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Management Resistance a Major Barrier for Teleworkers

workplace diversity, diversity jobs search siteA new study described as the first of its kind by Telework ExchangeSM, a public-private partnership focusing on telework in Federal government, and the Federal Managers Association (FMA) has found that management resistance is a major barrier to adoption of telework. "Face-to-Face with Management Reality - A Telework Research Report" was underwritten by TANDBERG, a leading provider of visual communication products and services, and is based on a survey of 214 Federal managers.

Key study findings include:

* "Try It and You'll Like It" - Encouraging managers to telework is crucial to getting the system implemented.The study found that greater involvement produced more favorable attitudes. Managers who are teleworkers themselves or who supervise such employees are more positive than those who do not. Of those with direct experience, 66 per cent found teleworkers as productive as those based in the office.

* "Reality Check" - Only 35 per cent of managers felt their agencies supported telework. The study found managers' perceptions of the indications for and benefits of telework were not aligned to those of their agencies, indicating the need for an education program to promote telework as a standard operating procedure. Managers tend to consider work-life balance and impact on recruitment and retention as major drivers. Agency priorities tend to be continuity of operations and pandemic planning. Managers rank anxiety about losing control over employees and productivity issues as the top disincentives to telework. The study found that managers did not consider security or funding concerns as significant inhibitors.

* "Lost in Translation?" - About one-third (32 per cent) of Federal managers rated lack of face-to-face contact as the most significant communication challenge inherent in telework. A majority (61 per cent) acknowledged misinterpreting co-workers communicating via e-mail; 43 per cent by phone.


What is teleworking?
  • Teleworking allows employees to work part of the time at other than their "official duty station.""
  • Teleworking may be on a schedule of from several days per week to as little as one day a month, or on an as-needed basis for reasons such as special projects, illness, or unavailability of your regular office.
  • You normally do telework in your home or at a special telework center.
  • You are still on official duty when you are teleworking, and are expected to be in a situation where you have the resources necessary to do your job, and are able to concentrate on that job without interruptions from other family members. You normally cannot expect to care for any other family members when you are teleworking. However, teleworking will probably free up time that you would otherwise spend commuting that you can devote to your family.


Source:
What is teleworking?
HRM Guide Telecommuting

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Extreme Jobs Limit Gender Diversity in the Workplace

I've just come across an article on "Extreme Jobs". It's a replacement term for the old-fashioned "workaholic". According to this article at BlogHer the phrase "Extreme Jobs" was coined by Sylvia Ann Hewlett, head of the Hidden Brain Drain Task Force of the Center for Work-Life Policy.


According to the Center for Work-Life Policy’s latest research, titled, "Extreme Jobs: The Dangerous Allure of the 70-Hour Workweek", to qualify as an extreme jobber, a worker must meet the following standards: first, work 60 hours a week or more, then, meet at least five of the following conditions: have work whose flow is unpredictable, work under tight deadlines, have work events outside of regular work hours, be available to clients 24/7, have P&L responsibility, have a large amount of travel, or a large number of direct reports, have a scope of responsibility that amounts to more than one job.


According to Hewlett, the pool of workers who meet the standard for extreme is growing. More than 20% of U.S. workers qualify, and 45% of professionals in global companies. Measured by sheer work hours alone, 48% say they’re working an average of 16.6 hours more per week than they did five hours ago.


The reasons for the fast-paced career environments today were listed by the Center. Among the external drivers: the current global economic environment which often requires enormous travel and the necessity of being available at odd hours for conference calls and communication with the other side of the world; competitive pressures; vastly improved communication technology; and cultural shifts. Among the internal motivators: stimulating work, high quality colleagues, high compensation, power, and status.


However, since over the years more and more women have been working in such environments, it is inevitable that the work-life balance of working women will be greatly affected. Three quarters of the women surveyed by the Center said their work interfered with their ability to maintain their homes (66% of men said the same thing), two thirds said they don’t get enough sleep; half didn’t get enough exercise, and a significant number use alcohol, drugs, or food to alleviate their stress.


The Center's research showed that among the extreme jobbers in the U.S., less than a fifth are women. While women are well represented in jobs that require high performance (fast pace with tight deadlines, 24/7 client demands, etc.), once those jobs require more than 60 hours a week, there's a huge fall off in women’s participation. Women, it seems, are more sensitive to the "opportunity costs" of long hour jobs, particularly as they relate to the well-being of their children. A majority of women (57%) said they don't want to work at this pace for more than another year; 48% of the men surveyed agreed.


This problem used to be an individual's responsibility alone. Employees who feel they can not work such "extreme" hours have the option to quit. Losing valuable employees can be a blow to the company. Thus the problem becomes a corporate matter to attend to. Companies must now provide employees alternatives to the extreme jobber lifestyle.


Other related articles on Extreme Jobs:


Hooked on Work: the Allure of Extreme Jobs


Women And The New 'Extreme' Jobs


Add This To Your Corporate Patois: Extreme Jobs


Overwork and the Rise of "Extreme Jobs"

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Bad Managers Make Misbehavin' Employees

There are things that bad managers do that can push employees including those who were usually described as "dedicated workers" to misbehave at work. Authoritarian managers most often apply Machiavellian techniques to make employees become more productive at work, but what these managers do not realize is that a manager-employee relationship built on mistrust and negativity will only result to disharmony in the workplace. As a consequence, many of those employees who have contributed valuable work and exhibited exemplary work performance tend to leave the company despite the high pay and extra benefits. Employees are humans, too, and shouldn't be treated as machines that mindlessly produce for the company's financial gains.



An article by Cyndi Maxey on the "Top Ten Things Bad Managers Do" has detailed those wrong notions employers have on treating their employees. A lot have applied those same things with arrogance and stubbornness. Bad managers have this unbreakable belief that what they are doing is right and they are so optimistic in getting results from it. Hah! Such ignorance of human beings is ridiculous in someone who is expected to manage human worker bees everyday.



So what happens when bad managers manage? This results to employees misbehaving at work! Gossiping, backstabbing, pilfering, long lunch breaks, and spending more time surfing the net than doing actual work are just some of the things employees do to retaliate against what they perceive as mistreatment from the manager. And when the going gets tough, the employee won't even think twice quitting the job. After all there is no reason to stay in such a terrible working environment.

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Serial Killers. Serial Rapists. Serial Discrimination Claimant?

An article at WorkplaceLaw.net has recently posted a news article that caught my attention. In it a man, who has been branded a "vexatious litigant", has been banned from bringing Employment Tribunal claims after initiating 40 claims in the last ten years.

His case highlights the issue of 'career applicants' – people who make false job applications with the intention of bringing a discrimination claim against the employer.

In total, Lecturer Suresh Deman has won £194,500 in compensation, at a cost of £1m to the taxpayer, in the past ten years. Most of his racial discrimination claims were made against educational institutions, five of which settled to avoid being taken to tribunal and four of which had to pay out compensation.

His usual method was to apply for a job and then bring a racial discrimination claim if he was not shortlisted; he would often apply using both his real name and a fake non-Asian name to compare the results.


The Workplace Law article also suggested actions that employers may take to prevent 'career applicants' from taking advantage of the discrimination laws for personal gain.

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