{"id":458390,"date":"2022-08-24T09:21:30","date_gmt":"2022-08-24T08:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/welovesalt.com\/news\/2022\/08\/flexible-work-energy-crisis-3\/"},"modified":"2023-08-25T12:38:25","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T11:38:25","slug":"flexible-work-energy-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/welovesalt.com\/news\/contracting-advice\/flexible-work-energy-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Flexible work models provide crucial choices for employees in uncertain times"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We summarize our own survey data along with other insights from firms around the globe to provide a balanced perspective of how the pandemic and economic circumstances are reshaping the flexible working debate. Employees value choice and flexibility, and employers competing to attract and retain talent will need to redefine work styles and working culture to adapt to the new landscape. <\/strong><\/p> “If you’re just sitting in your pajamas in your bedroom, is that the work life you want to live?”<\/strong><\/p> The above is a quote from Malcom Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, Outliers and Blink. It sparked outrage on social media after the podcast episode of ‘Diary of a CEO’ was released, in which Gladwell explained that feelings of belonging and being perceived as necessary are important to employee work life. As he put it: “If you’re not here, it’s really hard to do that.”<\/p> The author and now CEO was accused of hypocrisy<\/a> given his own past work practices as an author and journalist for the New York Times – where flexible and remote working practices were part of this creative habits – but his comments and the resulting backlash to his recent comments do illustrate the next phase of the working from home debate.<\/p> Pandemic times forced employers and employees to embrace remote and flexible working – because in lockdowns there was no other choice. Prior to that, flexible working was a benefit that was dependent on company culture and employee benefits, which in turn are dependent on the views and behaviours of leadership.<\/p> Remote work, working from home or anywhere off-site, and flexible work, whereby employees have more flexibility over their hours, challenge traditional approaches to workplace productivity. An almost Hobbesian approach to productivity has been standard: with the belief that employees working best and most productively when they are present and on-site, as they’re supervised. Ultimately, this boils down to trust. Can you trust your employees to work when not directly supervised?<\/p>