THE LIMITATIONS/ DRAWBACKS OF WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Work-life balance is the state of equilibrium where a person equally prioritizes the demands of one’s career and the demands of one’s personal life. Why is it so hard to maintain a balance? A survey of thousands of working adults found these to be the most common answers:

Work-life balance is less about dividing the hours in our day evenly between work and personal life and, instead, is more about having the flexibility to get things done in our professional life while still having time and energy to enjoy our personal life. There may be some days where we work longer hours so that we have time later in the week to enjoy other activities.

So far, it always seemed that finding a good balance between our daily work and the time we spend with family, friends or just ourselves is what we all should strive to achieve. Some arguments against and in favour of the work live balance theory may be:

When the focus is on business development, employers inevitably lose focus on where to draw the line regarding these practices. Let us look at what could happen when flexible working is not monitored well.

A) . . . -> Development of a complacent attitude

It is important to build a rapport with our employees by understanding their personal issues and granting them a leeway to work around them. However, it’s equally important for employers to know where to draw a line. When there’s freedom to work at individual schedules suiting employee needs, there’s room to take advantage, by not being productive, for example. Similarly, the many short breaks employees are allowed to take may turn into long ones, and the easy grants to take unplanned leaves will result in their absence from the desk too often.

If we are not building a system of measurement to monitor some of these benefits, it may result in the employees developing a complacent attitude towards the job. Consequently, this leads to lower productivity, lack of ownership and accountability.

B) . . . -> Lack of communication and innovation

One of the most common challenges faced by employers who have a team working remotely is communication. While the reasons are genuine most of the time, the employee can make a habit of such issues. For instance, an employee working from home might be situated in a ‘bad phone network’ zone – thus, reaching out to them becomes challenging. This results in confusion and possible delays in completing the assignments. Similarly, there may be poor internet connection or electricity problems – common problems of today which makes the remote working option very inefficient.

C) . . . -> Distractions and missed collaborations

Often, employees promise that they will manage work from home and stick to deadlines but are unable to do so due to genuine reasons. Be it due to having a pet or having constant distractions with a large family in the house, such employees are bound to be interruptions that won’t let them concentrate on their work.

An employee who enjoys scheduled flexibility can work perfectly well in his or her comfort zone if the project is being handled individually. But in the case of a group project, where one team member’s task depends on another’s, there’s bound to be a setback. As leaders we need to give these aspects a thought and understand that while it’s important for us to help employees work better, it’s also equally essential that we ensure the work-life balance is equally balanced. It’s always better to work smart than to work hard.

One way to think about work-life balance is with a concept known as The Four Burners Theory. Imagine our life is represented by a stove with four burners on it. Each burner symbolises one major quadrant of our life. The first burner represents family, the second burner is our friends, the third burner is health and the fourth burner is our work.

Which two would we choose? It’s a really difficult choice. If we decide that family and work are the most important — then we need to sacrifice our friends and health. If we decide family and friends are the most important — then we need to sacrifice our career and health.

Is there a way to side-step it. Can we succeed and keep all four burners running? Perhaps we could merge two burners. What if we grouped family and friends into one category? Or maybe we could combine health and work. We hear sitting all day is unhealthy. What if we got a standing desk? Believing that you will be healthy because you bought a standing desk is like believing you are a rebel because you ignored the fasten seatbelt sign on an airplane.

Overall, life is all about trade-offs. If we want to outperform in our work and in our marriage, then friends and health may have to suffer. If we want to be healthy and succeed as a parent, then we might be forced to let loose our career ambitions. We are free to divide our time equally among all four burners, but we have to accept that we will never reach our full potential in any given area.

What is the best way to handle these work-life balance problems? Here are three ways of thinking about The Four Burners Theory.

