The challenges of flexible work and how to tackle them

Flexible work has been in the headlines regularly since the pandemic, with large companies repeatedly swaying in one direction or the other on the issue. Both its challenges and its benefits are under discussion in almost every conversation about talent management today: from productivity to wellbeing, cost to engagement, change management to retention. 

But in practice, the challenges to implementing flexible work - and the solutions - are not all that new. They are simply a twist on what we've already been grappling with for quite a while.

People Matters met up with Jean Bays, Chief People Officer at video technology company Neat, just before the Future of Work Singapore conference in October where she spoke at a panel discussion on driving productivity with technology. We took the opportunity to ask her for some thoughts on what's going on with the flexible model, and some suggestions for getting it to work.

Redefining the boundaries between work and not-work

The most immediate problem people face when they work flexibly has always been the blurring of work time and personal time, or downtime. And in many APAC countries, where the culture tends to be workaholic, this quickly results in burnout - where people, given control over their hours, work too much instead of taking time to rest.

"Even before Covid, I worked for organisations where most of the people were remote. So I know this issue is not only in Asia," Bays said to that. "It's a big, big issue, a trigger for burnout. I don't use that word very often, because we all get a little stressed from time to time, and you should not throw around the word burnout on every occasion. But in this case, I'm using the word because people don't know when to stop. They don't know how to stop."

The problem, in her experience, is that people don't understand how to manage their time. It cuts across generations, seniority, and roles. Bays described seeing people on video calls where they were obviously trying to cook a meal in the background or worse, where they were clearly at the family dinner table - and with no awareness that what they were doing was completely inappropriate for both work and personal life.

"It's crazy," she said. "Get off the call and finish your meal. This lack of awareness is everywhere. It's junior people, senior people, senior managers."

What do you do, though, when people aren't able to self-regulate something as fundamental as separating work and personal life?

One of the more extreme techniques Bays used turned out to be closer to micromanagement, but in a good cause.

"For two weeks, they would have to write down every single minute of what they were doing. Do they work on their emails? Are they in conference calls? Are they in video calls? Do they have lunch? When do they have lunch? Once we get a full picture of how they use their time we can coach them, help them use it more productively, and also set an agreement for when they will stop and shut down their laptop."

For less extreme cases, she and her team have set strict rules around the use of Slack and other messaging tools: when to go offline, when to pause notifications. They encourage employees to make extensive use of their calendars, blocking time not only to regulate their own hours but to coordinate better with team members and managers.

Fighting the fear of missing out

A large cause of this poor time management is FOMO - the fear of missing out. In younger employees, the desire to keep working after hours is at least partially a deliberate choice, Bays feels.

"I know a lot of people say the younger generation always put their free time over their careers, but I don't think so. They are extremely hard working. They enjoy technology, they know how to navigate around it. They love it and they want to be informed."

Older employees, however, are driven by a more complex mentality - and Bays admits that she herself suffers from it too, but she tries to restrict the amount of work that bleeds into her personal time.

"I think the senior generation grew up in a time when developing their careers meant they had to work really hard. Be here at 5am, don't leave till 8pm. Be quick in answering any calls or messages. I'm the same. There are some organisations, like Siemens, where you have to hand in your work devices when going on vacations - that would drive me completely bonkers. I could not enjoy a single day of my vacation. I would sit there and think, 'The whole world will burn down if I'm not informed!' And on my vacations I stay in contact every morning for two hours. I'm checking Slack, I'm checking emails, I'm answering urgent questions, then the rest of the day I'm offline."

What helps, she said, is setting expectations via calendar blocks to show when you are not available, and also being very mindful of the impression you are creating when you reach out to people after their working hours.

"If I'm sending messages to colleagues at 10pm their time and they feel the urge to answer me, I have to realise that was disrespectful - that I should have scheduled the message to go out in the morning instead so they don't feel pressured."

Understanding real performance in a flexible model

Productivity is a common bugbear of those who don't fully understand how flexibility works, but it ought not to be, and Bays is firm about why.

"I would always ask this question of a manager who's questioning if people are working or not. How do you set expectations and objectives? What are the deliverables? Are you checking in? Has this been delivered? And if it's not delivered, if an employee is not doing their job and not fulfilling your expectations or not reaching their goals, what do you do about it?"

"If you are doing your job as a manager, and there is goal setting, there are projects, there are the deliverables, there are timelines, and people do their job, how can you even question that?"

What managers need to understand, she said, is that people work differently. Some will need longer for certain tasks; some will have different work styles; there absolutely will be some who work more quickly on certain things.

"We have to respect that we are all human beings," she said. "And if one of my team finishes a task an hour earlier and is going out for a walk, or going shopping for food, or going to the hairdresser - why not, as long as the work is finished?"

"I know it is hard for a lot of people to develop this trust in their workforce or in their teams, but I can only encourage and invite everyone to just try. You will get so much more out of your workforce and employees when you trust them."

"And of course, it takes more effort from us managers to set expectations, set goals, timelines and check if things are being done, but that's our job at the end of the day. This is why we get paid."

Tips for training managers to cope with flexible work

Bays shared a few practices that have worked for her:

A full-scale, long-term leadership development programme with regular sessions to train managers on fundamentals such as performance improvement plans, succession planning, and goal setting.

Workshops aimed at addressing changes in the legal framework, in company policy, or other contingencies.

Micro-learning sessions and hands-on coaching to reinforce the basics and support steady, incremental improvement.

Mentoring from more experienced leaders and managers who have successfully navigated similar challenges and can share their advice.