5 Reasons Flexible Work Arrangements May Make You Unhappy

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5 years ago

You’re not sure you can continue with 9-5. You have kids, or aging parents, or fur babies….or you just simply are over the daily grind. As such, you start to think about flexible work arrangements. What are flexible work arrangements? There are a few types (see below) but in general flexible work arrangements are alternatives to working 9-5 in your office. Seems like a dream, yes? Well, flexible work arrangements can offer you, well, flexibility in where and when you do your work. While that is certainly helpful, there are a few potential implications to consider…

5 Reasons Flexible Work Arrangements May Make You Unhappy

Before getting to the 5 reasons, let’s explore common flexible work arrangement), including considerations you should be aware of before you proceed. At the end, is a summary of the key 5 reasons why flexible work arrangements may make you unhappy!

This Inc.com article gives an overview of numerous types of flexible work arrangements. I’ve really only seen these 4 in practice:

1. Work from home / telecommute

This one probably doesn’t need much by way of definition. This flexible work arrangement entails doing your work somewhere other than your office. Typically, this would be in your home. Though, I’ve certainly worked with people who end up working at cafes, libraries, or even vacation homes (lucky ducks).

Pros:

Not commuting!!! Your life will be so much more stress free if you’re not dealing with traffic, parking, crazy drivers, construction detours, etc. Depending on where you live, this could add HOURS back to your day
Multi-tasking: You also get the added benefit of being around your house for things like package deliveries, a quick stop at the store, or simply to throw laundry in the washer and dryer so you don’t have yet one more thing to do at night (parents, you can probably appreciate that!)
Comfort: since you are home, you can wear comfortable clothes (or even PJs!)

While those are exciting, keep in mind….

Here are some considerations for working from home/telecommuting:

Equipment: you need to have a “set up” at home to accommodate your work needs. So, at minimum, a desk (or surface) to sit at to do your work. You will likely need internet, a phone, headset, ergonomically appropriate chair, and a printer. There are probably other items as well, but these are the basics. Your employer may or may not pay for these items, so you should consider that before you enter into a telecommuting / work from home arrangement
Importance of in-person interactions: another consideration is the degree of importance of reading body language, facial expressions and tone of voice. If you are in a heavily cross-functional team environment, then in-person input is very helpful. Yes, you can video conference. And, yes, you can still pick up tone from a phone call. That said – having video conferenced in a LOT in my career – it’s simply not as good as sitting in the room. People can look away from the camera, for example, and you’re not able to read their expression.
Self-discipline: it’s really hard not to be distracted when you’re not in the room. So, you may miss some of the conversation. Or, you may find yourself focused too much on the laundry or TV 🙂

The key thing to remember with working from home / telecommuting is that there may be an option to do this, say 2-3 days a week and then work from the office the rest of the week. That will help mitigate some of the implications in terms of in person meetings and relationships.

2. Flex Time

A flex arrangement is one in which you are still working a full week, but your work hours are outside the standard 9-5 M-F. So, for example, a common flex time arrangement is working 10 hours/day for 4 days/week. Or, you work 9am-2pm and then stop working (in order to pick kids up from school, perhaps) and then work 5pm-8pm.

There are many pros to this flexible work arrangement:

Time when you need it: you can step out of work to do what you need to do, when you need it
Productivity: working when you can and / or want to

Here are a few things to consider:

Practicality: is it practical to work outside the 9-5? If you, say, work as an administrative assistant in an office that is open 9-5, can you really work alternative hours?
Partnerships: if you need to partner with colleagues, will your work schedule overlap with theirs? Your work might suffer if you cannot reach out to the people critical to your success
Memory: will people remember your specific schedule? Or will you get calls or meetings outside your planned work time?

3. Part Time

This is an arrangement in which you work less than the standard 5-day, 40-hour week. Some scenarios like this include working M-Th during standing business hours (and Friday is a “day off”).

There are some benefits:

Me time! Enough said!

Consider these items before pursuing this flexible work arrangement:

Pay: you will most certinaly have reduced pay for reduced hours.
Benefits: you may have less benefits. For example, many employers expect you to work 25 hours/week to even qualify for benefits
Work-type: can your work really be done part-time? If, for example, a customer calls you on your day off, can you really ignore it? I’ve had a few friends who say that working part-time is just like working full-time with less pay. Eek!
Stability: in times of financial pressure, it may be easy for a company to cut part-time employees and re-allocate their work to the remaining full-time employees. When I personally was debating this option, an HR representative cautioned me against it for this reason

4. Job sharing

The flexible work arrangement allows you to split the responsibilities of 1 job into 2 people. I’ve seen arrangments where 1 person works Monday and Tuesday. The 2 employees overlap on Wednesday. And the 2^ndemployee works Thursday and Friday.

Pros:

Point person: there is a point person every day of the week, so you don’t need to worry about someone calling you on your time off
Back up: if you go on vacation or need more time off than your current schedule allows, you have a backup person

Considerations:

Partner: who your partner is will make the world of difference in this arrangement. You’d need someone with strong communication and collaborations skills
Benefits: I’ve heard that some employers only give benefits in this arrangement to 1 of the employees
Pay: your pay will certainly go down to reflect the reduction of hours

Global Comment on Flexible Work Arrangements

There is one consideration that is applicable to ALL of these flexible work arrangements: your career development. Opting to pursue one of these flexible work arrangments may give you flexibility now, but could have long term implications on your career trajectory. Practically speaking, if you always work from home and are not known personally by a broad set of leaders, your contributions may be forgotten and / or you may struggle to get new roles. Furthermore, by working flexibly you may also signal to your employer that you are not as serious about your career. As such, you many not be selected for key special projects that can propel your career.

So, to sum up, here are…