Home office makes women happier but slows down their careers

Women are happier to work from home than men are. At least this is true in Australia, as a recent survey shows.

According to the annual "HILDA" (Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia) survey by the University of Melbourne, women in Australia are happier working from home than men. The survey, led by Mark Wooden of the University of Melbourne, found that those who work two days in the office and three days at home were the most satisfied with their work situation. For mothers who had switched to this arrangement, their average job satisfaction increased by 0.9 points on a 0 to 10 scale, a 12 per cent improvement.

Less important for men, career-breaking for women

However, there is a problem: workers who are visibly present at a workplace are more likely to be promoted than those who work from home and are, in a sense, invisible to colleagues and supervisors, according to the experts. This creates a challenge for women who choose to work from home, as it may slow down their career progression.

Overall, while working from home can increase job satisfaction for women and improve their work-life balance, it may also limit their career growth. Finding ways to overcome this challenge is essential for achieving greater gender equality in the workplace.

Lesser ability to work

Those who extended their working hours at home were asked whether their ability to do their work had become "much better", "somewhat better", had stayed "about the same", had become "somewhat worse" or "much worse". The proportion of those reporting a negative impact on their ability to work (42 percent) far outweighed the proportion of workers reporting a positive impact (24 percent).

However, working from home can give workers greater control over their time, making it easier to balance work and personal commitments. And people in home offices often report fewer meetings and interruptions, which means working at home can be less stressful and more effective. On the other hand, home office can blur the lines between work and non-work time. Often, working hours also shift to times when those who work in the office have long been off.

Making home office abroad legally secure for employees

The digitisation of the corporate world makes many things easier. For example, it makes it possible for employees to organise their working hours not only more flexibly, but also independently of their place of work. In the meantime, companies have identified associated topics such as remote work, agility, and working from home as available benefits for attracting talent and skilled workers. An employee may also fall in love abroad or already have family in another country and would like to work close to their loved ones.

"Since the Covid pandemic, companies have started to enable their employees to work abroad on a mobile basis. However, implementation requires specialist know-how and a lot of lead time," Omer Dotou, head of BDAE Consult, underlines.
BDAE Consult has been advising on the topic of remote work from abroad since 2014. The experts can provide councel to companies when it comes to the various legal and organizational pitfalls.