Remote working: Employers should work with staff but they cannot solve traffic jams
Commuters say they’re stuck in tailbacks far longer on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays as more people travel to their workplaces midweek. Picture: iStock
As the return to work gets underway in earnest this week and the roads fill with commuters and schoolgoers, traffic snarls will be front and centre. They're especially prevalent at this dark, icy time of year.
I often hear the argument that employers should let staff work from home on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
Weary and stressed commuters complain that they’re stuck in tailbacks far longer on these days. This is attributed to the fact that more people travel to their workplaces midweek, whereas working from home tends to be more popular on Mondays and Fridays.
Anyone who is facing a commute will understand how negatively these frustrating journeys can impact on quality of life and how much people wish they had more hours back in their day, not spent in a car.
I utterly empathise with people stuck in daily commutes and there is no doubt that solutions are needed. As one way to counter this, we hear calls at national level and in the media for employers to let people work from home.
However, as a HR consultant who regularly speaks to employers throughout the country, I find placing the onus on business leaders trying to navigate a modern working landscape unhelpful.
It is not an employer's responsibility to solve traffic congestion. It is the collective responsibility of the government and local authorities, the National Transport Authority, and Transport Infrastructure Ireland. That is part of the reason why we, as employers and employees, pay taxes and tolls.
There are many fundamental societal issues contributing to traffic problems: A lack of adequate housing, limited public transport options for students and schoolgoers, a lack of driver education affecting behavior, and even our bad weather can all fall into this category.
Workplace set-ups are not a core part of this problem — to think otherwise is to conflate two separate issues and to place unfair responsibilities on the shoulders of business owners and employers.
There is of course a place for discourse around flexible working. But this is a matter for employers and employees and is far too nuanced and personalised to be shoehorned into debates around traffic and commuting.
Since March 2024, a code of practice is in place in Ireland, giving all employees the right to request remote working. The legislation does not provide a direct right to work remotely. It provides a right to request remote working and sets out requirements including how a request must be made, considerations both the employer and employee must take into account, timelines and referrals to the Workplace Relations Commission.
This legislation was three years too late. A combination of covid lockdowns, an abundance of employment, and a shift in attitude, particularly among the younger generation, has seen good employers identify the need to work with staff towards creating optimum environments.
The results of these positive engagements are seen in terms of productivity, staff retention, and general employee wellbeing.
Adversely, employers who don’t operate flexible work practices and fail to look after their staff, will quickly face the consequences when people go to jobs that suit them better.
These arrangements need to be viewed on a company-by-company basis, and frequent dialogue suggesting a broad stroke tactic, and cries of ‘let people work from home Tuesday to Thursday’ are not a solution.
In the five years since the country first locked down due to the pandemic, the debate and commentary around the make-up of work has unfortunately not progressed.
Denis O’Brien recently made headlines when he lashed out at remote working and the negative effect he believed it is having, particularly on young people.
While Mr O’Brien’s comments were generalised, I agree in part with what he said. The reports indicating a lack of innovation, connection and productivity when it comes to remote working, needs to be called out and listened to.
The impacts on mental health from isolation through remote working are proven. Much research exists to show it also creates a further problem with switching off, hence poor productivity in an ‘always on’ culture.
However, I also disagree with much of what Mr O’Brien had to say.
He fails to mention the lack of affordable childcare or availability of childcare in this country. He fails to mention the motherhood penalty, which continues to deliver a workforce that not only wants remote, hybrid, and flexible working conditions, but needs these conditions, to raise their children and protect their mental health.
While they come rather late in this discussion, he should be commended for giving a voice in the media to the employer, a voice that is often lost or at the very least not heard enough.
If there were more such employers in the discussion, perhaps we wouldn't be hearing so many suggestions of working from home as a panacea to traffic problems.
There is no quick-fix solution to the gridlock our nation is facing, and business owners don’t have a magic bullet either.
As an island nation relying on foreign direct investment, a lot of the current commentary about flexible and remote working makes us look like we are light-years behind some of our competitors.
We need to move the discussion to a place of objectivity, with a reasonable and fair acceptance that it's up to organisations to organise their people.
We live in a more flexible, complex, and individualised era of working and it is the organisation or employer's responsibility to manage that — the traffic is up to the government.
- Damien McCarthy is MD and founder of HR Buddy
Read More
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
