Tag: telework growing concerns

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Pandemic Remote Work Statistics Not Good

No doubt many telecommuters are thriving during the pandemic. For the most part these are upper-income office workers whose jobs easily transitioned from the office environment to successfully working from home as they continue to enjoy all the benefits from doing so.

For the rest of the world, things are not looking as optimistic. There are rising rates of domestic violence, depression, suicidal ideation, and mental health services are hard-pressed to meet the growing demand for both remote workers and the increasingly unemployed Americans who are tasked with having to manage work (or lack of work) and surviving during unprecedented times.

Research is ongoing, as we try to get a handle on what we are up against as we all are trying to do our best under such challenging conditions.

As the statistics continue to come in, one research firm (The Martec Group) has provided results of a groups study that confirms, even among those who are telecommuting and working from home, there is growing cause for concern.

According to statistics

32% Pissed Off

The largest segment of teleworking employees (32%) report that they are hugely in opposition of the current work at home conditions. They don’t like working at home, and they think that their employers are not doing a very good job at making adequate arraignments not offering the support necessary to ensure a successful telecommuting environment.

27% Disgruntled

Then there are the employees that also do not like working at home, but they are not blaming their employers at all. As awkward and uncomfortable as it might be, they are of the mind that their employers are doing the best they can with what they have. These account for 27% of the group.

It is disconcerting, that the larger part of the group (59%) is not enjoying the remote working scenario whatsoever. And who would blame them? Who likes being forced to do anything that is outside their comfort zone? (No matter how you try to explain how fortunate they are to have a job.)

Then there are the employees who don’t hate working from home, are not crazy about it and wished they didn’t have to do it, but also think that their employers will come out of the pandemic in good shape (25%), and they believe they will be able to return to work under more normal conditions after the restrictions are lifted.

16% Love It

If you believe the media, you will think the largest segment of the pandemic telecommuters would be those who are enthusiastically celebrating their new life and freedom associated with working from home. But it turns out that only 16% are thriving as the result of working from home, and if given the opportunity to continue to do so would jump at the chance, even if it meant taking a slight pay cut.

84% Do Not Want to Work from Home

It is interesting to note the majority (84%) of these employees are not happy. Not only are they not happy, but they do not want to be working from home.

72% Growing Mental Health Concerns

They feel like they are being forced to work under undesirable conditions, and 72% of them reported growing mental health concerns.

I think we could do better.

 

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Before You Quit Your Job for Your Family

Remember when you were first “invited” to work from home? No more commuting back and forth from work which meant more quality time for you and your family, the flexible hours, backing all the cash that you saved from not having to commute or that you were paying for designer coffee and lunch? Remember how sweet it was?

Not long after the initial elation and celebration of being able to be that master of your own destiny, the reality of it all hit, hard. While it was entertaining during online videoconferencing to see your coworker’s toddler tapping him on the shoulder and proclaiming, “Daddy, I need a wipe,” or your cats running up the drapery backdrop which comes crashing down to reveal the fact that there was no window behind the drapes of your video telework set, the fact was, it turns out this working from home environment was not all it was cracked up to be.

If you had become accustomed to having a break from your family during the day, well, those days are long gone, and no one would blame you for yearning for things to return to some semblance of normalcy, or to consider quitting your job to tend to your family.

Families who are restricted to being indoors for the most part, with one or more adults telecommuting, kids attending school from home, and local businesses closed (some restricted from opening, and others gone, forever), are paying an incredible cost, and many working women are feeling the pressure to resign to try to keep their family from falling apart.

Before You Quit Your Job for Your Family

Teenagers are easy enough to incentivize if you can provide them with a large able and Internet package, and a debit card to use for shopping on Amazon in exchange for pitching in with the household chores, but even they are starting to go a bit stir crazy. You can only expect these energetic young men and women to agree to a willful lockdown for so long.

The youngest children are the ones that are the neediest, and there is little relief in sight.

What can you do when things start going crazy at home?

Be Honest and Open

Before declaring, “this is just too much,” throwing in the towel, or giving your two-weeks’ notice, reach out to your employer and colleagues, and let them know that your frustrations are a growing concern.