Option 1: Outsource Burners . . . ->

We outsource small aspects of our lives all the time. We buy fast food so we don’t have to cook. We go to the dry cleaners to save time on laundry. We visit the car repair shop so we don’t have to fix our own automobile. Outsourcing small portions of our life allows to save time and spend it elsewhere. Can we apply the same idea to one quadrant of our life and free up time to focus on the other three burners?

Work is the best example. For many people, work is the hottest burner on the stove. It is where they spend the most time and it is the last burner to get turned off. In theory, entrepreneurs and business owners can outsource the work burner. They do it by hiring employees.

Parenting is another example. Working parents are often forced to “outsource” the family burner by dropping their children off at day-care or hiring a babysitter. Calling this outsourcing might seem unfair, but—like the work example above—parents are paying someone else to keep the burner running while they use their time elsewhere.

The advantage of outsourcing is that we can keep the burner running without spending our time on it. Unfortunately, removing ourselves from the equation is also a disadvantage. Most entrepreneurs, artists, and creators would feel bored and without a sense of purpose if they had nothing to work on each day. Every parent would rather spend time with their children than drop them off at day-care. Outsourcing keeps the burner running, but is it running in a meaningful way?

Option 2: Embrace Limitations. . . ->

One of the most frustrating parts of The Four Burners Theory is that it shines a light on our untapped potential. It can be easy to think, “If only I had more time, I could make more money or get in shape or spend more time at home.”

One way to manage this problem is to shift our focus from wishing we had more time to maximizing the time we have. In other words, we embrace our limitations. The question to ask ourselves is, “Assuming a particular set of limitations, how can I be as effective as possible?” Some examples may be:

This line of questioning pulls the focus toward something positive (getting the most out of what we have available) rather than something negative (worrying about never having enough time). Furthermore, well-designed limitations can actually improve performance and help stop procrastinating on goals.

Embracing limitations means accepting that we are operating at less than our full potential. Yes, there are plenty of ways to “work smarter, not harder” but it is difficult to avoid the fact that where we spend our time matters. If we invested more time into health or relationships or career, we would likely see improved results in that area.

Option 3: The Seasons of Life . . . -> A third way to manage the four burners is by breaking our life into seasons. What if, instead of searching for perfect work-life balance at all times, we divide our life into seasons that focused on a particular area? The importance of our burners may change throughout life. For instance:

We don’t have to give up on our dreams forever, but life rarely allows to keep all four burners going at once. Maybe we need to let go of something for this season. We can do it all in a lifetime, but not at the same time. Furthermore, there is often a multiplier effect that occurs when we dedicate ourselves fully to a given area. In many cases, we can achieve more by going all-in on a given task for a few years than by giving it a lukewarm effort for fifty years. Maybe it is best to strive for seasons of imbalance and rotate through them as needed.

The Four Burners Theory reveals a truth everyone must deal with: nobody likes being told they can’t have it all, but everyone has limitations on their time and energy. Every choice has a cost.

Some people may even disagree with the fact that to be successful (however we define that) we need to turn off one burner and to be really successful, we must turn off two. Perhaps instead of turning the burners off we can turn them down a little and adopt the seasons of life approach. This seems like a more balanced approach than turning off at least one quadrant completely. For instance, the people of Denmark are consistently ranked amongst the happiest people in the world. They work shorter weeks, explore the outdoors and spend quality time with friends and family.

A good work-life balance has numerous positive effects, including less stress, a lower risk of burnout and a greater sense of well-being. Employers that offer options as telecommuting or flexible work schedules can help employees have a better work-life balance, and can save on costs, experience fewer cases of absenteeism, and enjoy a more loyal and productive workforce. Below are some reflective questions to get started within organisations:

Content Curated By: Dr Shoury Kuttappa

PERSPECTIVES ON FAMILY SYSTEMS & BEHAVIOURS: THE BOWEN THEORY- (CHAPTER 02)

***Continued from Chapter 01 (Covered previously: Diwali & Family Ties, Bowen Family Systems, Three out of the eight concepts of the Bowen Theory Views)

