Piece by piece, the wall that traditionally separated our work and home lives is crumbling away.
In April 2018, a TotalJobs survey of more than 6,700 UK workers found that the majority (58%) work at home outside business hours – each devoting, on average, seven hours and 49 minutes per week to job-related tasks. That’s equivalent to almost 51 extra working days per year.
In a statement, TotalJobs pointed out that today’s workers are adapting to this always-on culture by “rebalancing” their personal and professional lives and “increasingly embracing a blur” between them – to the extent that only a quarter (23%) believe that it’s important to set hard boundaries between their homes and workplaces.
Significantly, just 8% of the survey sample said that their employers encouraged them to do so.
Such is the reality we now face given the rise of more agile work styles, whereby organisations ensure that their staff are more available and accessible to clients.
Digital presenteeism is often hidden in plain sight, because it just becomes the norm
The prevalence of personal technology also helps to ratchet up the pressure to turn around responses in record time.
Indeed, as a contingency against those forces, some senior – and, crucially, affluent – high achievers have taken to utilising personal assistants to take care of what we could call their ‘digital laundry’ in the interests of focusing on strategic issues and core relationships.
For those with the appropriate resources, this has been a lifeline to help them manage a set of often disparate calls on their attention.
While that’s all well and good for those who can bankroll such solutions, the rest of us are left to surf as best we can a trend of digital encroachment that is unlikely to reverse any time soon.
That trend has opened up a new field of extremes to navigate – one of which is digital presenteeism.
Laura Willis, co-founder of Shine Offline, which advises organisations on how to guard against digital overwhelm, frames the problem in this way: “In today’s working world, the majority of businesses are moving towards a flexible approach where their staff have a level of autonomy over their schedule and where they choose to work. This is helpful to many employees who are working to blend their personal and professional responsibilities.
“However, the flip side – which we’ve found in the work we’ve done with businesses of all shapes and sizes – is a level of guilt. Because staff aren’t always physically present, they feel a need to be ‘digitally present’, or available via email and phone at all times. This impairs performance, wellbeing and work-life balance, as well as their personal relationships.”
One business owner who has witnessed first-hand the rise of digital presenteeism is Arun Chauhan, founder of UK-based Tenet Compliance & Litigation, which advises clients on regulatory and prevention issues in relation to financial crime, as well as carrying out fraud investigations.
In comments that chime with Willis’s, he explains that Tenet’s business model soon spawned all the recognisable symptoms. Previously a partner at a large, national law firm that was gradually moving towards a more agile approach, Chauhan set up Tenet in 2016 with a fully agile approach to delivering work for clients.
Chauhan explains that the first solicitor to join Tenet worked remotely from day one. “That set the trend for recruitment and growth – a true choice for our team about where and when they prefer to work.
“But that led to a difficult challenge: to show me that they were ever-present, staff emailed me at all hours and responded rapidly to my own communications, if only to say ‘message received’. That in turn put pressure on me, which increased with the volume of emails.”
Thriving Workplaces is a wellbeing consultancy established by a UK local government authority. Its workplace health manager, Mark Burns, tells The Treasurer that spotting digital presenteeism in staff is, by its very nature, problematic, so it requires a package of measures.
“I always advise that staff should have regular check-ins with managers and opportunities to discuss wellbeing as a matter of course,” he says.
“Digital presenteeism is often hidden in plain sight, because it just becomes the norm and therefore becomes invisible. But any time you get emails, texts or other types of messages from any of your staff – either at very unusual times, or regularly out of normal working hours – you should make a mental note and then ask them about it, preferably in a relaxed, supportive way.”
Burns stresses the vital importance of listening to staff. “Understand their situations, because the clumsy banning of unhealthy behaviours could lead to further anxiety.
“However, as a general rule, they should be discouraged – so broaching the subject may be an ‘in’ to helping staff cope or become more resilient by addressing the root causes of their presenteeism.”
Just as Burns strikes a cautionary note over banning certain activities, Chauhan is wary of using company policies as instruments to keep staff from burning out.
“I think policies are a red herring,” he says. “Policies tell people what to do and what not to do. But presenteeism is a cultural issue. It’s about creating a culture to show what is acceptable and unacceptable, and leaders should encourage respect for those boundaries.”
However, he notes: “If we were to translate what culturally accepted conduct looks like into a hypothetical policy, it would encourage people to use the ‘delay send’ mechanism when sending emails, if employees want to work late.
“It would explain why not allowing time for people to breathe away from their emails and instant messages can cause health concerns. It would highlight, briefly, any medical research about addiction to devices.
“Finally, I would want a policy to make it clear that in an age of digital communication, as opposed to calls and meetings, we have to respect the fact that we have no idea what is happening in the day, week or life of the person receiving our emails at the point we send them. We have to be a little more courteous in how we email and the words we use.”
As a means of containing work-related digital excesses, Willis recommends mindfulness as an “invaluable” pressure valve.
“By exercising our attention muscle,” she notes, “we can increase our ability to focus and be present. The mindful ‘pause’ helps to introduce a level of consciousness to what is often reactive, habitual digital behaviour.
“Practising mindfulness increases self-compassion, which is invaluable in a world that’s designed to hook us into technologies that most people have a complicated relationship with.”
So what of those specialist services that high achievers are increasingly using to offload bits of digital drudgery? Willis is generally sceptical of how they encourage elite professionals to make their self-care responsibilities someone else’s problem.
“While outsourcing life admin to others may help to reduce the amount of digital clutter someone is dealing with,” she says, “I am sure that the individuals who farm out these tasks still use social media, newsfeeds, WhatsApp and email in their personal lives and Slack, email, Facebook Workplace and Skype for Business professionally.”
As such, she adds: “Everyone needs to be aware of the potentially negative impacts that digital distraction and overload can have on their home and work life, and put appropriate boundaries in place to ensure that their digital resources enhance their lives rather than overwhelm them.”
Matt Packer is a freelance business, finance and leadership journalist
This article was taken from The Treasurer magazine. For more great insights, log in to view the full issue or sign up for eAffiliate membership