Working from home not the best deal, study finds
Many people's dream job is one where they never have to go into an office. It's one where they don't have to face a long commute, hitting the road in the early dawn hours just to beat the traffic jams. It's the kind of job where they can work in peace and quiet and not be constantly interrupted with pesky questions from co-workers or forced to attend monotonous meetings.
It's the kind of job where they get to stay at home, wear their jammies if they want and communicate with co-workers only via instant messaging or e-mail.
Companies are hearing more requests for such work arrangements and many are granting them. After all, it requires less real estate to house workers and it helps attract key employees - especially younger workers - seeking such arrangements.
But hold the phone, folks. The old saying about being careful what you wish for may be true in this case.
A look at the past 40 years of research, comprising 259 studies and almost 220,000 workers, found that the "social" aspects of work are very important factors in making employees happy and positively affecting the employer's bottom line. In other words, workers who hole themselves up at home to get work done may not only make themselves unhappier in the long run, but also have less loyalty to and be less productive for the employers who granted such an arrangement.
The study, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, found that having a "socially supportive" workplace was related to greater job satisfaction and lower feelings of exhaustion and strongly reduced the likelihood of wanting to leave the job.
"I think a lot of companies believe that offering employees flexibility (to work at home) solves all the problems, but employees may lose a lot," said Stephen Humphrey, a study co-author and Florida State University professor. "They may get bored or distracted working at home, or put in 60 hours a week because they can't stop working."
Humphrey says providing a social interaction for workers is important, but "it's more than just throwing them in cubicles."
"You've got to organize opportunities or interaction," he says. "It means having get-togethers. When I was a kid I remember attending company picnics for my parents' employer. That may seem hokey now, but something like that is a great opportunity for people who work together to become friends." (To join the discussion of workplace friendships, check out the blog at www.anitabruzzese.com.)
Some other insights from the study:
- Efforts to increase efficiency by simplifying workers' job responsibilities may in fact be leading to lower employee job satisfaction and productivity over time.
"We're seeing many job functions that American workers used to do being sent overseas or contracted out to other U.S. companies that specialize in those areas," Humphrey says. "The employees who used to perform these tasks often find themselves either out of a job or in one that is less challenging and less fulfilling."
- Having more autonomy on the job was related to better performance, higher satisfaction and lower feelings of exhaustion.
- Receiving frequent feedback from others made employees more satisfied, reduced stress and turnover and led to better performance.
Humphrey says that those companies providing flexibility to workers while maintaining positive communication and keeping workers challenged with new opportunities have a greater chance of competing in the marketplace. He says one way to do that may be developing better teams, which also can make workers happier because of the personal interactions.
And as for those who consider "teamwork" a dirty word in the workplace?
"Many companies don't really know how to put together teams," he says. "People don't get rewarded for working in teams, and many times they put together people who just can't work together because of personalities."
The key, he says, is understanding that while some believe working in a vacuum might be just the ticket, letting workers disconnect from one another may offer a short-term solution, but cause some real long-term harm.
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