Fears over staff working longer hours in Walsall
Concerns have been raised over Walsall Council staff working longer hours as a result of having to do their jobs from home during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Authority bosses said some employees appear to be adopting an ‘always on’ approach to their work and added they and managers need to be “retrained” on achieving the correct work-life balance.
They also said staff may be affected by having limited contact with colleagues and called for a ‘rota’ basis to allow them back into the office safety from time to time.
The issue was discussed at a personnel committee, held remotely this week where a revised agile working policy was agreed.
HR manager Nic Rickhuss said: “We’ve noted there almost seems to be a bit of an ‘always on’ culture when you are working from home.
“People are potentially doing more hours and taking less breaks so actually staff need to retrain how to work remotely from home.
“Managers need to be supportive to help their staff so they are not doing excessive hours, taking relevant breaks and using the ICT equipment appropriately such as remembering to put out of office messages on or saying when they are available.”
Walsall Council has been using the programme Microsoft Teams to hold remote meetings during the lockdown period.
Deputy leader Adrian Andrew said: “It’s a double-edged sword because you are never off duty. I was away and I was tempted to dial into a couple of meetings taking place and I had to stop myself.
“It will be never ending. For members of staff, they have to stick to being on leave and keeping weekends sacrosanct as well.
“Meetings are lasting longer because everyone is sat at home in the comfort. They haven’t got to get home in the rain or the dark.”
Walsall Council leader Mike Bird added: “The hours get longer and longer – the longest I’ve done is 7.30am to 10pm at night.
“It is very wearying when you are spending days and days on Teams on a computer.
He added: “Those who are working from home lose that social interaction with people and as a result what we need to make sure is people’s mental health is not being affected.
“We need to have a review about how people are coping with this and how they are finding their workload and the stress they find being at home.
Walsall Labour group leader Aftab Nawaz also said managers also needed to be ensuring clear communication with staff so they “don’t feel they are losing contact with the organisation”.
