Illustration by Mollie Cronin
The clock ticks at a whole other rhythm on days when I work from home. Between tasks, when at the office I might be chatting with colleagues or going for a short coffee break, I can accomplish all kinds of things that would otherwise be pressed into the morning and squeezed into the evening: taking the dog out, tidying the house a bit, prepping dinner.
When evening comes, and I have completed so many tasks that would be impossible to do from a cubicle or on a crowded streetcar, I can play games with my son and daughter and be with them completely, fully engaged.
In other words, I can organize my day – even if it sometimes includes working later in the evening – to do the things I need and want to do. And it certainly seems as if I’m not alone on this score.
Talk to most people who are fortunate enough to work from home and two things are clear: They really, really enjoy it, and they’re worried the privilege will be yanked away by employers who want them visible at all times. But the reason those employees see remote work as such a benefit may surprise a lot of those bosses. It’s not about slacking off, it’s about autonomy.
Brigid Schulte, author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time, calls it “schedule control.”
“People really want more of a say over when and where and how they do their work, which then enables them to live their lives,” she says.
When you are able to organize your day so that you can go to a doctor’s appointment or pick your children up from school without feeling hurried or guilty, you are enjoying schedule control.
When you can take your dog for a walk after lunch and still tick off every item on your professional to-do list, you are enjoying schedule control.
When you are stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on your way to work against your will and cursing the human race, you are most certainly not partaking in schedule control.
You don’t need an expensive office chair to avoid work-from-home pain, just some ergonomic smarts
According to Statistics Canada, in 2022 the proportion of people with hybrid working arrangements rose to 9.6 per cent from 3.6 per cent. And while much of the discussion around work from home lately has focused on tracking the number of days in office, David King, senior managing director at Robert Half, says, “the bigger opportunity here is the feeling of having more control, and having the ability to schedule out your time so that you can achieve both your professional and personal obligations.”
Sarah Durelle, a 23-year-old research assistant at the University of New Brunswick, has been able to work remotely one or two days a week since the pandemic. Going into the office is ideal for collaborating on projects that require teamwork, while working from home is perfect for focusing on her own tasks and bringing flexibility to her schedule.
“I can kind of take my time in the morning, go for a walk in the afternoon if it’s nice out and then work later into the evening,” she says.
It also allows her to see friends in health care who are shift workers.
“I can go hang out with them on an afternoon on their day off.”
Unfortunately for many remote employees, more and more businesses are revisiting their work-from-home policies. A survey released in August by Robert Half found that 38 per cent of hiring managers in Canada saw everyone working in the office full-time as the ideal situation. Productivity, effective collaboration and equal opportunity for professional growth and social interaction have been cited as the biggest challenges in managing hybrid teams. In a March letter to employees, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg wrote: “Our hypothesis is that it is still easier to build trust in person and that those relationships help us work more effectively.”
But with 43 per cent of workers reporting high levels of daily stress in Gallup’s 2023 State of the Global Workplace report, it’s no surprise that relaxation and recovery have also become hot topics in human-resources departments. And while HR directors may not want to hear it, schedule control helps reduce anxiety and exhaustion.
The prevalence of career fatigue – a study conducted in December, 2021, by Mental Health Research Canada found 35 per cent of all working Canadians felt burnt out – isn’t so much a matter of lack of time but of who gets to say how and when we spend it, says Jenny Odell, author of Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock.
“When people say ‘I don’t have enough time,’ what they really mean is ‘I don’t have control over my time,’ ” she said in an interview.
One reason I’m now able to do laundry while the sun is still shining is because of the time saved from not having to commute. It’s an imposition many people who work remotely are glad to be free of – and no wonder.
According to the latest data from Statistics Canada, Canadians who drive spend an average of 22.8 minutes (each way) travelling to work. For those who use public transit, the average is 42.9 minutes. That means someone (such as myself) who doesn’t own a car is saving nearly an hour and a half every day.
They are also being spared the other burdens of commuting. As Statscan points out, studies show that longer commutes are associated with higher stress and poorer mental and physical-health outcomes, such as obesity and cardiovascular disease.
One person I spoke with, who works in the insurance industry, now starts his day at a park not far from his home in Toronto, where he plays with his dog and watches herons, instead of driving to the office. It’s an hour or so of Zen that calibrates his day toward serenity and focus. He’s at his desk at home by 8:15, blissed out and ready to go, feeling more productive than ever. (He was adamant that his name not be used for fear that he’d lose his ability to work from home if he talked publicly about it.)
Schedule control contributes to mental and physical well-being in another important way: By enabling a person to cross off the tasks they need to accomplish throughout the day – maybe not all of them, but a lot of them – it opens up the space for true leisure once work is finished.
What’s true leisure? For Aristotle, any activity undertaken for practical ends doesn’t count as leisure, Odell notes in her book.
Think of when you are doing laundry or cleaning the house or getting dinner ready for the kids. Sure, you’re not working – but it sure doesn’t feel like leisure time, right?
Also, sometimes what seems like leisure, such as going for a bike ride, is poisoned by outside influences and turned into what researchers call “contaminated time,” Schulte says. This happens when a person is so preoccupied with thinking about work and chores and all the other things on their to-do list that they can’t enjoy the activity.
It’s no wonder that hybrid work is ideal for many people searching for a clearer separation. According to the most recent Canada Social Survey, conducted by Statistics Canada and released in August, 78 per cent of people ages 15 to 64 who reported having a favourable work-life balance said they had a high level of contentment with their available free time.
Of course, few things get us thinking about free time more than a long weekend.
So with the pleasures of Labour Day approaching amid talk of remote work being revoked – or at least reduced – let’s remember that we shouldn’t be championing freedom from the clock, but control over it.
Dave McGinn