Last year, Richard Laermer decided to let his em ployees work from home. “I always assumed that you can get your work done anywhere,“ Laermer, who owns a US-based PR firm.Turns out, he was wrong. Employees took advantage, Laermer said. The last straw, he said, was when someone refused to come in for a meeting because she had plans.
Ten months in, he scrapped the benefit.
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While telecommuting work occurring outside the traditional office -has ballooned over the last 20 years, some offices are rethinking overly broad policies. More than 60% of organisations surveyed by the Society of Human Resource Management, US, this year said they allow some type of telecom muting. But 77% don't let people work from home full-time.
Technology such as chat programs made remote work feasible for many white collar workers in the last couple of decades. Employees love flexibility. Parents in particular say it's “extremely important“, a 2013 Pew survey found. Researchers have argued that unconventional work hours could even help close the pay gap.
In a bid to attract employees -and cut down on real es tate costs -firms permitted more remote work, and em ployees took advantage. At the same time, work has be come more team-based. Some organisations found the most lenient work-from-home poli cies kept workers too isolated for that kind of work.
IBM is one such firm. This year, the tech giant called back tens of thousands of workers to the office amid falling revenue, hoping that bringing people back togeth er will lead to more produc tive workers.
One of the challenges with ending remote work is keeping employees happy .
Firms removing the perk risk backlash and attrition.for instance, still offers ad hoc work-from-home ar rangements to accommodate appointments.
Having everyone in the of fice has had “quite a positive impact“ on business, said Laermer. He still offers flex time and lets workers leave at 3.00 pm on Fridays.