Gena Chang-Campbell, photographed at her home in Pickering, Ont., benefitted from flexible work arrangements and remote work after a traumatic motorcycle accident.Sheldon Isaac
Three years after the COVID-19 outbreak, most companies have adopted a hybrid model of work as their baseline culture, meaning employees spend at least some time working from home. At the same time, some employers are becoming increasingly suspicious of just how much time their staff spends doing the work they’re being paid for.
In January, a B.C. tribunal ordered an accountant to pay her former employer more than $2,600 after tracking software showed she engaged in “time theft” while working from home. Meanwhile, U.S. tech giants such as Meta, Alphabet and Amazon recently called workers back into the office, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying an internal analysis of employee performance data suggested that engineers working in person “get more done.”
If the idea of time theft becomes a growing concern for employers, the resulting crackdowns around flexible and remote work could have troubling implications for all workers, with experts saying it could hit women hardest of all.
What is time theft?
Samantha Seabrook, founder of Seabrook Workplace Law, says that time theft occurs “when an employee evidences to the employer that they’ve worked a certain amount of hours, but they haven’t actually worked those hours.” This could include taking extra-long breaks, logging in late or logging off early, or using work hours to complete household tasks.
While the concept isn’t unique to the hybrid work era, it’s found new relevance as we spend more time working at home and as companies develop new and improved ways to track that work. These methods can include installing time-tracking software on company devices such as phones and laptops, or management checking to see if an employee is active on Slack or responds to emails promptly through the day.
According to Sumana Jeddy, founder and CEO of Jeddy Wellness, a consulting company that helps workplaces develop solutions to prevent burnout, this type of micromanaging can particularly affect women employees.
“Employers are coming down hard on women,” says Ms. Jeddy. “What I’m generally hearing is [women saying], ‘I’m having a lot of responsibilities as a mom, as a caregiver to my elderly parents – and I’m having to constantly prove to my employer that I am working and doing my job.’”
That type of hyper-suspicious, highly monitored work environment can take a toll on employees’ mental health, she says.
“You’re feeling a loss of autonomy, you’re feeling that your values are misaligned, you’re feeling like you’re not a good worker, like you’re not being trusted,” she says.
These kinds of stress-related mental health challenges can even impact a person’s physical health, says Ms. Jeddy. For example, chronic stress and depression have been linked to conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and sleep issues.
Why flexibility makes a difference
When Gena Chang-Campbell got into a traumatic motorcycle accident years ago, she knew her road to recovery would include a change in her work life.
Unable to commute long distances or commit to work-related travel on a regular basis, being newly disabled meant that Dr. Chang-Campbell – who works as solution lead for a global company – would have to work out some kind of accommodation with her employer.
So, she and her employer agreed on a new arrangement where she would only go into the office as needed, while her colleagues had a required minimum of in-office days. And because meetings are often hosted across multiple time zones, her employer has allowed Dr. Chang-Campbell and her colleagues some freedom in setting their schedules, rather than demanding a straightforward 9-5.
“My teammates and colleagues are not in North America, we’re scattered on five continents, so working hours can be kind of dispersed,” Dr. Chang-Campbell says. “There are inherent demands with that kind of schedule. But with the right kind of leadership, there’s also inherent flexibility.”
While her own experience was a positive one, Dr. Chang-Campbell says she’s seen how a lack of trust can worsen the very issues that necessitated an accommodation to begin with.
“I’ve seen where people will take substantial pay cuts, even in this kind of inflationary economy, to move to an employer where they feel like that trust exists, and where they don’t feel like every morning, it’s ‘Oh, my gosh, who’s going to be watching what time I log on and off today? Who do I have to explain which medical professional I had to go see for that hour?’” she says.
Avoiding trouble with the clock
While having your employer checking in on you constantly shouldn’t be the norm, Ms. Seabrook says it’s good practice for everyone to know when work is performed and how much work is performed during a given workday.
If an individual does find themself in a position where their employer is either investigating a claim of time theft or taking legal action against them, Ms. Seabrook says they should immediately reach out to a lawyer.
“[Hire] a lawyer to have the information that the employee has gathered about the work that they’ve done, and the allegations against them, reviewed from a legal perspective to determine the scope of their case,” she says.
In a case where the employee is actually terminated, Ms. Seabrook’s recommendation is to go see an employment lawyer as soon as possible before signing anything.
Ultimately, though, fixing the problem comes back to creating a healthy work culture where trust is embedded in the company’s DNA.
“If my child was sick in daycare and I had to go pick them up, it should be okay to text your boss and let them know, ‘Hey, I’m stepping out for a couple of hours, I’ve got to pick up my child and I’ll get this done for you by 8 p.m. tonight,’” Ms. Jeddy says.
For many women, flexibility is key to job satisfaction. A study from January by Abacus Data of more than 1,300 working Canadian adults found that 72 per cent of women consider work-from-home flexibility as “extremely” or “quite” important. In fact, 42 per cent of women said they would give up a higher salary if it meant they could work from home as much as they like. Also, a June report by TD Economics found that mothers of young children are joining the work force at higher rates since the start of the pandemic, thanks in part to more flexible work environments.
And while micromanaging bosses can make life tough on an employee, Dr. Chang-Campbell points out that the trust she received from her employer improved quality of life for not just her, but her family as well.
“My kids and my husband immediately said, ‘You’re so much more present,’” she says. “My eight-year-old son would say, ‘I’m so glad that mommy’s here to walk into the bus stop for school every day.’”
While employers may worry that flexible work environments will be somehow damaging to workers’ productivity, Dr. Chang-Campbell says that in her experience, it’s just the opposite.
“I don’t think enough is understood about how [people] work to their potential [when] they feel like they’re in a safe and trusting environment,” she says.
“That feeling alone makes me a better and more productive employee.”
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