When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Economy

Out Of Office: The Stress And Serenity Of Teleworking

Working from home is more and more common in French companies as the perks need no longer to be listed. Still, some workers constantly worry about accounting for their days away from the office.

Remotely working
Remotely working
Florent Vairet

PARIS — "Honestly, it looks a bit sketchy when your automated email response says ‘absent"…". For this young manager of a major consumer goods corporation, teleworking saves commuting time but it also entails that you make yourself always available.

For Suzie, in her early thirties, who works in a Paris-based American company, the occasional days of teleworking feel strange and wonders if she is suspected — wrongly so, she insists — of wasting time on her couch, far from the sight of her manager. "When I have that feeling, I send an email. It is a small proof that I am working," she explains.

Grégoire Epitalon, associate in the firm of consultants LBMG that helps big companies to implement teleworking, has seen many wrestle with this guilt. "The joke ‘enjoy your vacation" to a colleague about to work from home the next day is sadly quite common and it says a lot…"

This understanding seems to go against the enthusiasm teleworking inspires. In 2018, in the private sector, 29% of workers did it occasionally or regularly, it was 25% in 2017, according to a survey conducted by a French polling firm IFOP for Malakoff Médéric Humanis and published in February 2019.

All the young people interviewed for this article considered teleworking as a great organizational opportunity. It allows you to preserve the balance between professional and personal life according to everyone's obligations — a medical appointment, the nanny needing to leave early, a train to catch. According to this study, 85% of teleworkers have gained "a better balance between professional and personal life," and have noticed they were less tired and more motivated. Overall, it can be a great way to increase productivity and to be able to focus on specific topics, far from the brouhaha of the office.

We see people trying to prove their commitment by being ‘over-present" online.

Still, due to French office culture, working away from one's manager does not always play out smoothly. Firstly, there is "the fear to be forgotten," explains Aurélie Leclercq-Vandelannoitte, researcher from the National Centre for Scientific Research, teacher in LEM/leseg and specialist of work and management evolutions. "People fear they will no longer stand out in the eyes of their colleagues or bosses, and by extension, they fear inequality in the way they are treated, regarding promotions, progress, recognition of their work, and so on. Hence the tendency for the teleworker, to show that ‘non-presence" in the office does not necessarily mean ‘absence"."

Some people even stage their own visibility. "We see people trying to prove their commitment by being ‘over-present" when sending emails or using instant messaging, by going online beyond working hours, very early or very late, in a logic of proof they are committing themselves to the job," Aurélie Leclercq-Vandelannoitte adds.

"Beats commuting? — Photo: Chau Cédric

On top of this fear to disappear from the radar screen, you can add a feeling of gratefulness for a granted advantage. "Teleworkers quite often feel in debt for the trust they have been given by their company or managers', the researcher thinks.

It has been observed that a significant part of the commute time that is saved in teleworking is given back to the company. Thus, if for 89% of workers, teleworking has not had an impact on their workload, 11% of teleworkers say they have noticed a rise, or even a large rise, of their workload, according to a study conducted by LMBG on 6,000 people. Six out of 10 teleworkers regret "a difficulty to draw the line between personal time" and professional time, according the French polling firm IFOP study for Malakoff Médéric Humani.

Teleworkers quite often feel in debt for the trust they have been given.

"It's certainly true when you start to telework", Grégoire Epitalon points out. "Generally speaking, after six to twelve months, teleworking enters corporate culture and this feeling fades away."

Charles, a 31-year-old manager in a French big consulting firm, says he has gotten used to some teleworking from his team. "But it is true that when my consultants work remotely, I like to see what they have done at the end of the day, with a recap email on their progress. I feel reassured."

Teleworking won't happen unless there is some cultural change regarding management. For Aurélie Dudézert, a lecturer at Paris Saclay University specialized in management, it requires a paradigm shift, a new philosophy that must incite managers to rethink the organization so that the office is not the only place where one can work from. Instead, too many companies still think in terms of "technology determinism," where digital technology will somehow naturally guide the changes.

Instead, different ways of leading teams must be invented within companies. For Aurélie Leclercq-Vandelannoitte: "teleworking makes new means of managing necessary, especially built around goals and results, and based on trust." Shall we?

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Ideas

The Unifying Power Of Art In A World Divided By Religion And Morality

Political battle lines are becoming increasingly entrenched, and opposing views are being pushed towards ever greater extremes. Language has become a battlefield. If morality pushes us apart, and religion does not help in the process, we may find a solution in our sense of humanity, writes German psychiatrist Manfred Lütz in Die Welt.

The Unifying Power Of Art In A World Divided By Religion And Morality

Eugène Delacroix - La liberté guidant le peuple (1830). Commemorates the French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution.

Manfred Lütz

-Essay-

BERLIN — In the Middle Ages, people didn’t read texts about the meaning of life. Most of them couldn’t read at all, and they saw the meaning of life in the images in their churches. Academics have recently started speaking about the “iconic turn”, the return of images, and it is true that the Instagram generation prefers to communicate visually. Could pictures offer a way for our deeply divided society to come together once again?

For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.

Both in terms of foreign and domestic policy, political views are becoming increasingly entrenched, and on both sides of the debate, opposing views are being pushed towards ever greater extremes. In the world of today, many people are cut off from any contact with those who think differently, living in echo chambers, surrounded by people who confirm their worldview. When those who disagree with their position condemn them from a moral perspective, this only serves to vitalize the group under attack.

The public pillorying that dominates social media can be a cause of great anxiety for individuals. But for those who feel they are part of a community, their fear often transforms into an aggressive form of self-defense. The topic itself isn’t as important as the sense of being attacked.

That is a possible psychological explanation for a strange phenomenon, whereby attacks on groups such as the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and some of their individual members have strengthened the sense of community within these groups and brought together a surprising mix of people, from radical free marketeers to nationalists, conspiracy theorists, pro-lifers, COVID deniers, right-wing extremists, conservative Christians and racists.

They are united by a single experience, that of being excluded. Conversations within these groups are reminiscent of chats around a pub table: the more harshly someone criticizes “those in power”, “the lefties”, “right-wingers” or even, “the others”, the more likes they get.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest