I’m a big fan of flexibility at work. Almost nobody’s interests are served by a rigid idea of “work” happening Monday thru Friday, 9am to 5pm, and yet that default has persisted most in white-collar/knowledge work, even though white-collar/knowledge work so rarely requires it.
There are lots of blog posts and white papers and random musings about the benefits of remote and/or flexible work: more employee happiness, greater inclusion of people with different needs from their workplace, etc.
But having worked in a truly flexible workplace for almost a year, there are some hidden benefits I’ve noticed that I hadn’t really thought of before, and I wanted to share them. So here they are!
Overall greater personal productivity. At an office, when you hit a wall in your work and need a break, there’s not much to do. Cruise Twitter, take a walk, grab a snack, chat by the water cooler. Those things are fun and I like doing them from time to time, but when I started working from home full time, I noticed that I use these little breaks much more productively. Now, when I need to do anything but stare at a computer screen for a few minutes, I pop a load of laundry in. Or I take a quick run to the grocery store to buy stuff for dinner. Or I load up the dishwasher and set it running. These aren’t paid work, per se, but it’s all work, it’s all stuff that I need to get done eventually. Doing housework during the day is way efficient and, best of all, helps me keep my momentum. It’s easy to “take a quick break” to check Twitter and find that it’s suddenly 45 minutes later, and I’ve completely derailed myself. But laundry or dishes feeds that momentum, gives me the break I need, and allows me to jump right back into regular work.
Better health. Hey, did you know it’s really hard to schedule therapy outside of work hours? Those psychiatrists and PhysD’s tend to only be available from 8am to maybe 6pm; the before-work and lunch hour slots are in high demand. Happily, my flexible schedule allows me to go to therapy in the middle of the day on Mondays, which is a great way to start my week. I can also go to the gym whenever it works for me (and, similarly, when it’s less crowded!). It’s great when companies are able to offer flexibility for things like doctor’s appointments, but so often it feels like acceptance of that is predicated on it being infrequent; flexibility is the exception, not the rule. But a truly flexible workplace gives us room to make even regular and frequent appointments work in our schedules (which would be even more important to me if I had significant mental health issues, or another medical condition that required frequent care visits).
More autonomy. The first couple of weeks at this job, it felt weird to just sort of trust that everyone else in my org was out there, somewhere, doing their thing. In an office, you can just look around and see who showed up that day, and visually verify that they’re working. But in a truly remote and flexible environment, you don’t really have that. Sure, you can set up video meetings or phone calls and be able to see your colleagues and work together, but for the most part, it forces you to trust that people are doing what they need to do. Even better, it forces you to evaluate success based on impact (or at least output); there’s no option to judge based on face time or on who’s working longer hours. It’s almost impossible to micro-manage, you have to either trust your team or drive yourself bonkers trying to breathe down their neck remotely.
Better friendships and community. A friend of mine recently had a surgery scheduled, and realized that his partner would be out of town when it happened, so he needed a responsible adult to pick him up from the hospital and get him home safe. Because they know how much flexibility I have in my schedule, I was their first call. I don’t need to get special approval a week in advance to take this time out of my morning; I’m able to roll with these things that happen in life, and be there for the people I care about when they need me. It’s easy to imagine how much more important that flexibility is to someone with children, or a relative that requires care, or to someone with a partner with significant health issues (which, statistically, we’re all likely to be at some point).
Offering true flexibility at work creates a more human, authentic, and engaging workplace. But it also has these side benefits, which enrich our lives and our communities, and which help us become better workers and better managers. It’s great!