Smart working cross and delight. If there hadn’t been a pandemic, we wouldn’t be here talking about it so often. yet the controversial period we are experiencing has had the consequence of accelerating the digitization of work, but not only. The fact that millions of people across Europe were suddenly forced to work remotely has revolutionized and disrupted the way we work. In July, 48% of respondents to a survey conducted by the European agency Eurofound stated that they work wholly or partially from home.
In Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Denmark, Portugal, Ireland, Cyprus and Italy, more than half of the workforce was smart working.
Advantages, but above all disadvantages
We have absorbed the advantages of smart working: greater flexibility, less time for commuting and more space to enjoy home, family and hobbies. But apparently not everyone has experienced the benefits. It is in fact on the disadvantages that we still have to take measures, primarily that of working more than before. It is not just about the fatigue of meetings with Zoom, Team, Meet and all the platforms available for online conferences, but also about the greater hours of work we spend at home, working in smart working.
We work harder, Harvard says so too
A recent study promoted by the famous University, which analyzed the e-mails and meetings of 3.1 million people in 16 cities around the world, found that remote personnel work an average of 48.5 minutes in more per day than those in the office; not only that, but employees working from home in the UK, Austria, Canada and the US can spend up to two hours more on the computer a day than when they were in the office.
Research data suggests remote staff are twice as likely as office workers to exceed 48 hours per week in the EU. Nearly a third of the remote military work in their free time multiple times a week, compared to less than 5% of the office workers.
That violated work-life balance
On the Guardian Professor Anna Cox, an expert in computer science and work-life balance at University College London, warns about the deterioration of the work-life balance, which is mainly due to the pressure and insecurity created by use of business monitoring software. “They feel like there’s an expectation of always being available. It has such an impact on workers, especially those who are not high-ranking managers. ‘ Fortunately, these software are not very popular with us, the problem of availability remains: sending an email after working hours is not a good idea, but unfortunately it is the norm in many work environments.
The charge of the EU and the shouting reformists: less work in smart working
Although the EU Working Time Directive, introduced in 2003, establishes minimum daily and weekly rest periods, and work-life balance is one of the 20 principles enshrined in the European Pillar of Social Rights, there is no such thing as right under EU law for those who work digitally to switch off outside working hours. In concrete terms, things are destined to change. Last month, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution calling on the European Commission to propose a law allowing digital workers to log out outside working hours. We’ll see.
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