Evaluate the scope of teleworking

Teleworking entered our lives with the pandemic, for a significant part of us; it remained there, for many people. We are now starting to better understand its implications – and perhaps even on personal finances. Reflection, in three stages.

The (more or less) subtle charge

“When you work from home, you don’t take a step back. You can see the stain on the carpet. So we’re going to clean it up, in between. But if you are at the office, you will not see it…”, illustrates sociologist Francine Descarries, of the Institute for Research and Feminist Studies (IREF).

Everyone accommodated the work of the house in their own way, according to their own rules.

Some have established very strict limits between working from home and the personal and family life that also happens there, others will easily recognize themselves in the example given by Francine Descarries: it is so easy to put the muffins in the oven and take out the trash between two meetings Teams.

“Teleworking is extraordinary because it allows us to accommodate,” continues Francine Descarries, professor emeritus at UQAM. But I think we end up getting away with more work rather than less. »

According to her, this extra burden may be subtle, but all these little things add up. By the end of the week, they will be considerable. And maybe more for women.

The sociologist notes that, in this case too, there is a disparity: women are more likely to choose to work from home than men, which is confirmed by statistical data. It is necessary to assess the impact on income, if any, as well as on family responsibilities. The same goes for four-day weeks, emphasizes Francine Descarries.

A recent study by the Chamber of Financial Security focuses on women’s savings, but also recalls the inequity that persists between the sharing of domestic and educational tasks.

Read Marie-Eve Fournier’s column “Mothers don’t have time to save”

Teleworking creates a “metawork” situation, indicates Claire Estagnasié, who is doing her doctorate in communications at UQAM on “remote work from everywhere”.

First there is “the intertwining of professional and personal life”, specifies the researcher. “And that can create confusion and a blurring of boundaries. »

She specifies: many people see this possibility of doing tasks that have nothing to do with work during working hours, between two mandates, as a clear advantage.

But this also causes a metaorganization, where planning for things to do for work and those for personal life intertwine.

All this maelstrom caused by the pandemic and the review of the way we work has had an unsuspected benefit: “We discovered what the mental load was! », Launches Lise Courteau, president of AFEAS, the Feminist Action for Education and Social Action, one of whose main concerns for a very long time has been invisible work.

According to Lise Courteau, teleworking can contribute to an imbalance, in the sense that the person who stays at home can do more. In this case, she says, you have to be lucid and recognize it.

More women than men

The addition of household chores does not reduce productivity or efficiency in employment: they are done in excess, notes Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay, professor in the economics and management department at TELUQ who is interested in questions of sociology of work.

Concretely, they will replace the time spent chatting with a colleague or the time where we go out for a walk between two files. In a study co-signed by Professor Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay in 2006, we noted that one in ten workers cite increased productivity as the primary advantage for teleworking.

Although we have been interested in teleworking for a long time, we are only just beginning to analyze the phenomenon which has grown following the pandemic. According to the Quebec Statistics Institute, in 2022, 40% of female workers teleworked compared to 34% of men.

Qualitative surveys also tend to support this trend, specifies Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay, whose work makes it possible to clarify other differences in behavior at work. For example, in the case of a heterosexual couple where both spouses work from home, the man will generally take the closed office.

“He will be calmer, more free from other activities, while the woman will settle down more in a less appropriate place,” explains Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay. It’s rare for houses to have two offices. »

Already in 2000, in a British study on working from home, two researchers (then from the University of Leicester) concluded that women have more difficulty separating professional and family life when they work from home.

Claire Estagnasié makes in situ observations as part of her research and what she sees confirms this data: “In a heterosexual couple, with children, when both parents telework, perhaps the man will have an office and will really telework all day, says the researcher. And it’s the woman who will do the load of laundry. »

Many fathers say that teleworking allows them to spend more time with the children, specifies Claire Estagnasié. While household chores do not generally fit into their work days at home, according to the doctoral student’s observations.

“The gendered relationship often does not come, because these are internalized roles,” affirms the one who noted it even in the youngest couples, although a little less frequently.

In the case where one of the two people in a couple works from home, the subject should be a matter for frank discussion.

A professional arrangement, whatever it may be, deserves a discussion if it is done within a couple, believes Lise Courteau. It doesn’t matter who stays at home or whether there is one woman, two women or none at all in the couple. M^me Courteau believes that couples should do this when taking parental leave which undeniably has an impact on career.

“On parental leave, there are also promotions that pass,” says the president of AFEAS, who advises not to take these decisions lightly and to measure the impact, especially in the long term.

Teleworking, ambition, promotions…

In one of the studies in which Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay participated, carried out before the pandemic, we noted that more ambitious employees, men and women, showed up more at the office.

“They were less interested in teleworking,” she says. Especially for workers aged 25 to 45, while older employees who are not expected to be promoted did not feel as much this need to be in action, in the office, explains the researcher.

The trend is even more true in areas where presence in the office results in better files. Being present in the office also promotes the transfer of knowledge, whether done formally or informally, says Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay.

Networks of power and exchanges develop more locally, whereas if you are at home, you will be less visible in your company than your colleagues who meet the bosses.

Are those absent likely to be less in these networks and to miss out on promotions, especially in certain environments where the criteria for obtaining a position are more subjective?

“Obviously, we don’t have the perspective to see the effect on one’s career,” explains Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay.

She also believes that teleworking can be a trigger to start a discussion, but that this must also be the case for parental leave or other arrangements.