Link to Chapter 01:

PERSPECTIVES ON FAMILY SYSTEMS & BEHAVIOURS: THE BOWEN THEORY -CHAPTER 01

04: Family Projection Process

Children inherit many types of problems (as well as strengths) through the relationships with their parents, but the problems they inherit that most affect their lives are relationship sensitivities such as heightened needs for attention and approval, difficulty in dealing with expectations, the tendency to blame oneself or others, feeling responsible for the happiness of others or that others are responsible for one’s own happiness, and acting impulsively to relieve the anxiety of the moment rather than tolerating anxiety and acting thoughtfully. The projection process follows three steps:

These steps of scanning, diagnosing, and treating begin early in the child’s life and continue. The child grows to embody the fears and perceptions of the parent.

Example:- . . . parents perceive their child to have low self-esteem, they repeatedly try to affirm the child, and the child’s self-esteem grows dependent on their affirmation.

Parents often feel they have not given enough love, attention, or support to a child’s manifesting problems, but they have invested more time, energy, and worry in this child than in other siblings. The siblings less involved in the family projection process have a more mature and reality-based relationship with their parents that fosters the siblings developing into less needy, less reactive, and more goal-directed people. The mother is usually the primary caretaker and more prone than the father to excessive emotional involvement with one or more of the children. The father typically occupies the outside position in the parental triangle, except during periods of heightened tension in the mother-child relationship.

05: Multigenerational Transmission Process

This describes how small differences in the levels of differentiation between parents and their offspring lead over many generations to marked differences in differentiation among the members of a multigenerational family. The information creating these differences is transmitted across generations through relationships. The transmission occurs on several interconnected levels ranging from the conscious teaching and learning of information to the automatic and unconscious programming of emotional reactions and behaviours.

The combination of parents actively shaping the development of their offspring, offspring innately responding to their parents’ moods, attitudes, and actions, and the long dependency period of human offspring results in people developing levels of differentiation of self that is similar to their parents’ levels. The next step in the multigenerational transmission process is people predictably selecting mates with levels of differentiation that match their own. As these processes repeat over multiple generations, the differences between family lines grow increasingly marked.

The Level of differentiation can affect longevity, marital stability, reproduction, health, educational accomplishments, and occupational successes. The highly differentiated people have unusually stable nuclear families and contribute much to society; the poorly differentiated people have chaotic personal lives and depend heavily on others to sustain them. A key implication of the multigenerational concept is that the roots of the most severe human problems as well as of the highest levels of human adaptation are generations deep.

For example:-.. . if a family programs someone to attach intensely to others and to function in a helpless and indecisive way, he/she will likely select a mate who not only attaches to him/her with equal intensity, but one who directs others and makes decisions for them.

06: Emotional Cut-off

This explains about people managing their unresolved emotional issues with parents, siblings, and other family members by reducing or totally cutting off emotional contact with them. Emotional contact can be reduced by people moving away from their families and rarely going home, or it can be reduced by people staying in physical contact with their families but avoiding sensitive issues. Relationships may look “better” if people cut-off to manage them, but the problems is dormant and not resolved. People risk making their new relationships too important.

For example:- . . .the more a man cuts off from his family of origin, the more he looks to his spouse, children, and friends to meet his needs. This makes him vulnerable to pressuring them to be certain ways for him or accommodating too much to their expectations of him out of fear of jeopardizing the relationship.

People who are cut-off may try to stabilize their intimate relationships by creating substitute “families” with social and work relationships. An unresolved attachment can take many forms.

Examples may be:-

People often look forward to going home, hoping things will be different this time, but the old interactions usually surface within hours. It may take the form of surface harmony with powerful emotional undercurrents or it may deteriorate into shouting matches and hysterics. Both the person and the family may feel exhausted even after a brief visit. It may be easier for the parents if an adult child keeps distance. The family are relieved when the person leaves.

