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Public servants working from home: Exploring managers’ changing allowance decisions in a COVID-19 context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Sue Williamson ,
Linda Colley  and
Meraiah Foley
Sue Williamson*
Affiliation:
UNSW Canberra, Australia
Linda Colley
Affiliation:
CQUniversity, Australia
Meraiah Foley
Affiliation:
The University of Sydney, Australia
*
Sue Williamson, UNSW Canberra, PO Box 7916 Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2610, Australia. Email: sue.williamson@unsw.edu.au
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Abstract

Before the COVID-19 pandemic forced large sections of the workforce to work from home, the uptake of working from home in the public sector had been limited and subject to the discretion or ‘allowance decisions’ of individual managers. Allowance decisions are influenced by factors at the organisational, group and individual levels. This research examines managers’ allowance decisions on working from home at each of these levels. It compares two qualitative datasets: one exploring managerial attitudes to working from home in 2018 and another dataset collected in mid-2020, as Australia transitioned out of the initial pandemic lockdown. The findings suggest a change in the factors influencing managers’ allowance decisions. We have identified a new factor at the organisational level, in the form of local organisational criteria. At the group level, previous concerns about employee productivity largely vanished, and managers experienced an epiphany that working from home could be productive. At the individual level, a new form of managerial discretion emerged as managers attempted to reassert authority over employees working remotely. These levels intersect, and we conclude that allowance decisions are fluid and not made solely by managers but are the result of the interactions between the organisational, group and individual levels.

Keywords

flexibilityworking conditionsworking from homeremote workingpandemictelecommutingpublic sectormanagersflexible working arrangementsJ81J32
Type
Themed collection: Public sector employment relations in turbulent times
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 37 - 55
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021

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