Working from home

is now a "right" for many of our "public servants" - but is it something to be recommended? 

A former Premier of a neighbouring state had a piece in yesterday's paper saying that people who work from home should be paid less. His argument was that the cost and stress of getting to and from work was so high people who worked from home were at a financial advantage. 

I suspect he is right about the stress and the financial advantage. Of course other people immediately came back with the "he's wrong" argument. They tried to suggest that people who work from home work longer hours and they are more efficient. Really?

I have "worked from home" since 1989. It is not something I have done by choice. I did it out of necessity and I would not recommend it.

In the early years of working from home - before the widespread use of the internet I would go into the city once or twice a week. I went first to our "state library" and read the newspapers I needed to read - or the articles in them. I then went on to the university (just down the same road) and did any library research which needed to be done. I sometimes talked to staff in two relevant departments. Sometimes I took a tutorial group. I saw students for supervision if necessary. The rest of the time I worked from home using a fax machine to send off materials and receive them from around the world.  

I did all this while trying to keep my parents safe and well in a highly stressful situation. There were also many of the usual household tasks to contend with because my mother was so stressed she sometimes made basic errors...putting vegetables on to cook with no water in the saucepan happened more times than I care to count. I didn't really have a social life but the internet was coming. Brother Cat knew, and still knows, about these things. I had one of the first internet connections available...a short dial up connection each morning and another in the evening. It was good, very good.

A problem soon became evident. I did not need to go into the library to newspaper articles. People just sent them to me. I downloaded them to read during the day - every day of the week. There was more work, not less. I no longer needed to use the university library as much, people simply sent me what they thought I should be looking at. I still had tutorials to run and students to supervise but, if I was well organised, that could be done in an efficient time-flow.  I was becoming more and more isolated and the demands on the home front were increasing.

When my mother died in 2000 I knew things had to change. The Senior Cat and I had known this was coming. We had discussed it quietly, out of my mother's hearing. 

I don't drive. The Senior Cat was still driving but I did not want him acting as a taxi service so I found a group which met two Saturday afternoons a month. For a number of reasons I no longer belong to the group but it was good at first. I needed it. I could pedal off for a few hours and think about something entirely different. I made some good friends with people who have a common interest. It wasn't something I found easy to do but I don't regret having done it.

I thought of all this when I read the article about working from home and then the news that union which represents our federal public servants had "won the right" for people to work from home. They are suggesting it is a good thing, that it will result in a more efficient work force. I doubt this. 

Unless people are very aware the workforce will stagnate. There won't be the same flow of ideas that comes from face to face interaction. The office dynamics will change. Some people will find they are taken advantage of, others will manage to skive off at times. The "working from home and I don't have the relevant document" excuse will get used more often. (I am so tired of that one.)

There will be a higher incidence of anxiety and depression too - unless people really become aware that so called "social interaction" on a screen is not the same as social interaction on a face to face basis. 

After reading today's editorial I have sent a letter off to the state newspaper saying "The boss needs to know you and you need to know the boss." You can't do that even via Zoom meetings. I suggest getting out of your bunny slippers and going to work in the office at least once a week.