part-time work. What is problematic is when tasks are both unpredictable and urgent. </p>
<p>One manager I interviewed said that urgent deadlines were often arbitrary and could be rescheduled. If there is urgent work to be done, employees can work in teams or the employer can renegotiate when part-time hours occur to suit the project deadlines.</p>
<p>The other challenge is that there is little incentive for organisations to reduce implicit work for part-time employees as it is often not measured and is done as unpaid overtime. Implicit work is work that is integral to a role, but not dealing directly with customers. It includes training, business development, travel, administration, staff management and team meetings. </p>
<p>While arguably an issue for all employees, implicit work becomes more problematic when working part-time. For example, an employee can’t do a fraction of a training course or only go away for a few hours of an interstate trip. To make all roles more manageable, particularly those working part-time, organisations should monitor and reduce implicit workloads.</p>
<p>Some of the businesses I studied also relied on the employees to make their part-time roles work, which resulted in minimal redesign of the role. Whereas other organisations weighed up what the employee wanted with the minimum requirements of the role. </p>
<p>This approach, where the employee and manager negotiated, meant the part-time arrangement worked better for both. Being clear on the “job absolutes” gave the part-time worker autonomy to adapt their work around other commitments. </p>
<p>Understanding how to redesign full-time roles to part-time helps debunk some of the myths that existed in some organisations. These myths included that program director and partnership roles could not be done part-time. My study found that part-time can be easier at more senior levels, because of the higher autonomy and less urgent, unpredictable work. </p>
<p>Having part-time roles available means more people can participate in the workforce. Given the economic benefits of this, and <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/research/supporting/part-time-employment/part-time-employment.pdf">the increasing demand from</a> younger and older workers for these sorts of roles, organisations will be left behind if they don’t accommodate well designed part-time arrangements.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82436/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I received a university scholarship to conduct this research.</span></em></p>Businesses are not considering that roles need to be redesigned to be part-time and this causes problems in managing employees’ workloads and interacting with other employees.Natalie Smith, PhD Student, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/795732017-06-25T20:06:36Z2017-06-25T20:06:36ZRemote workers would rather be watched than ignored and forgotten<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174353/original/file-20170619-28759-iuasqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Remote workers struggle to be included in workplace decision making.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shane Adams/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Beth (not her real name) was one of her company’s first employees. She worked remotely as a workshop facilitator from her home and on the road. </p>
<p>At first she felt like a core member of the team. As the company grew however Beth struggled to maintain her identity in the organisation. She said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>That’s when I had that first feeling of ‘I don’t remember everyone, I can’t see them, no one knows me.’</p>
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<p>Beth felt like she became invisible. She responded by creating an online profile for herself and others in the company. </p>
<p>Rather than a fear of being monitored through their online work, some remote workers, like Beth, fear not being seen at all. My research shows they use digital tools to share information about themselves to get noticed. </p>
<p>Now promoted to manager, Beth says it’s up to remote workers to use the company’s <a href="http://dro.deakin.edu.au/view/DU:30049061">internal social networking platform</a> to make themselves visible. She mentioned a new recruit who was quick to get the hang of posting his working life online:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>First day, he figured out how to use [the online social network] Yammer…And then daily he would upload quotes, like ‘this is what happened in my session today’, so he now he has people who know him, who may never have known him, because he’s chosen to become visible.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Most of the remote workers I spoke with were similarly willing to volunteer information about their days and lives online for the company or colleagues to see. I interviewed 31 remote and “<a href="https://www.ahri.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/23365/Martin-Stewart-Weeks.pdf">flexible</a>” workers - people who work away from the office full time or regularly - and their managers. </p>
<p>I asked them how they stay connected and what challenges they face. The people I spoke to worked in computer programming, workshop facilitation, banking, and tele-nursing (giving nursing advice over the phone). </p>
<p>These workers worked remotely for a variety of reasons, whether it was due to caring responsibilities, wanting to live near family in regional areas or living with a disability.</p>
<p>Approximately 3.5 million Australians <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbyCatalogue/630DCF813FED0E0CCA258113001878F2?OpenDocument">worked from home regularly in 2015</a>. The remote workers I studied put in significant effort to make themselves visible using technology. This runs counter to past studies on virtual work and telework which assume that remote workers hide from their managers, avoiding technological surveillance to <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563214000752">shirk responsibility</a> or <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A1006104017646?LI=true">protect their privacy</a>.</p>