You will be surprised at how they will be willing to show compassion during these unprecedented times. Many of them are having the same kinds of problems and they are ready and willing to help you with solutions that will relieve some of your stress.

There is nothing to fear for being vulnerable and transparent when the going gets rough.

Establish Family Boundaries

We are all doing the best we can to make it through this pandemic. Granted, we are all under more pressure than we could reasonably expect to ask of someone. But having a serious sit-down and pep-talk with the family and getting buy-in on the idea that we all want to survive this chaos, you can get family members to agree to help, and you can set boundaries that will increase your ability to continue to work from home more effectively when duty calls.

Childcare

Granted, the daycares are shut down, but that doesn’t mean that asking friends or family to help babysit periodically is out of the question. Even during the pandemic, you can find people who will be willing to don PPE for a few hours a day to help relieve you from some of the stress of balancing parenting with working from home.

Time Managing Chores and Activities

Save and manage delegating chores to those times that you know you are going to be called on to “be there” for your employer for certain periods of time. Give the kids projects that they can do online, or even via (educational?) television. Arts and crafts can be used to get kids to focus while you are conducting a Zoom meeting.

Many working women are feeling like they have to make the decision between work and family, and no one would judge you for choosing your family, but give it some more thought before you withdraw from your work or online job, because it may be more difficult to reenter the remote workplace once you’ve taken a family sabbatical.

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At-risk Telecommuting Employees

For those who were cast into the sea of “workhomedness” moths after the initial exuberating, the sheen is fading rapidly after what seemed like it would be a temporary reprieve turned out to be an endless marathon of balancing home and work in what used to be our sacred space called, “home.”

Especially for households that are homes to families, where either one or both parents are telecommuting and working from home, school-aged children are attending school online from home, tending house and taking care of everyday details, like laundry, housecleaning, shopping, and trying to find time for family, all vying for the same space trying to eke out some semblance of life quality.

Top 4 At-risk Telecommuters

Certainly, it is not all fun and games today, as it may have been in the beginning and nerves are wearing thin due to the ongoing challenges associated with this pandemic.

1. Families at Risk

Teenagers feel like they can manage themselves and might even prefer that parents let them fend for themselves, while younger children need more attention, and being excluded from school and daycare centers is putting more pressure on parents who are faced with trying to juggle work and children at home simultaneously.

As the pandemic restrictions linger on, productivity, which was superior (most 30% or more at the outset) in the beginning is starting to decline for remote workers who are trying to manage familial needs while teleworking. It is all a bit overwhelming.

2. Single Parents at Risk

The hardest-hit segment of the telecommuting workforce is especially single mothers working from home, trying to get by on already limited resources. In two-parent households, there are more resources to share the management requirements of a healthy family.

While women are far more qualified to handle emotional trauma than their male counterparts, men are more adaptable to extended periods of time in isolation without social interaction, in general.

The isolation element compounds the working mom from home scenario significantly. This need is easily fulfilled by brief interaction among coworkers, walking to and from breaks, around the copier, or water cooler. Men do not seem to have the need for this sense of coexistence in a troubled world.

Single parents are being forced out of the telecommuting workforce as they are faced with having to make the choice to work or serve the family.

3. Child-free at Risk

And if you think couples or singles without children have it better, it turns out they have their own issues, such as oversleeping and extended work hours without pay. It is breeding a horde of workaholics on house arrest. This opens up an entirely new can of worms to infiltrate an otherwise healthy worker’s brain chemistry.

4. Human Resources at Risk

All this is putting a tremendous amount of burden on the human resources (HR) departments of companies and organizations across the board.

Competition for remote workers is greater than before, and all companies and organizations who are fully embracing the work-from-home model are both snipers and targets. Even though your market area is greatly expanded because your remote workforce need not be limited to your locality, you are now competing nationally for the best potential employees out there.

HR departments also are aware that other companies and organizations are using their employees’ Internet connections to proselyte workers who are currently on their payrolls.

You are going along, thinking everything is going just fine, when all of a sudden, your employees are giving their two weeks’ notice and jumping ship in droves.

It is because your competitors are target marketing and offering them a better deal, right now.

HR and management are now challenged with the greater necessity to focus on employee retention to try to keep the waters shark-proof.