The New Office On The Go: How We Went From The 9-to-5 To The 24/7
Back in the early ‘90s, only a choice few could afford the convenience of a mobile office.
How rare was it to have an office in the car? Well, rare enough that we devoted an entire March 1990 article, The Ultimate Office on Wheels, to exploring how top executives were using new devices like cell phones, car faxes and mobile computers to take their work on the road. The C-suite and top-level managers found independence from the office increased their productivity. As sales manager Cincy Brown told us at the time, “I’ve cut down my need to be in the office by 50%.” Advancements in technology meant she got a lot more done, completing administrative tasks in the car while still out closing sales.
Of course, 30 years and a pandemic later, the mass availability and relatively low prices of the no-longer-new tech have allowed some companies’ entire staffs to take their work wherever they go. By most metrics, this flexibility has increased productivity across the board. It might also, however, have come at a significant cost.
The cost of 24/7 availability
Remote work offers plenty of benefits, including less time commuting and more flexibility. But having our kitchens, dining rooms and couches become our office spaces can also take its toll.
“We’re working more each day — around three hours on average,” says Jennifer Moss, author of The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix It. She says she believes that, instead of reclaiming the time we once spent commuting, “we developed this toxic productivity where we felt like every single moment that we have free we should be working.”
Studies largely confirm that remote workers are working longer and feeling more overwhelmed — when compared to their on-site counterparts, stay-at-home employees are logging in more hours and reporting symptoms of burnout in higher numbers.
A survey conducted in late 2020 by staffing firm Robert Half showed that 70% of professionals who shifted to remote work due to the pandemic were also working on weekends.
While the pandemic certainly increased stressors, workplace wellness experts like Moss believe that the blurry lines between work and life have been detrimental to many employees’ mental health. The much-publicized “quiet quitting” phenomenon — used to describe a growing trend where employees do just what their job requires and nothing more — is often seen as a backlash to 24/7 work demands.
read the original article at the link below.