Remote working pioneer reveals 'dark side' of going full WFH

Dan Kirby and the team at The Tech Dept have had to overcome problems, with new and unfamiliar names, including ‘working rhythm’, ‘availability guilt’ and ‘work-life blur’.

The 11-strong company, which builds websites and databases, went fully remote on July 24 after 16 years of having an office in central Sheffield.

It comes after millions of people started working from home in March due to the pandemic.

Mr Kirby, who now does yoga every morning instead of sitting in traffic, said it had saved them time and money, improved communication and ensured when they did meet up it was special.

But he found the team were putting themselves under more pressure, working more intensively and taking fewer breaks.

And when they did leave their laptops they suffered ‘availability guilt’ - a feeling they were slacking off.

Mr Kirby said: “What is an ‘office’ post-lockdown? The garden? An Airbnb? We can now – in effect – ‘WFA’ or Work From Anywhere.

“While this feels liberating it’s been matched by a number of problems and the biggest aren’t practical, they’re psychological.

“Often the commute is when we gear up or switch off, a partition between the office and home. But with a virtual office this no longer exists, which has a dark side.

“There’s an assumption that people are slacking off at home, but we found the opposite.

“Our team were putting themselves under more pressure, working more intensively, taking fewer breaks.

Comment – are we all about to get divorced from the office?

“Being at our desks solidly from 9-to-5 is draining. We need to roll with the punches – as bosses and team members – and have now found a new ‘working rhythm’.

“This is made up of bursts of productivity followed by short breaks which allows kids to be pacified and dogs walked.

“We’re also experiencing ‘availability guilt’, the corrosive feeling that if you aren’t immediately responding to messages you’re slacking off. Yet without recuperation – time to switch off – you can’t perform at your peak.

“We’ve previously nurtured a culture where everyone can be open, show vulnerability without being judged or penalised. This is now paying off.

As one of our team said: “The fact that you guys were honest about issues you faced, meant that I could be honest about what I needed.”