Source: Radio New Zealand
Has flexible, remote work made mahi more fun and has the freedom made us happier?
The nine to five has changed a lot of recent years, with Covid forcing some business to adapt to working from a home.
But it’s not without its challenges. How do you read the room when no one is physically in it? Did that colleague’s chat message have a tone?
Barbara Plester
Supplied
An Auckland University social scientist has been exploring these questions, embedding herself in two businesses, one a tech company and the other a food manufacturer.
Associate professor Barbara Plester told Checkpoint hybrid working came with challenges, but believed people were happier when doing so.
“I believe it makes us happier, every single person that was able to do hybrid work absolutely wanted to keep it.
“They were happier doing it because of the flexibility, because of the autonomy and they felt trusted by their boss.
“That was really important to them, that combination of freedom and trust.”
She said people did sometimes feel some anxiety because of possible isolation and lack of connection.
Plester also said people understood online chats differently, which often posed as a challenge.
“Emojis can be interpreted in a variety of different ways, so it just depends on your interpretation…
“And sometimes you can send a little GIF to someone and if it’s not the right person, that can go horribly wrong for you.”
Tone was a difficult thing to navigate, she said.
“When you are in face to face communication, you have got all of these cues going on, you can spot someone’s change of expression, change of body language.
“But when it’s written and it’s with GIF’s or emojis and things like that, sometimes you’re reading a tone that’s just not there.”
She said it was a “new art of communication”, and hybrid workers needed to figure out how they communicated.
Companies should be aware of forced fun, Plester said, which was when ‘fun’ was planned and something employees had to join.
“Forced fun is not really fun.
“I always suggest to companies to have an opt out clause so that people can say ‘that ones not for me’ or ‘not today’.”
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand