Dougal Sutherland: Working from Home and the advantages of a hybrid model

 Although Working from Home might have been new for many of us under Covid, research in the area has been going on for decades. This international research, combined with studies carried out in New Zealand over the past 4 years, notably by Prof Jarrod Harr at Massey Uni, is pretty clear that from a wellbeing and productivity perspective the hybrid model of working is better than working in the office 100% or working from home 100%. Hybrid working gives the best of both worlds – 2 or 3 days in the office and 2 or 3 days at home. 

Advantages of hybrid working include:  

• An increased sense of autonomy for workers – you have some choice over when/where/how you work. Higher levels of autonomy are associated with higher levels of wellbeing. 
• Less stress and better work-life balance. 
• You still get the advantage of social interactions when in the office. 

Working from Home 100% of the time isn’t ideal – people report higher rates of low mood and loneliness. Also, higher rates of burnout, possibly due to not having clear stop/start times. Working from the office 100% of the time reduces autonomy and has poorer work-life balance. 

The disadvantage of the hybrid model is not everyone’s job allows them to work from home for 2-3 days per week and these people see others as getting a perk they don’t have. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks that'd be.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
And Google Stevenson from Umbella Well Being is with us
this morning. Hi Google, Hi Jack.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
That was a bit of a throwback to the nineteen seventies.
Google Stephenson.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Oh sorry I say?

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Did I say?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Dogle Stephenson?

Speaker 3 (00:25):
You were thinking about you were thinking about the news.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
I was thinking about. I was thinking about broadcasters who
define what it means to have gravitas Google, That's what
I was thinking about. I was thinking about the silky
voices that have that have illustrated momentous moments in our
nation's history and yours.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Just you know, right, yeah, right, you wriggled yourself out
of there.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'm sorry for that part.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah. It's a very common thing. It's a very common thing.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Do you get there? Do you get that a lot?

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah I do. People particularly, yeah, particularly
people who are you know, who remember Google Stephenson from
the news will often because my name is so similar
Google Southern, Google Stevenson up so similar, and people go
on Google Stevenson, isn't it like Yeah, well no, no,
quite that old. But yeah I dig this. Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Anyway. Hey, So, so the latest tranch of census data
has been released this week and there were some really
interesting numbers. Heaps of different subjects covered, but there was
a lot of data on how we are working. And
so one in six New Zealanders, according to the latest data,
are now working from home. But the number of people
working from home most of the time has increased almost

(01:30):
sixty percent between twenty eighteen and twenty twenty three. That
just shows you, what, you know, what the pandemic has
done for the way in which we work. What did
you Was that at all surprising to you that those
kind of numbers, No, I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Think so, you know, it's it's so much of it
has been prevalent since since COVID. But it's interesting because
the history of working from home like dates back way
before COVID. I like to think it was kind of
the best kept secret prior to COVID. Yeah, and then
people discovered it and went, well, look at this crazy thing. Yeah,

(02:07):
and me included, like, I'd never done it before and
it was a little tricky, but yeah, over COVID, and
it's just yeah, and it's just so so it doesn't
surprise me that that those that numbers really about the
number of people doing it. Yeah, and look, I think
it's a good thing not working from home full time.
But I'd stake my claim on saying that hybrid working

(02:29):
is the best for people's well being and the best
for people's productivity.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, I've said before that for me personally, a hybrid
model works really well. I like being in the office.
I really love engaging with people, but I also love
being able to If I've got to focus on something
where I need to read a lot and I need
to be on detail, I need to not be interrupted
every two minutes, then working from home is fantastic. So
I try and do it one day, one day a
week I can, if I can, so talk to us

(02:55):
about that change, because you know, like you say, working
from home has become more common after COVID, but research
in this space has been underway for decades.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, it has been. I mean it really kicked off
obviously after COVID and during COVID because so many of
us started doing it. But people that have been researching
this area for twenty years or so, and then there
has been some really good New Zealand research too. Like
you know, often we go oh, that's overseas, it won't
work here. But Jared harr Out of Massy Uni, Yeah,
has consistently studied this for about the last four years,

(03:30):
and all the research really points to that mix. As
you noted, really that hybrid model, you know, one two
three days maybe at home and the other you know
two three days at work is really the best model.
You get that you get that lovely mix of still
socially interacting and team involvement and collaboration, but also the

(03:50):
opportunity to have some more focused time. But also people
talk about the work life balance, you know, when you're
at home, Like this is for me personally. I work
from home maybe two days a week, two or three,
and when I'm at home, I just feel like I
just feel more relaxed. I get a lot. To be honest,
I probably get more work done when I'm at home
than I do at work. I'm patly more productive, even

(04:13):
though I am getting up and doing the washing and
taking the dogs for the walk and all that kind
of things. Yeah, but it's way more effective than either
one hundred percent at home or one hundred percent in
the office.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
We'll talk to us about those options. So what are
the disadvantages for working from home one hundred percent of
the time.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yeah, the disadvantage of that is that those people tend
to report more isolation, you know, lower mood, which is
probably collected to the isolation and the potential to overwork
and burn out. And that's possibly because lots of us

(04:52):
when we work at home, you know, you tend to
start earlier in the morning because you don't have to
do a commute, and then you tend to go later
into the evening because there isn't that there aren't no
social cues around you to say, Okay, it's the end
of the day and you just wow, I'll just do
this a little bit more, and all of a sudden,
that's six thirty and you think, gee, I should have
finished about half an hour ago. So that's that's the

(05:14):
working from home full time, and the working from the
office full time isn't in terms of productivity, we just
lose productivity when we're in the office full time. You know,
we get interrupted, we go out for coffee, you know,
we have those water cooler chats, and those things are important.
I'm not trying to say that those are a waste

(05:35):
of time. They are important. But if you do them
too much, you end up not being super productive because
there's lots of interruptions and you stop, start and all
those sorts of things. So yeah, one hundred percent either
way is not great. That but that it's the Goldilocks
so principle, Yes, it's that right, the sweet spot in
the middle.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah, I totally. I mean, like I said, works for me.
So if there if you were to be critical, is
there any disadvantage to the Goldilocks model, any disadvantage to
the to the hybrid model?

Speaker 3 (06:05):
Possible? Not for the people though, who are able to
do it. A disadvantage is that some people can't work
from home. Their jobs don't allow it. Yeah, you know,
if you're a tradee it's kind of difficult. It's kind
of difficult to be a plumber and work from home
on somebody else's plumbing. And it can have the potential

(06:26):
even within a workplace, like if some people in a
workplace can work from home and some can't, it can
have the sense of almost two classes of workers and
one who are sort of well, we can work from home,
and the others who can't, and that can create a
bit of division. I think there are probably clever ways
around that, but I think that that is a bit
of a downside. Are those people that don't have the

(06:48):
opportunity to do there?

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, well said hey, thanks dougle That is Doogle Sutherland,
who is of course with Umbrella well Being, will put
all of his tips there and thoughts. I'm working from
home on the news talks. He'd be website for

Speaker 1 (07:01):
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