Trust is good. Control is more frequent
A recent study sheds light on the experience after about 1.5 years in a home office. Improvisation at the beginning of the first lockdown turned into experience and disillusionment and, at times, home office blues.
Ground Control to Major Tom
The learning curve was steep for all of them. What is the experience, a year and a half after the first lockdown suddenly made the home office a daily reality for many?
The study “Between Trust and Control” by the market research institute Rheingold in cooperation with HAYS examined the attitudes and experiences of employees and their managers with working in a home office.
The reason why we followed this study with particular interest is due to the research approach and the quality of the market research institute Rheingold.
The depth psychological approach with interviews, some of which last 2.5 – 3 hours, is from our experience, which is shared by some HARVARD professors, the only valid approach to learn what is really going on in the head and heart of the subjects.
The positive changes
Four outcomes are rated as very positive by all respondents:
Digitization has more attention on the board
Many forward-looking projects, some of which had been proposed by respondents for years but had received little attention at the board level, have now received much greater prioritization and allocation of resources.
Compatibility of family and career
Nearly all companies view this issue with a much greater sense of reality due to the home office experience (which for many was also a homeschooling experience) and want to do more to promote work-life balance in their company.
Video conferencing has allowed a glimpse into family realities, and good employees are scarce in many fields.
The only ones who don’t seem to have realized this yet are advertisers who keep showing soft-focus images of “mother at her laptop obviously busy with highly complex project and small child gazing devoutly at his screen, both smiling mildly”.
More opportunities for more candidates
The initial online rounds of interviews with potential new hires before there’s even a face-to-face meeting at the end, the study found, has increased the pool from which to “fish” at many companies.
Appreciation of presence
If it is really important, the meeting will take place in person. “We’ll do this as a presence meeting now” expresses the appreciation of actually being able to look each other in the eye when dealing with important and/or difficult content.
The biggest and most important difference
When asked what companies and employees believe is the most important criterion for potential new employees when deciding on an employer, both indicate different priorities.
Companies believe this is especially important to candidates:
49 % Compatibility of family and career
48 % Flexibility of working hours
41 % Home office or mobile working
35 % High job security
However, when employees are asked what they look for most when choosing employers, there is a crucial difference in the order of the four most important criteria:
51 % High employer security
48 % Flexibility of working hours
49 % Compatibility of family and career
48 % Employee health and occupational safety
Source: “Between trust and control, 2021, Rheingold, Hays study”.
Here is the downside of the home office
The home office places enormous demands on employees and managers. The greater the amount of work done from home, the higher the uncertainty of employees to actually have a place in the company.
This not only refers to the previously often clearly defined space in the office, which is now increasingly becoming a workplace that can be booked flexibly, but also expresses concern about the appreciation and recognition of one’s own performance and one’s own person.
The effort for feedback in any form is often higher if a corresponding appointment has to be organized first. No more open door to stop by, no more meeting in the coffee corner, no more brief conversation in the hallway, not even an appreciative smile in the elevator.
Many employees spend a long time thinking about whether they can address their supervisor at all right now, and often don’t if the alert is not red.
5 min in person reveals more than 5 hours online
An empathetic supervisor can see from an employee’s posture, voice, clothing and gait how he or she is feeling at the moment and ask questions or provide support where it is needed. A short walk through the office is often enough for this.
The non-verbal communication, the spontaneous conversation, the personal encouragement or the recognition that additional attention is needed here is lost in online meetings.
Even the enthusiasts among the home office followers sorely miss the empathy on the screen.
Manage productivity instead of controlling it
This maxim of good leadership seems to be becoming increasingly rare. The study shows that a large number of executives appreciate and, at times, are enthusiastic about the electronic possibilities of working with computers.
Many employees report feeling strong pressure to use their computer’s trackpad, mouse, keyboard at the short intervals required, or to use their business cell phone before the benchmark of alleged non-productivity is reached.
The insight that the most valuable work results can often be achieved through simple reflection does not seem to be universally known.
The great advantage of modern communications technology – the ability to work independently of location – is very often met with a rather archaic culture of control.
Trust in employees and their ability and motivation to produce good results is not present in a large number of managers, the study found.
As a result, “Long Homid” is what one of the people responsible for the study called it when presenting the results.
Conclusion
In addition to many of the benefits of working from home, there are also dangers to the body, mind and spirit.
The term “remote working” is therefore basically the better, more honest expression.
The term home office combines in one word what many who have decided against self-employment and for a role in a company, actually did not want: To be constantly present, without a clear separation between private life and work.
In the short term, the dilemma can only be solved by greater self-care: Deliberate breaks, screen-free times, saying no when it’s appropriate, even separating work and personal life at times. This is not always possible, but being permanently available is not a solution but can lead directly to burnout.
Good bye Houston
If all this does not help with a superior who is characterized by pronounced control mania instead of leadership skills, there is only one thing that helps: to separate from the superior.
You can see a recording of key parts of the study in the form of a webinar here. At times, it helps to know that you are not alone in your home office experience.
One respondent said “It can be the worst winter weather – better to go to the office than stay in the home office even longer.”
Many a person who hated company Christmas parties from the bottom of his or her heart longs for the familiar rituals of office life back while he or she sits in his or her home office and looks out through the window into the world, even in the face of the ” home office duty” that is once again looming.
Photographs
© GloriousMe
