Participants in all groups talked about communicating with homeworkers, with telephone and e-mail most popular for formal communications. For informal messages and exchanging office gossip, Lync (Microsoft instant messaging tool), was the preferred method. Participants in all groups used conference calls with positive and negative views balanced. When asked about the ease of contacting homeworkers, half of all participants across all groups experienced problems, mainly due to calls not diverted to home numbers, causing frustration and delaying work. In contrast, homeworkers felt expected to be instantly available for colleagues causing them to dash to answer calls. Making clear homeworkers have periods of non-availability in common with office-based colleagues was highlighted as important.
4.5.1 Methods of Communication
Telephone and e-mail were the most used communication methods, with four participants, homeworkers and non-homeworkers, mentioning sequencing. E-mailing first followed by a call, the e-mail giving notice that a discussion was required. In terms of the type of communication, personal, informal or formal, there was no preferred method. However, the telephone was favoured for complex messages as being “more direct, you have greater interaction, it’s not perfect but you have greater interaction and it allows you to say things much more quickly” (NHW5). Telephone was also preferred for exchanging views, “if it’s
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something that’s work stuff that we need to chat through then I’ll go into a room and ring whoever it is” (NHW8).
A third of participants mentioned conference calls. Not being able to observe people was a drawback:
“you miss the body language and people can end up sounding a bit random I think because you’re not really reading the meeting when you’re the person on the end of the phone” (MGR1).
For large meetings, poor tele-conferencing technology was a problem, unless colleagues spoke directly into the microphone the conversation was inaudible. However, one manager’s team were very skilled at participating in dial-in meetings and could dominate the meeting despite being on the telephone:
“we are so good at it now that actually when we are on the end of the phone me and my team can dominate a meeting where everybody else is physically sitting in a room because they can’t cope with the interaction and understanding we have when my team get involved” (MGR4).
A fifth of all participants mentioned Lync as useful for personal messages because no information was retained so you could “share views on work issues without risking a record being kept” (HW4), an advantage when working on sensitive issues. It also helped make homeworking colleagues feel part of the team:
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“I talk to team members in that way……you know, ‘it’s all kicked of here because so and so happened’, or ‘you might want to know whatever’, it makes them feel part of the team” (NHW2).
4.5.2 Availability of Employees
When asked about ease of contacting homeworkers, of all interviewees only four were reluctant to contact homeworkers, one commented, “if someone says they’re working from home I think twice before I give them a call or I might be more likely to drop them an e-mail” (HW6). One manager described a senior colleague who made his reluctance obvious, “he frequently makes a big issue about not being able to speak to people because they’re working from home” (MGR4).
Half of all participants experienced problems contacting homeworkers mainly due to calls not diverted to home or slow or no response to e-mails and calls, slow being described as over thirty minutes. In contrast, a quarter of homeworkers felt expected to always be immediately available despite that not being applicable in the office. One manager received feedback on the lack of availability of homeworkers in his team:
“I’ve given encouragement to say make sure you respond to e-mails quickly, make sure you get back to people on the phone, make sure you are seen to be busy because we have to work with a range of people and I’ve had some feedback” (MGR3).
A non-homeworker described the different expectations of office-workers and homeworkers in terms of availability:
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“when people are working in the office they may not be at their desk and they’re at a meeting or whatever else it is they’re doing. So, the fact you can’t immediately pick up the telephone to someone, a colleague working from home is really neither here nor there because you might go to the desk and the desk is bare” (NHW5).
The importance of maintaining accurate calendars was mentioned by almost all participants, particularly the inclusion of one’s location and, as homeworkers may be out doing the school run or providing care for elderly relatives, periods of non-availability.
Having examined participants’ knowledge of the homeworking policy and its implementation, the next section identifies factors influencing the decision to work from home or not despite the policy expectation.