<p>It’s not the case that these remote workers don’t care about privacy, they do, but they also fear not being seen and noticed. These workers are willingly displaying themselves online to feel known and to gain recognition, both for their work and as a member of the team. </p>
<p>When you look at how <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Phenomenology_of_Perception.html?id=q3HwhfjRmswC">exile</a> has been used as a form of punishment in many societies for centuries it’s easier to understand these workers’ willingness to give up personal information. Whether being locked outside the city gates, ignored in the street, or sent to the other side of the world, people <a href="http://annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085641">fear exile</a> because people don’t want to be alone and forgotten.</p>
<p>In the modern workplace context, the fear of living in organisational exile is a powerful mechanism that can compel remote workers to find ways to post and share information online. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1088&context=ecis2016_rp">tele-nurses I studied</a> reported using a desktop instant messaging system to communicate throughout their shifts. Part of their daily routines involved sharing personal information with colleagues they had never met in person. The nurses got to know one another’s communication patterns and if someone “went quiet” team mates would send a private message to ask them if they were ok. </p>
<p>A team of computer programmers I spoke with set up a video connection via their computer webcams that was always on. Both remote and non-remote team members were connected all work day to one another and to a desktop screen in the Australian head office. One team member admitted he felt “chained to his desk” but said he liked the video arrangement because it made him feel like a “part of the team”.</p>
<p>These remote workers were fully aware that their communications were being (or at least could be) monitored, but it didn’t stop them requesting and using technologies in various ways to stay connected and become visible. Far from hiding away, they <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-287-612-6_6">worked hard to get noticed</a>. </p>
<p>I’m not suggesting remote workers have no need of boundaries, or that they are willing to share everything with the organisation.</p>
<p>Remote workers want the option of being visible online, but they want control over how they are presented. For office workers, visibility might involve arriving early or staying late, but for remote workers it’s digital spaces that give them the opportunity to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79573/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ella Hafermalz is part of an ARC linkage project funded by the Australian Research Council and Capgemini.</span></em></p>Rather than having a fear of being monitored, remote workers want the option of being visible.Ella Hafermalz, Postdoctoral researcher, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/688022017-01-12T19:27:37Z2017-01-12T19:27:37ZWe need to find new ways to measure the Australian labour force<p><em>How we track our economy influences everything from government spending and taxes to home lending and business investment. In our series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/the-way-we-measure-34466">The Way We Measure</a>, we’re taking a close look at economic indicators to better understand what’s going on.</em></p>
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<p>Over the last few years, we’ve seen a massive shift in the way we work. Thousands of Australians have <a href="http://cdn.aigroup.com.au/Reports/2016/Gig_Economy_August_2016.pdf">abandoned</a> the traditional 40-hour work week to work fewer hours or take on ad-hoc work, such as driving for Uber or doing odd jobs on Airtasker. </p>
<p>But the way we measure the labour market has not kept up. We still rely on the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ labour force survey, a survey <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DSSbyCollectionid/139689E1A84FE4F0CA256BD00028B0E5?opendocument">from the 1960s</a> conducted according to international conventions that is no longer appropriate for today’s labour market.</p>
<p>Today’s economy – one of independent contractors, ad-hoc work, irregular and flexible hours – needs a new form of measurement. </p>
<h2>How the government measures the workforce</h2>
<p>Every month <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6202.0">the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) surveys</a> about 0.32% of the civilian population aged over 15 years <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/6269.0main+features70May%202013">about their employment status</a>.</p>
<p>In short, you’re <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/2f762f95845417aeca25706c00834efa/47bfb611a97c91f2ca25710e007321c6!OpenDocument">counted as employed</a> if you completed at least one hour of paid work in the week before the survey.</p>
<p>But this doesn’t sound quite right. Clearly, one hour of paid work per week doesn’t fit most people’s idea of employment.</p>
<p>In fact, <a href="http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/meisubs.nsf/0/389553AE1C42D239CA2580890012526F/$File/62020_nov%202016.pdf">over one million workers</a> are counted as “underemployed”, meaning they would work more hours if they could. This raises the question of whether these people should really be considered “employed”. The answer depends on what policy question you are trying to address.</p>
<h2>Is our unemployment rate right?</h2>
<p>Let’s get right into how our unemployment rate is calculated.</p>
