When the world at large was forced indoors because of the pandemic, people had to scramble to figure out flexible work arrangements whether they knew what that entailed or not. Now that the workforce has gotten a feel for it, why should or shouldn’t such flexibility be enforced?
The first thing that likely comes to mind is removing the need to commute. There’s no worry about missing public transport, or no concerns over traffic jams. The time spent in travel could be put into more work or just unwinding after a long day. Any money you might have spent on fares or petrol could also go elsewhere.
However, depending on your industry, a flexible work arrangement might not work out as well, such as service staff in food and beverage, or hospitality industries which requires physical presence. Even outside of that, an employee’s home workspace may not be optimal should there be factors like poor internet connection, inadequate hardware and/or software or other external ‘distractions’.
The International Labour Organization’s report does encourage more flexibility in the workplace noting a “substantial” amount of evidence in implementing less rigid policies can result in win-win situations for both employer and employee, while acknowledging the need for regulation to contain any potential negative effects.
At the end of the day, employer and employee would need to discuss to have systems in place to have operations running smoothly lest good intentions go awry.
