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Every so often at Flexibility
we get asked if there is really any demand from below for flexible
working.
Surveys often show that there
is such a demand. And this comes out sharply in the Work-life
Balance 2000 study. Compare
these findings:
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35% of managers work from home occasionally.
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80% of those who work from home are managers
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a third of employees not currently working from home said
they would like to.
So many managers see working from home as being necessary
and acceptable for themselves - but are reluctant to authorise others to
do so.
This in part reflects the growth of "ad hoc"
teleworking. As the Mitel report Teleworking
Britain found, few companies - even the ones that allow
teleworking - have a formal policy on it, or have implemented
coherent schemes.
A study we undertook in a
large organisation (with around 20,000 employees) a few years back threw
up another interesting finding: most managers surveyed were in favour of
flexible working, most of them strongly so. Nearly all of them felt they
could work 1-2 days per week from home.
However, most of the same
managers felt that other managers were an obstacle to flexible
working!
Again, you will frequently
hear managers portraying themselves as being progressive in the face of a
resistant and somewhat archaic culture. It's apparent that "culture
is other people"!
Perhaps it's only a matter of
time: progressive managers who see the benefits of working from home will
soon be occupying the top level positions. Then it will be time what they
make of their experience. Is working from home a privilege to be earned by
promotion, available only to the few? Or is it a productive and work-life
friendly practice to be extended as widely as possible?
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