Working from home: Call to ban out-of-hours emails from bosses
Sridhar Iyengar, MD, Zoho Europe, comments:
“Technology has played a crucial role in keeping businesses operational during the pandemic, but this new working from home culture has led to an increase in out of hours working for some and this needs attention.
“Guidance from the government’s flexible working task force should be observed in order to help employers respect the boundaries of their staffers, to protect their mental health and wellbeing and ensure a healthy work life balance. However, to maintain at least the same level of productivity as seen in a traditional ‘9-5’ office environment, the right tools must be employed to connect colleagues, maintain a strong company culture through better and more supportive collaboration techniques and tools, and with more channels for support and guidance.
“Business leaders must take a more human approach. Employers and organisations should have the tools and culture for collaborative working and so understand that different people may have personal priorities and will respond to work related matters when it suits their lives best. Work as we know has become fluidic, with workforces operating from anywhere and at different times, depending on when they are most productive. A progressive and dynamic organisation should analyse this and adapt, to accommodate the employees personal needs with a healthy work balance.
Leaders must take a flexible approach to understanding there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach that can be applied to home working and must be sensitive to how employees are best able to make this work for themselves and the companies for which they work. Now that employee wellbeing is in the spotlight, every company, large or small must move with the times and find new ways of working.”
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