Trust in the workplace…

17th March 2020

Recently I was speaking to someone who’s commute to work was 71 miles and took an hour and a half on a good day.  Someone else in the group commented that when she worked in London, she worked with a contractor who commuted from Canada on a weekly basis!  Talk about an increased carbon footprint!

This got me thinking about the way we work in the private and public sector.  I am lucky – as a director I can work from home, I can do the school run and I can switch my diary around to fit in school assemblies, doctors appointments and a 101 other things that always seem to happen during traditional working hours.  One of my colleagues doesn’t like mornings and is not keen on 9am meetings however she quite happily produces some amazing pieces of work late at night. Another colleague loves running but only in daylight so in winter months she will take a long lunch and work later so she can enjoy a run several days a week.

I had a chat about this with a couple of friends who work in very different environments and we all found that most people have a workload they are expected to do whether that’s a day, week or over a longer period of time so….  I guess what I am asking is: should there be more trust in the workplace? Trust that people will do their work in whatever time period their job dictates rather than in the office in 9-5 hours? This could be working from home, working from venues that suit them – I often can be found hanging out in local social enterprise cafes, drinking far too much coffee but I get a lot done.  I like the buzz of having people around and this saves me an hour’s drive in rush hour to get to our office where quite often I am on my own. Can we work hours that suit our natural body clocks or fit in with our other commitments – families, caring responsibilities, partners who work shifts?

Surely in 2020 we can trust people to get their work loads done in a way that suits them…?

Louanne Roberts 

February 2020