Home office or business: pandemic divides workers into two classes

display

Millions of Germans switched to the home office during the pandemic, and the debate quickly revolved around new aspects of their everyday life: the right equipment at home, tax advantages, uncooperative employers, the difficult separation of work and private life. But one thing was often lost: namely that around half of Germans have jobs that are not at all suitable for working at home. They had to work on site all the time. Less was talked about. What does it do with the individual employees - and the staff structure in the companies?

The situation among Germany's employees is tense.

This is now confirmed by a representative study by the Bertelsmann Foundation and the opinion research institute Ipsos, which WELT has received in advance.

Around 1,100 employees were asked how they perceive their work situation and the cohesion in the company.

The result: those who worked on-site were significantly more dissatisfied than those who could work from home.

Job portal

JOBS.WELT.DE

Find your dream job now!

View job offers

The discrepancy is striking, it says in the paper.

While 31 percent of on-site workers said their well-being had deteriorated since the outbreak of the Corona crisis, only 21 percent said this among home workers.

Similar differences can also be found in terms of motivation, work-life balance and productivity.

“In the crisis, there were significantly fewer opportunities for employees on site to improve,” the researchers write.

They see “potential for an increasing division of the workforce”.

Division can have drastic consequences

display

That is not the only line of conflict. Other groups of employees are also apparently finding it harder to cope with the current situation than the rest. According to the data, this is particularly true for young employees and women. This is an alarm signal for companies. You have more to worry about than providing laptops and video conferencing systems. Because a split in the workforce can have drastic consequences.

A simple mechanism can work here: employees feel that they have been treated unfairly over a long period of time and look for someone to blame.

"You may make the employer or certain managers the scapegoat," says Thomas Rigotti, industrial psychologist at the University of Mainz.

Their aim is to restore a balance: they are treated badly, so there should also be disadvantages for the other side.

“In response, employees then reduce their performance or their loyalty to the company diminishes.

In extreme cases, they sabotage the workflow, ”says Rigotti.

This has economic consequences for companies: their success is impaired and they may have to look for new employees.

display

Of course, these patterns do not occur everywhere where employees have to work on site or feel that they are being treated badly in the home office.

After all, in many professions it is clear from the outset that the work cannot be done from within the home - for example in many industrial jobs.

"As long as everyone in an employee group is equally affected, the feeling of fairness is not so badly affected," says Rigotti.

It is different if different rules apply to a similar job description, the employer's commitment to a group clearly predominates, or employees feel constantly disregarded.

Bosses should show solidarity

From the point of view of experts, countermeasures are indispensable. “HR professionals and executives urgently need to grapple with the fact that the culture in companies is changing,” says Jörg Habich, an expert on leadership and corporate culture at the Bertelsmann Foundation. In most cases, the upheavals are permanent, since home office will be retained to a certain extent even after the pandemic. "The first step must be to signal to employees that you are aware of their problems and are ready to talk about them."

If superiors make it clear why on-site work is essential, they could create understanding among employees.

At best, companies can create other benefits for disadvantaged groups.

“Those who work on site must also be given scope for design,” says Anja Piel, member of the board of the German Trade Union Federation (DGB).

Employees, for example, need to be able to work time independently of their place of work.

display

Implementing this everywhere is of course difficult. Bertelsmann expert Habich is certain, however, that many employees would be happier if their work was expressly valued. It could also be helpful if the superiors show solidarity with their employees. In the auto industry, for example, some CEOs used this as an argument to come to the office every day during the crisis.

At the same time, it is important to promote new forms of social exchange, says Habich.

Because in the survey every second person stated that social contacts are currently more difficult to maintain.

41 percent said contact with other teams was more difficult.

"Communication is not only becoming more difficult for those who are alone at home instead of in the office," says Habich.

“Those on site are also affected when some of the colleagues are no longer available.” This is particularly problematic for young professionals who have not been able to develop a personal relationship with their colleagues before.

In this group, only half experience the home office as positive.

No informal exchange between colleagues

This is precisely where companies are in demand: "Many companies still neglect the problem that the chance encounters in the hallway or at lunch no longer exist," says Habich.

You would have to ensure that informal exchange is also possible in other ways.

These can be new digital formats.

But it is also helpful to make time for non-work-related discussions at existing meetings.

The HR departments also have to rethink.

"Many personnel policy instruments are still geared towards an analog working environment," says the study.

This applies, for example, to the performance appraisal of employees and their career opportunities.

Concepts would have to be developed “so that an 'attendance and loyalty bonus' does not develop for the local workforce”.

Everything about the home office

But politics can also ensure that the disadvantage does not get out of hand. Ver.di boss Frank Werneke, for example, had issued a warning in autumn when the right to work from home was being discussed. The federal government should make sure that there is no skewed picture - that means that efforts are made not only for the group of those who can work at home, but also for the rest.

"There is little understanding among many employees if something about home office is regulated in the remaining time of the legislative period, but not on time limits," said Werneke at the time. According to him, the limitation of fixed-term fixed-term contracts would help many people who cannot work from home. In fact, Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) recently presented a corresponding draft law. So shortly before the next federal election, it seemed to some like a mere campaign maneuver.