07: Sibling Position

People who grow up in the same sibling position predictably have important common characteristics. Where a person is in the birth order in the family, has an influence on how he/she relates to her parents and siblings. Oldest children tend to gravitate to leadership positions and youngest children often prefer to be followers. The characteristics of one position are not “better” than those of another position, but are complementary. Some examples:. .

People in the same sibling position may exhibit marked differences in functioning. The concept of differentiation can explain some of the differences. For example:. . . . .. . . rather than being comfortable with responsibility and leadership, an oldest child who is anxiously focused on may grow up to be markedly indecisive and highly reactive to expectations. Consequently, his younger brother may become a “functional oldest,” filling a void in the family system. He is the chronologically younger child, but develops more characteristics of an oldest child than his older brother. Middle children may exhibit the functional characteristics of two sibling positions.

The sibling positions of a person’s parents are also important to consider. An oldest child whose parents are both youngests’ encounters a different set of parental expectations than an oldest child whose parents are both oldests’.

08: Societal Emotional Process

Each concept in Bowen theory applies to nonfamily groups, such as work and social organizations. The concept of societal emotional process describes how the emotional system governs behaviour on a societal level, promoting both progressive and regressive periods in a society. Cultural forces are important in how a society functions but are insufficient for explaining the ebb and flow in how well societies adapt to the challenges that face them.

In times of regression (like the current pandemic), people act to relieve the anxiety of the moment rather than act on principle and a long-term view. A regressive pattern began unfolding in society after World War II. It worsened some during the 1950s and rapidly intensified during the 1960s. The “symptoms” of societal regression include a growth of crime and violence, an increasing divorce rate, a more litigious attitude, a greater polarization between racial groups, less principled decision-making by leaders, the drug abuse epidemic, an increase in bankruptcy, and a focus on rights over responsibilities. Human societies undergo periods of regression and progression in their history.

Content Curated By: Dr Shoury Kuttappa.

PERSPECTIVES ON FAMILY SYSTEMS & BEHAVIOURS: THE BOWEN THEORY -CHAPTER 01

Diwali, also known as the Festival of Lights, symbolizes the spiritual “victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance”.  Celebrations are wonderful ways in which our deep physical, social and psychological needs are met. The family is an important institution that plays a crucial role in the lives of most Indians. In this era of nuclear families, where we experience clashes and misunderstanding on multiple occasions, the survival and dignified growth of family relationships becomes a concern.

Diwali & The Four Life Stages – Varnashrama Dharma

Diwali is not only a festival of lights but also the festival of family relations and celebration. In Ancient India, for the optimum fulfilment, satisfaction and peace in one’s life, the stages of life were discussed as the ‘ashramas’ or ‘Varnashrama Dharma’.

The Varnashrama Dharma system consists of four age-based life stages discussed in Indian texts of the ancient and medieval eras. The child begins his or her life with Brahmacharya stage as a student, then progresses to the Grihastha stage of a householder, then retires to Vanaprastha stage and finally accepts the Sanyasa stage of renunciation.

The Grihastha Ashrama stage (after the marriage of an individual) is considered the most important of all stages in the social, cultural and economic context, as human beings not only pursued a virtuous life, they produced food and wealth that sustained people in other stages of life, as well as, the offspring, that continued mankind. This stage is also where the most intense physical, sexual, emotional, occupational, social and material attachments exist in a human beings life.

Almost all the festivals in India are concentrated around this concept of celebration with family and friends. However, Diwali celebrates the Grihastha stage to the fullest sense by focusing on the multiple aspects and qualities of it, highlighting the need to enjoy and appreciate each member of the family with deserving importance and their mutual bonding with other members of the family. It is almost a complete compendium of coordination of members of family, respect towards each other, love, affection, care and sharing, human values of forgiving, gratitude and humility.

