The Recession is Holding Back Flexible Working

It is not new news to say that the recession is here, and people are doing everything to keep their jobs. This includes coming into work while they are sick which as we know could be more detrimental than positive. It seems that approximately 41 per cent of office based employees feel that they are pressured to be at their office desks in the office due to the current economic climate and a further 27 per cent feel that their performance is directly measured by the amount of time that they spend on their office chair at their office desk.

There seem to be two different views on flexible working and this can be seen in the two types of companies that are present in the business world. Developing companies seem to be applying the flexible working ethos into their business plans; however the more established companies seem to be quite cautious about the idea of flexible working. For examples in countries such as India, more than half of workers work from their office desks at home. The trend in countries in Europe and other parts of the Western world is a lot less enthusiastic, as they prefer their employees to work at their office desks in their office chairs at work.

So is this trend affected by the recession? It seems that there is a lot more pressure for employees to stay visible to their boss. Introducing flexible working hours to already established businesses is hard as it is more of a culture change for employers. This is made harder by the fact that the true nature of the flexible working system is not fully known. Also companies find it hard to make the move to a more trust based form of working. So even though there are more and more people investing in home office furniture, established companies are still finding that the old ways are better.