<p>If respondents haven’t done any paid work in the last week, they are asked two further questions – first, have they actively sought work in the last four weeks, and second, are they currently available to start work? They are only considered unemployed if they answer yes to both of these questions. Otherwise, they’re not counted as part of the labour force. </p>
<p>This means full-time homemakers, carers, the ill and non-working retirees aren’t considered unemployed.</p>
<p>The labour force is the sum of the employed and the unemployed. The unemployment rate is the percentage of the labour force who are unemployed. </p>
<p>Lastly, the participation rate is the percentage of the population aged 15 and older who are in the labour force. According to the latest <a href="http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/meisubs.nsf/0/389553AE1C42D239CA2580890012526F/$File/62020_nov%202016.pdf">ABS trend estimates</a>, the participation rate stood at 64.5% in November, no change from October.</p>
<p>The participation rate has been consistently trending upwards over time for women and falling for men. This does not mean women are increasingly doing more work but that over time they have switched from unpaid to paid work. One of the main reasons for falling participation among men is that unskilled manual jobs for older men have been <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/2f762f95845417aeca25706c00834efa/828adb6574d4875bca2570ec001b1f52!OpenDocument">declining over several decades</a> and many men have been reclassified as unemployed, disabled or retired. </p>
<h2>More issues with the survey</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6202.0">Labour Force Survey</a> only provides a measure of employment and not the number of jobs. For example, a person might work 20 hours per week at a supermarket and 10 hours per week as an Uber driver. Employment is always classified according to the “main job”, so the ABS deems them as one person employed part-time (working fewer than 35 hours) in the retail industry. </p>
<p>If that person worked five more hours as an Uber driver the next week, they would be classified as full-time (35 hours) but the supermarket job would still determine the industry in which they are employed.</p>
<p>The crucial problem here is that there are two jobs being done, but the ABS employment estimate only counts one. So be wary of commentators and politicians making statements like “the economy gained/lost 10,000 jobs last month”! What jobs are they measuring?</p>
<p>The labour force survey also fails to make distinctions between different types of workers. About <a href="http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/250E534BC4602DA9CA257CD000283290/$File/63590_november%202013.pdf">two million Australians</a> work as independent contractors like construction workers or other business operators such as hairdressers working from home. However, in the figures they are not distinguished from regular employees.</p>
<p>Whereas it might be relatively easy for an employee to know if they did any paid work in the week before the survey, it might not be so obvious for a non-employee. For instance, an author might work 50 hours on their book one week and three hours the next. Most of their work is basic research rather than writing. They receive a royalty payment twice a year. How would they answer the question of whether they did any paid work in the last week?</p>
<p>For non-employees the question of whether they are prepared to start work and have been actively looking for work can also be complex. Someone doing consultancy work might not actively look for work because clients seek them out instead.</p>
<h2>We need something new</h2>
<p>The ABS has tried tackling some of these issues by conducting some different surveys, including the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6333.0">Characteristics of Employment Survey</a> which presents information on all employed persons according to their status of employment. However, the framework classifies jobholders by their main job. That is, only the job in which they usually worked the most hours. This doesn’t capture many of the issues of concern in, say, the “sharing” or “gig” economy </p>
<p>The ABS has also attempted to compare the number of filled jobs to the amount of employed people, using <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/6202.0Main+Features1100Feb%202013">estimates in the labour force survey</a>. This can reveal interesting information about the labour market. For instance, in February 2013 there were 11,628,300 employed people in Australia, but an estimated 12,287,200 filled jobs. That is, there were 658,900 more filled jobs than there were employed people. </p>
<p>But even then, the estimates still use the conventional definition of a job. </p>
<p>The ABS is still working on an Australian Labour Market Account, based on <a href="http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/stat/download/articles/2002-2.pdf">International Labor Organisation (ILO) methodology,</a> which may address some of the issues discussed here. But this will still be based on traditional definitions of jobs, employment, and unemployment.</p>
<p>Our conventional employment measures are no longer equipped to inform us about important aspects of our labour force and a reliance on them could lead to inappropriate policy. We need labour force numbers than can capture the nuances of a modern economy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68802/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phil Lewis does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article. He also has no relevant affiliations. During his career he has received funding from many private and public sector organisations including most recently the ARC, NCVER, DEEWR, the AFPC, ABLA and CPA Australia. He recently contributed to a major CEDA report Australia’s Future Workforce.</span></em></p>The ABS’ labour force survey is more than 50 years old. We need a new way of measuring employment for a new modes of work.Phil Lewis, Professor of Economics, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.