Flexing: 63% of Companies Allow Employees to Work from Home

The number of employees working from home - at least some of the time - has doubled since 2005. Doubled is big.

75% of employers offer some sort of flex time; variability as to when they may arrive or leave the office as long as they get their work done. Three-quarters is even bigger.

This is certainly beneficial for many as two-career families have become the norm and commutes have gotten longer. But as anyone who works in an office will tell you, the forces driving this movement are not purely altruistic. By a long shot.

Global competition coupled with technological productivity enhancements has encouraged cost cutting. The result is that many businesses are getting by with fewer employees, as the stubbornly high unemployment numbers attest. Rising executive compensation has also increased pressure to cut costs elsewhere.

In this context, flexibility and working from home are inexpensive give-aways to those who remain employed. Flexibility is cost-free and the systems some may require to monitor performance are either already in place or require minimal adjustment. Working from home may actually save companies money. Fewer workers means less space is necessary, with lower rent or lease payments.

On the plus side, flexibility and working from home may increase productivity and employee commitment. In an environment in which those who remain in the workforce become more vital due to their latent knowledge, it also becomes more expensive to replace them when they leave. So, while this trend has some positive aspects to it, the forces that are driving it may not prove to be sustainable. JL

Sue Shellenbarger reports in the Wall Street Journal:

The workplace has become more flexible in recent years, but not always in ways that offer true rest and relaxation.

Employers are making it easier for people to control when they work, allowing them to change their hours as long as they still get their jobs done, says a study of 1,126 employers released today by the nonprofit Families and Work Institute, New York. More than 3 of 4 employers now offer some form of flextime, such as the freedom to change quitting times; that’s up from two-thirds of those surveyed by the institute in 2005, the study says. And the proportion allowing employees to work from home at least sometimes has nearly doubled, to 63% from 34%.
But bosses are also hacking away at opportunities for true R&R, by curbing opportunities to spend stretches of time away from work. Sabbaticals or career breaks for personal or family duties are declining, offered by 52% of employers, compared with 73% in 2005. And just 41% of employers allow another kind of flexibility that many working parents want – the ability to move from part-time to full-time work and back again, down from 54% in 2005, the study says.

Employers have cut the maximum length of caregiving leaves for new fathers and adoptive parents. And fewer employers are letting employees return to work gradually after childbirth or adoption – 73%, compared with 86% in 2005.

Employers are bending traditional scheduling in other ways, with many embracing “no-vacation” or “open-ended time off” policies that allow people to schedule vacations as they see fit, with managers’ approval, other studies show. That flexibility can be liberating – or it can fuel a tendency to work all the time. Most people already work beyond their scheduled workday, usually because of self-imposed pressure; for some, removing boundaries around the workday or vacation time makes the pressure worse.