Diwali helps us to seamlessly transmit family values and find our place in the circle of life. Coming together to celebrate a festive occasion reinforces family relationships, provides ample opportunities for bonding and nourishes emotional attachments. Happy memories become positive inner resources that help to calm the mind – they release the feel-good chemicals in the brain. Creating happy memories helps us remember the good times more than the bad ones.

The Bowen Family Systems Theory

The Bowen family systems theory was developed by psychiatrist and researcher Dr Murray Bowen (1913–90). In recent years Bowen’s concept of ‘differentiation of self’ — which describes differing levels of maturity in relationships — has been shown by researchers to be related to important areas of well-being, including marital fulfilment, and the capacity to handle stress, make decisions and manage social anxiety.

Bowen’s theory lends a perspective to understand the variations in how different people manage similarly stressful circumstances. The theory looks at our personal and relationship problems as coming from exaggerated responses, to sensing a threat to family harmony and that of other groups. Some examples from daily life:

Bowen’s concept of ‘differentiation of self’ forms the basis of a systems understanding of maturity. The concept of differentiation refers to the ability to think as an individual while staying meaningfully connected to others. It describes the varying capacity each person has to balance their emotions and their intellect, and to balance their need to be attached with their need to be a separate self. The best way to grow a more solid self was in the relationships that make up our original families; running away from difficult family members would only add to the challenges in managing relationship upsets.

The Eight Concepts

01: Triangles

A triangle is a three-person relationship system. It is considered the building block or “molecule” of larger emotional systems because a triangle is the smallest stable relationship system. A two-person system is unstable because it tolerates little tension before involving a third person. A triangle can contain much more tension without involving another person because the tension can shift around three relationships. If the tension is too high for one triangle to contain, it spreads to a series of “interlocking” triangles. Spreading the tension can stabilize a system, but nothing gets resolved.

A triangle creates an odd man out, which can be a difficult position for individuals to tolerate. Anxiety generated by anticipating, being, or by being the odd man out is a potent force in triangles. The patterns in a triangle change with increasing tension. In calm periods, two people are comfortably close “insiders” and the third person is an uncomfortable “outsider.” The insiders actively exclude the outsider, and the outsider works to get closer to one of them. Someone is always uncomfortable in a triangle and pushing for change. The insiders solidify their bond by choosing each other in preference to the less desirable outsider.

People’s actions in a triangle reflect their efforts to assure their emotional attachments to important others, their reactions to too much intensity in the attachments, and their taking sides in others’ conflicts. When someone chooses another person over oneself, it arouses particularly intense feelings of rejection. If mild to moderate tension develops between the insiders, the most uncomfortable one will move closer to the outsider. One of the original insiders now becomes the new outsider and the original outsider is now an insider.

At a high level of tension, the outside position becomes the most desirable. If severe conflict erupts between the insiders, one insider opts for the outside position by getting the current outsider fighting with the other insider. If the manoeuvring insider is successful, he gains the more comfortable position of watching the other two people fight. When the tension and conflict subside, the outsider will try to regain an inside position.

Examples:

02: Differentiation of Self

Families and other social groups tremendously affect how people think, feel, and act, but individuals vary in their susceptibility to a “groupthink” and groups vary in the amount of pressure they exert for conformity. These differences between individuals and between groups reflect differences in people’s levels of differentiation of self. The less developed a person’s “self,” the more impact others have on her/his functioning and the more she/he tries to control, actively or passively, the functioning of others.

The basic building blocks of a “self” are inborn, but an individual’s family relationships during childhood and adolescence primarily determine how much “self” he develops. Once established, the level of “self” rarely changes unless a person makes a structured and long-term effort to change it.

People with a poorly differentiated “self” depend so heavily on the acceptance and approval of others that either they quickly adjust what they think, say, and do to please others or they dogmatically proclaim what others should be like and pressure them to conform. An extreme rebel is a poorly differentiated person too, but she/he pretends to be a “self” by routinely opposing the positions of others.

