By Scott Schieman| Ryu Won Kang
Sept. 14, 2020
A debate rages about what the work-home interface will (or should) look like in a post-pandemic world.
Will employers allow their workers to work from home more regularly when life gets back to “normal?” And, if so, what’s the sweet spot for working from home? Two days? Four?
While surveys show that 44 per cent of workers would prefer to work from home at least some of the time, employers need sustained convincing that the upsides of working from home outweigh the downsides.
Common narratives about the upsides identify a range of benefits including increased productivity, improved quality of work, and elevated satisfaction. As for the downsides, one of the greatest perceived threats is distraction.
A distraction can be anything that prevents someone from giving their full attention to something else. These days, undivided focus is more of a theoretical construct than a practical reality. Its importance is everywhere, within and outside work. A divided attention could beget trivial consequences from, say, scrolling through Instagram during a Zoom call, or fatal ones from texting while driving, for example.
As professional golfer Tom Kite observed, “You can always find a distraction if you’re looking for one.” Even when you aren’t looking, distractions inevitably pop up — they always have in the workplace. Chatty co-workers, the call from daycare. But employers feel more control over distractions when workers are physically at the office. You never know when the boss might catch you watching those puppy videos.
Employers understand the perils of distraction and its consequences. This is why one downside of working from home looms large: It presents opportunities for work-family multi-tasking. Employers know it as they too sometimes work from home, have competing work and family responsibilities, and engage in work- and family-related tasks while at home.
In a national survey we conducted in June with Angus Reid Global, we asked more than 3,000 working Canadians: ‘Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, how often have you worked from home?’ Among those who reported “never,” 16 per cent replied they multitasked almost daily. However, among those who have consistently worked from home during the pandemic, that jumped to 67 per cent — and rose another 10 points among those with young children.
But is multi-tasking a problem? While some insist they can multi-task effectively, cognitive science research isn’t favourable to their case.
In our survey, frequent work-family multitaskers report more distress, anger, and guilt — but only when they experienced excessive time- and demand-related pressures at their jobs. Being required to multi-task just to keep up is what makes it more problematic for emotional well-being.
Working from home is not feasible for all jobs. But our survey found that even among those who never work from home, 20 per cent reported multi-tasking at least several times a week — mostly to manage excessive job demands.
Our survey also found that frequent multitaskers are more likely than non-multitaskers to say that work prevents them from concentrating on important things in their family; and work undercuts their performance of nonwork roles. This inter-role conflict occurs in the reverse direction too — from family to work — with excessive job pressures amplifying the strain.
Why should employers care? Overload. When work piles up, not only does multi-tasking increase, so does its fallout for well-being and role functioning our survey found. Management theories about optimal role functioning emphasize that people should keep multiple roles separate. Multi-taskingation.
This unease about the distracted worker — one not present at the office — has inspired the proliferation of home-based surveillance tools. But such measures have countervailing effects by conveying distrust of employees that offset the morale boost from flexible arrangements. Ultimately, these dynamics lead to less productive and committed workers.
Speaking of productivity, interrupted workflow doesn’t just happen at home. The National Survey of the Changing Workforce found that four in 10 were frequently interrupted during the workday, making it difficult to get work done. While interruptions undoubtedly emerge from outside work (e.g., 14 per cent said family or personal life frequently kept them from concentrating on their job), the bulk come from supervisors, coworkers, customers, or clients.
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“Multi-tasking arises out of distraction itself,” according to Marilyn vos Savant, a magazine columnist and the highest IQ holder in the Guinness Book of Records.
The fear of the homebound distracted multitasker might be one reason some employers only grudgingly contemplate the sweet spot for work-from-home arrangements. It might also be why such arrangements ultimately might not endure when things get back to normal.
Scott Schieman, a Professor of Sociology and Canada Research Chair at the University of Toronto, is director of the Canadian Quality of Work and Economic Life Study during the COVID-19 pandemic.Ryu Won Kang is an undergraduate student studying biochemistry and immunology, and currently serves as editor-in-chief of the North American Model United Nations and the University of Toronto International Health Program publications.
