The Downsides to Flextime
Working from home at night seems to help many jugglers. I often leave the office a bit earlier to be home in time for dinner or day care pick-up, and then log back on for an hour or so after my son heads to bed. It’s made a big difference in my juggle.
Until recently, I thought that difference was all positive. But earlier this week, after my sixth night in two weeks sitting in front of the computer for more than an hour, my husband started griping. I’d come home, spend time with our son, eat dinner and then glue myself to the desk chair as soon as I said good-night to my son. When I logged off, I headed to bed. “Us” time was out of the picture — and, so was the little bit of “me” time I sometimes spend reading or taking in some TV.
There’s also another downside to logging on at night — the psychological weight of bringing your work home with you. A 2005 study, still often-cited, published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology suggested that, leaving your work at work may help provide needed psychological recovery time. “There must be time to ‘switch off’ and then to return to work refreshed,” explains one of the study’s researchers. I know many Juggle readers have commented that they don’t have a BlackBerry and try not to check email at home for this reason.
What’s more, some people, like the man in this story about flextime friendly workplaces say they end up working more hours because they are able to leave early and finish up work from home. I’ve found this to be true for me, too. Instead of spending another hour at the office — I’ll often spend two hours logged on at home.
Of course, the upside is that I see my son nearly every night for more than just a few minutes and I feel pretty fortunate to work at a company where this arrangement is possible and where I know I’m being judged for what I do, not on face time.
Readers, do you log-on after hours to finish up work? What are some advantages and disadvantages that you’ve noticed?
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