People with a well-differentiated “self” are able to recognize their realistic dependence on others, and can stay calm and clear headed enough in the face of conflict, criticism, and rejection. They can distinguish thinking rooted in a careful assessment of the facts, from thinking clouded by emotionality. Thoughtfully acquired principles help guide decision-making about important family and social issues, making them less at the mercy of the feelings of the moment. What they decide and what they say matches what they do. They can act selflessly, but their acting in the best interests of the group is a thoughtful choice, not a response to relationship pressures.

03: Nuclear Family Emotional Process

The concept of the nuclear family emotional system describes four basic relationship patterns that govern where problems develop in a family. The forces primarily driving them are part of the emotional system. The tension level depends on the stress a family encounters, how a family adapts to stress, and on a family’s connection with extended family and social networks. Tension increases the activity of one or more of the four relationship patterns. Where symptoms develop depends on which patterns are most active. The four basic relationship patterns are:

The more anxiety one person or one relationship absorbs, the less other people must absorb. This means that some family members maintain their functioning at the expense of others. People do not want to hurt each other, but when anxiety chronically dictates behaviour, someone usually suffers for it.

***To be continued in Chapter 02 (Points 04 to 08) Link to Chapter -02:

PERSPECTIVES ON FAMILY SYSTEMS & BEHAVIOURS: THE BOWEN THEORY- (CHAPTER 02)

Content Curated By: Dr Shoury Kuttappa

FLEXIBLE WORKING: COUNTERBALANCING BEHAVIOURS

The Benefits of Work-Life Balance

Flexible working is more than just a trend. It represents a huge change in the way that organizations manage their work and their people. Even before the coronavirus lockdown, many organizations were exploring new ways of operating that allow people to have a better work-life balance. Ways that increase their engagement with, and control over, their work. The lockdown has forced us to adapt to new working patterns quickly. And now, as the restrictions start to ease, we’re thinking about adopting some of these new practices in the longer term.

What Is Flexible Working?
Flexible working is any work pattern that differs significantly from the traditional, office-based, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. standard. It can involve working from home, working flexible hours, job sharing, or a mixture of all of these. The different kinds of flexible working are:

A) Working from Home

Working from home is exactly what it says: work carried out by employees in their own homes. Research shows that a large number of the workforce were already spending a quarter or more of their work time at home even before the COVID-19 lockdown. The same research suggests that the number of regular homeworkers has risen by 173 percent since 2005. Home working is most widespread in industry sectors that are not tied to a specific location. Professional, technical, financial, and information-based organizations will likely be able to offer home working as an option. Those in the manufacturing, construction or logistics sectors will likely not.

B) Job Sharing
Job sharing means that two (or more) people share the duties of one full-time job, each working part-time. Each job-sharer must have access to the same systems and information, and have the skills to carry out the job on their own if necessary. Good communication and trust between the job sharers is vital.

C) Flexible Hours
A flexible-hours scheme allows staff to work different hours than the normal company start and finish times. For example, in an office where most people work 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., some might be able to work 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Flexible hours are particularly suitable for people who have care responsibilities at particular times of day, and for those who regularly work with team members, vendors or clients based in different time zones.

D) Compressed Hours
A compressed hours schedule involves working the usual number of hours in the working week, but in fewer days. For example, an employee contracted to work a 40-hour week might work four 10-hour days with a fifth day off, rather than five eight-hour days.

E) Results Only Work Environment (ROWE)
ROWE workplaces delegate responsibility for targets entirely to team members. In a ROWE , you’re measured by your performance, results or output, not by the hours you’re in the office. You have a high degree of autonomy over your projects, and the freedom to choose when and how you’ll meet your goals.

All of these formal arrangements can run alongside a flexible working policy – a set of principles or promises to be adhered to, for the mutual benefit of employee and employer. Such arrangements are based on good communication, trust, and a few absolutes.

