Working from home creates longer days for staff
Concerns have been raised about staff clocking up long hours on the job after being forced into working from home due to Covid.
Walsall Council leader Mike Bird said bosses are being urged to keep an eye on employee health and wellbeing as the new way or working life takes its toll.
Challenges being faced include working longer days, having to operate when children are at home and the lack of face-to-face contact with colleagues.
The issue was first raised in the summer with authority HR officers saying they’d found people seemed to be doing more hours and taking less breaks and the issue remains.
Councillor Bird said: “Working from home, I have to say, is a different way of life. It’s taken it’s toll on employees who were forced to work from home when it was thrust upon them.
“It brings a lot of mental challenges because you’re always over the shop.
“I’ve said to personnel department here, we have to look at people’s wellbeing because when you’re at home, especially when you have children on school holidays, it makes working extremely difficult.
“When you can’t have a face to face meeting with someone, it’s not the same as seeing them on a computer screen.
“It does have an effect on people’s family life as well because it is a constant intrusion.
“One of the things I’ve noticed is how much time is spent doing work on a computer through data we receive through Microsoft Teams.
“I was looking on my own and last Thursday, I started at 7.30am and my last meeting finished at 9.45pm at night.
“That’s no good for anybody and I’m no different to anyone else. But because the computer is there, you are tempted all the time to look at emails and things like that.
“When it is locked away in the office then you do get that time when you leave to be a different person and get on with your life.”
But he added: “It is a flexible way of working and I’m just grateful we put a substantial amount in to new technology which made Walsall Council able to cope with the challenges, literally from the first day.
“The tributes I have to pay to the people who have put all their efforts into dealing with this pandemic and dealing with different ways of working and living. It has been humbling.”
