What is the Everywhere Workplace really like for men and women? Why is there a gender divide and what are the disadvantages?
There has been much speculation over the past two years, but now the answers come in the form of real data - collected in the report "2022 Everywhere Workplace" by Ivanti - from direct interviews with people who are experiencing it.
The “work anywhere” trend, accelerated by the pandemic, is leading to the dismantling and re-imagining of several features of the traditional workplace. If we think back to some of the innovations of the 20th century— the introduction of 9-5 working days, the rise of desktop computing, the enhancement of transport for commuters, etc. - we may have to question the new normal.
eighty-seven per cent of those surveyed by Ivanti - more than 4000 employees and 1600 IT professionals - stated that they would no longer like to work full-time in the office: only thirteen per cent expressed a preference for the office, the rest were divided into fifteen per cent who would like to work from anywhere, forty-two per centwho preferred a hybrid model and thirty per cent who would like to work from home.
Digging deeper, however, Ivanti's research revealed significant differences in gender lines - a real gender divide- regarding the experience of remote and hybrid work.
The gender divide in agile work
Employers are tempted to implement a one-size-fits-all solution to remote working because of its cost savings and ease of implementation , but they risk homogenising the experience of people who have completely different needs.
Among the advantages of the Everywhere Workplace and agile working for IT professionals, in first place for men is time saving due to reduced travel (43%), and for women is flexible working (42%), tied with a better work-life balance. Even before the pandemic, more women than men have traditionally required flexible working.
If we go into the details of the research, in the 10% of people who experienced negative effects on their mental health due to working remotely, 56% were women (compared to 44% of men). The possibility of working from home is very valuable for those who have children, but the time constraints of a remote job replicated by office work have penalised women in particular.
Distance learning, health decisions and other day-to-day responsibilities during the pandemic fell mainly on women, who were three times more likely than men to be the primary caregiver of their children. Sociologist Arlie Hochsild coined the term "second shift" to indicate the fact that women are not only busy with work, but also have 'second' unpaid domestic work.
Lack of help with childcare, in fact, is the main concern of women regarding remote work, and flexibility, where granted, has been among the benefits women have benefited from the most.
The impact on the mental health of employees, in the case of IT, was highest among women, who had to cope with an increased workload and parental difficulties. With the introduction of new technologies, immediate responses to IT requests and problems were needed, with 24/7 availability and support from the IT department. 72% of IT respondents admitted to losing staff due to high workloads. An issue that can be solved with the automation of the Everywhere Workplace.
Men's concerns, on the other hand, were more directly career-oriented. Ten per cent reported that they had not been able to spend much time with managers, while nine per cent reported that they had been passed over for promotion.
Significantly, they experienced difficulties with upward mobility and under-valuation of their talents, typical of women in an office environment.
What to do to reduce the gender divide
Faced with this heterogeneity of needs, employers need to adopt technology that facilitates collaboration and decreases the gender gap in experience.
Employees are the main resource of an organisation and each has his or her own expectations regarding remote working: their preferences must be considered when planning technology. Their input, in fact, must be primary in any technology implementation.
Organisations must therefore be guided on a path to build the Everywhere Workplace that allows them to centrally manage all workstations, ensuring their availability and security, but also to customise them according to each person's needs.
