Every week, Offishall reads the press and scours the articles related to hybrid work. Here is our selection of the three most important pieces of content of the last seven days.
Every week, Offishall reads the press and scours the articles related to hybrid work. Here is our selection of the three most important pieces of content of the last seven days.
Teleworking: employees fear for their careers because of distance
This article in Capital reports on a study carried out for the social network LinkedIn, the findings of which are quite frightening. Employees fear that teleworking (and the invisibility it implies in the office) will penalise their careers: more than half of employees believe that those who are regularly seen in the workplace are more likely to be favoured by their boss. Policy games and presenteeism are still resisting the hybridisation of work, both for employees and for managers, who share the same fears, with a third of managers fearing that they will favour employees who come into the office more often than those who telework!
There are many reasons to oppose widespread telework - the psycho-social risks of isolation, the loss of informal exchanges and creativity, or the pressure to perform because of the distance and the resulting violence for employees. But the fear of the impact on careers and therefore the invisibility of teleworking employees is a worrying element in the midst of the work revolution. Employees demand flexibility and trust, these are the values that must be put at the centre of the machine (and not networking and know-how, which are notions far removed from performance and productivity).
The social network LinkedIn reacted through its communications director, Esther Ohayon: "Employees should not feel they have to choose between flexible working and promotion. It is important that companies create a work environment that meets individual needs, and is fair and inclusive for all," reads the Capital article. Telework is also a vehicle for inclusion, as the second paper that caught our attention this week shows.
Therapeutic teleworking: supporting employment with disabilities
At Bayer, pregnant women, family carers and disabled people can use so-called therapeutic telework. According to this article in Le Monde, these profiles have a special status in the telework agreements, allowing them to work remotely. A working method that suits disabled workers because it"reduces travel time and fatigue, meets the need to reconcile working time with care, enables work to be done in a calmer environment and facilitates the organisation of working time in complete autonomy", explain the employees contacted by Le Monde, who nevertheless mention the risk of isolation and lack of equipment for employees.
Lépine 2021 competition rewards coffee table that can be transformed into a teleworking station
Teleworking is a major problem, as the creation of a comfortable workstation at home can be impossible, especially in small Parisian areas. It is in this context that Omar Seck, a 37-year-old engineer, was rewarded for his invention at the Lépine competition this week: a coffee table that transforms into a workstation. Called Jobstable, this multi-functional piece of furniture "has a large screen that can be folded up, an integrated touch-sensitive keyboard, four speakers and integrated hard drives. It transforms in 30 seconds" explains the Huffington Post paper which, like many other media, has relayed this news. The table is compact, easy to use and ergonomic, and can be connected to all laptops on the market (and is not equipped with a computer, in a move towards sustainability and the fight against programmed obsolescence). The inventor had thought of it before the widespread use of remote access: "Basically, it's a piece of furniture that I invented to play video games on my sofa," explains the competition winner from Yvelines. Because the table can be adjusted to the desired height and can be used from the sofa or a higher chair. Last March (i.e. before the designer won the famous competition) the price of this object was estimated at 3 to 4,000 euros. A possible factory production could bring the price down.
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