Reality check on Australia’s growing flexible work culture

Australians are increasingly embracing flexible working conditions, but these arrangements are not without their challenges.

medibank

Australians are increasingly embracing flexible working conditions, but these arrangements are not without their challenges.

For many people, flexible working conditions are the epitome of “making it”. You have the freedom to work from home, start or finish when you want, and structure your days as you please.

But is it all it's cracked up to be? The truth is every working arrangement has pros and cons, and it’s possible that we’re all looking at flexible arrangements through rose-coloured glasses.

According to a recent Galaxy Research poll, conducted in partnership with Medibank, almost one in three workers currently enjoys flexible working conditions and a further 25 per cent of workers would like increased flexibility in their roles.

Complementary to the poll, business leaders agree that tailored working arrangements offer employees the ability to get more out of their day. Medibank executive, Kylie Bishop, told News Corp “Providing meaningful flexible working opportunities...allows our people to structure their day and commitments in a way that suits them.”

"Providing meaningful flexible working opportunities...allows our people to structure their day and commitments in a way that suits them." Kylie Bishop, Medibank executive

The trouble is that some 82 per cent of Australian workers already say that work issues spill into their home lives, even when they have a clear distinction between one and the other.

According to Jo Alilovic, an employment lawyer with 17 years of experience, that struggle can be compounded by working from home due to blurred lines between working and non-working hours.

Pros and cons of working from home

Ms Alilovic runs her own firm, 3D HR Legal, from Western Australia. It operates online, using cloud-based software, and all staff work from home. She acknowledges there are real pros and cons.

“By creating a law firm that is completely flexible - with no central office and no fixed hours of work - all staff, including myself, are able to work during the week to suit our lifestyles,” she says.

All of the lawyers she works with are women with young children, so it’s important that they can attend things like school assemblies and appointments and work when they feel most productive.

“On the negative side, I personally find it very easy for work to bleed into all areas of my life - checking emails way too often, taking calls when I’m with my children and on days that I’d allocated for another purpose,” she admits.

“I also find it way too easy to be distracted by household tasks that seem to be everywhere I turn when I’m working from home.”

Why flexible working is on the rise

Ms Alilovic tells the Herald Sun there are two key reasons why it’s important for employers to accept and embrace flexible working arrangements.

“[First], millennials now make up the majority of the workforce and have very different expectations of work, and [second], the increasingly obvious fact that the labour market is no longer the sole domain of the traditional male breadwinner,” she explains.

“As more women are choosing to pursue careers, there is more demand for non-traditional patterns.”

Blurring the lines between home and work

Tarnya Lowe, from Brisbane, has worked in recruitment for 18 years. She held corporate jobs in a number of different industries before starting her own business, Inclusive People Solutions, which connects candidates with employers.

“When I was working for large corporates in senior management positions, working flexibly in a full-time position meant that I could work from home when I needed to,” she says.

“I always found that I was way more productive when working from home because it meant my teams had to think differently rather than ask me directly for help. They always knew I was 100 per cent available to them, but it did help them to create and improve connections at work as they collaborated with more people from the business rather than simply coming to me.”

However, like Ms Alilovic, she says it can be hard to distinguish between home and work, and that she sometimes struggles to switch off and be present when she knows she has unread emails.

According to the Galaxy poll, this is a common phenomenon. In fact, the survey found that work spills into the homes lives of about 25 per cent of Australian employees most weeks.

This could be one of the reasons why the poll also indicated that about a quarter of working Australians want their working conditions to be much more flexible.

It’s not a one-size-fits-all model

Ms Lowe says the key to making flexible arrangements work is tailoring them to the individual.

“Most companies have blanket work-from-home policies, and that’s where it stops. There isn’t a lot of discussion around working flexible hours, what’s acceptable, who can apply,” she says.

“It shouldn’t matter if you are picking up kids, attending university, or whatever other activity requires you to work outside the standard work hours … it’s the work productivity that does.”

The key, she says, is laying the foundations of flexible working hours and conditions right at the initial employment stage, defining your expectations clearly and communicating openly.

Also, remember that ultimately, it will benefit the employer. Based on her experience in recruitment, Ms Lowe says happy employees typically stay in their roles longer and are more productive.

It’s something to keep in mind if you plan to broach the topic with your boss.