Note: Flexible working is not the same as working flexibly , which is the ability to adjust to short-term change quickly and calmly. This should be possible – and desirable – in any working arrangement.

What Are the Benefits of Flexible Working?
Flexible working can benefit both employees and their organizations, so long as it is considered carefully in advance.

How Flexible Working Benefits Employees
For an employee, flexible working has many benefits:

1. It can help you to balance your work with your other responsibilities, like caring for children or an older family member.
2. It can also create a sense of autonomy over your work, which can increase engagement and job satisfaction.
3. Being able to schedule work to suit you can help with time management, and to combat stress.
4. Having control over where and when you work allows you to play to your strengths, particularly if you work better at certain times of day .
5. It enables you to build self-care into your daily routine, making it easier to incorporate exercise into your day, for instance.
6. Financial benefits can include being able to schedule travel on public transport at cheaper times, traveling less, or not having to commute at all.

How Flexible Working Benefits Organizations

1. In recent years, flexible working has become a key factor in the ability of organizations to attract and retain talented staff. Research has found that employees believe they would change jobs for one that offered flexible working.
2. The preference for flexible working was particularly marked in younger employees, who increasingly expect variable hours and home working to be part of any employment offer.
3. Also, since engaged employees are more likely to stay with an organization, a flexible working policy can improve staff retention and reduce hiring costs.
4. Employers can also recruit from a wider pool, as potential employees do not necessarily have to live within commuting distance.
5. Flexible working arrangements can also reduce office operating costs, as not everyone is in the office all of the time.

Benefits to Society.

1. In the Covid-19 era, traveling off-peak and working from home helps with social distancing.
2. In the longer term, flexible working may help to reduce pollution, due to a reduction in travel.
3. In addition, more people can take on a wider range of jobs, in different locations.
4. Flexible working also supports the inclusion of careers, older people, and people with disabilities or chronic illnesses in the workforce.

The Pitfalls of Flexible Working

1. Flexible working needs careful implementation and management to be successful. Although it has many benefits, it has potential problems, too.
2. Communication can be a problem when people are working in different places, or when their office hours don’t overlap.
3. It’s essential to have the right systems in place for tracking tasks and building relationships with your co-workers.
4. It’s easy for misunderstandings to happen on team calls or in virtual meetings, so make sure that you know how to run remote meetings effectively .
5. When you’re working from home, it’s vital to minimize distractions. It can be all too easy for the line between family time and work time to become blurred, for example.
6. When you’re away from co-workers and managers, it can be easy to fall into bad behaviours such as procrastination. Make sure you have a routine and a daily To-Do List to keep you on track.
7. Employers need to consider how they will fulfil their duty of care to their remote workers. For example, ensuring that they have a safe work environment and are given the appropriate training.

How to Implement Flexible Working
Regulations on flexible working will vary according to your location. Employers don’t have to grant the request but do have to show that they’ve considered it fairly. If you are managing a team or an organization, flexible working arrangements that you agree with staff members must be fair to them and to other team members. If you make flexible working available to one team member, in most cases it should be available to all.

This may cause difficulties if some teams within your organization (for example, sales and marketing) would suit flexible working but others (a production line, for instance) would not. So, it needs to be handled sensitively. Consult senior managers or your HR or People team before you make any promises or commitments. When a team member proposes a flexible working arrangement, or you think that it would benefit the way your team works, begin with an informal conversation. This should cover:

When you have a good general idea of how the flexible arrangement could work, you can hold a formal meeting to focus on specific issues, requirements, and contractual changes. Aim to nail down the details of how the arrangement will benefit the business, and how you will manage it. Put the outcomes of this meeting in writing, with explicit and measurable standards, so that everyone is clear on their responsibilities and the actions that need to be taken. Ideally, a commitment to flexible working should be rolled out across the whole organization. Even if the precise terms of the flexible working vary between teams or individuals, there should be a clear policy available for all staff to consult.

Content Curated By: Dr Shoury Kuttappa