The risks of working from home

Is it safe to continue working from home? I have met a number of people (via Zoom and elsewhere) who are praising the joys of working from home now that COVID-19 has forced office work to be transferred to the homes of workers.

The workers can spend more time in their pyjamas, avoid the long commute into the office, make limitless cups of coffee, work at their own pace, and probably have to spend less time in boring committee meetings. Pets love seeing more of their owners.

When the COVID-19 crisis eventually goes away (or we have learned to live with it), there will be some resistance from workers to go back to the daily commute to the office.

But will this be wise? Are there risks in continuing to work from home?

There are the usual concerns of work, health and safety. Employers will need to be assured that the domestic arrangements are satisfactory and there won't be claims later on for, among other things, bad backs arising out of poor posture from poor seating arrangements. Employers may become more intrusive about the conditions inside a person's home.

A bigger concern is, first, that people will be missing out on the office interactions. Office politics can be poisonous and time-wasting. But the politics is part of office life.

More to the point, a worker is being seen and heard, and is around for informal conversations. When there are new tasks, they are the ones first thought of. A person working diligently from home may become virtually invisible.

Woody Allen says that 80 per cent of success in life is showing up. Being in the right place at the right time.

The other 20 percent is following up. Making sure that agreements are carried out and work plans adhered to. Direct personal contact is helpful here too.

Second, being around means catching up on the gossip and informal ideas that circulate in the office atmosphere (and may not be committed to email and Zoom conversations).

There is a vibe in the office which is missing from home. The quality of tranquility that makes working from home so attractive, may also be a downside – it may not get the adrenaline running.

A Whitehall institution was the tea trolley in mid-morning and mid-afternoon. England's civil service ran on tea and biscuits. Standing in the queue waiting to be served was an ideal way of catching up informally on all the latest information.

I was reminiscing about this long-since disappeared institution with a Canberra public servant who was toying with the idea of taking up smoking as an opportunity to stand around outside the building to catch up on the gossip (and receiving early warnings of office scheming).

Informal conversation and coincidences are important.

It may be that working from home is more efficient if the worker already knows who are in the rest of the team. Personal contacts have already been made. The problem will increase as the isolation continues and new teams are formed. A stranger may have difficulty fitting into newly formed work teams

Third, networks represent net worth. Working diligently from home in splendid isolation, even with LinkedIn, Zoom and email, may not provide the opportunity for developing the social capital that comes from being in the right spot at the right time. Increasingly work is found via informal contacts and networks. Social capital is vital.

Finally, there is the larger social impact of COVID19 and social distancing. This taps into the broader trend of working from home and buying goods on online to have them delivered at home (rather than indulge in meeting people while shopping).

Isolation has many downsides. It is contributing to mental health issues. With all the improvements made in physical healthcare (better food and water, sanitation, cleaner air, and people taking more exercise), the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that mental health will overtake physical health to be this century's main source healthcare issues.

The UK now has a minister for loneliness to address this risk. (US late-night TV comedian Stephen Colbert satirized the appointment and attracted huge criticism for his trivializing the problem that the UK government is seeking to address). Perhaps Australia should follow the UK example?

In short, working from home has some advantages but we also need to be aware of the risks.