A review of nearly 2000 studies of #workingfromhome confirms what many knew already: 'there are ways to make the home working approach actually work well for the organisation & also for the employee'!
But first you have to convince #managers who see #WFH as undermining their power & are as a result are keen to have intrusive #surveillance as part of any acceptance of #HybridWorking.
More evidence that corporate management is a flawed/inefficient system.
More than 4 out of 5 of bosses are 'accidental managers' who stumble into leadership with little training, a UK survey found
Around 82% of bosses lack any formal leadership or management training and qualifications.
A new survey by the Chartered Management Institute surveyed over 4,500 managers and workers in the UK.
Half of the managers surveyed said promotions are given based on internal relationships over performance.
Maybe we should stop promoting people because they're chummy with the boss? Maybe we should define what it actually is that managers do? Maybe we don't need so many managers in the first place?
#WFH increases #workers autonomy, as they're not under constant potential surveillance & work to their own arrangement(s); Managers feel threatened by this avoidance of direct control;
data on WFH seems to indicate workers are happier when hybrid working than when in the office full-time; whatever, they say, managers prefer fearful workers who're easier to manage
But its not all good news; emissions generating social activity while #WFH rises... so the Q. is the balance between the two - the more you work at home, it seems the more you reduce your net emissions
However, will the #managers wanting people back int the office care?
Research on #workingfromhome & returning to the office (carried out in the US & reported via LinkedIn) suggests for most #workers, a request to return to the office encourages more hybrid working, while a formal requirement to limit (or end) WFH prompts a significant rise in workers' dissatisfaction & likelihood to look for a new job.
The research also includes the nugget that #managers now admit ending of WFH was based on 'feeling' not data!
If you wanted a demonstration that most #managers are more interested in power-over, rather than power-to.... look at the increasing pressure to get staff back to working in the office not #workingfromhome.
Despite good data for many occupations that #WFH is more effective & efficient than being in the office, managers are putting more pressure on staff to work three or more days a week in the office.
They are more interested in power over #workers than power to increase business efficacy!
A report by Be The Business (a Govt. supported charity) reported in the FT, interestingly puts a large part of the blame for the UK's stagnated #productivity growth, not at the feet of #workers, but rather as a direct consequence of complacent management with a miss-placed confidence in its abilities.
This chimes well with my recent conclusions on the problem with #managers in a piece for @NWBylines
UK has a #management problem that needs urgently addressing/solving!
I'd like to offer a public #ThankYou to all of those #CEOs, human resources department heads, #VPs, and #managers telling employees to come back into the office "at least 3 days a week" because "we work better together".
You have saved countless people a collective amount of time that must be measured in decades if not centuries. We can immediately cross your companies off the "enlightened companies that treat their people well" list, and move on to the next.