Tom's blog: Agile working success?

Earlier this year, my firm rolled out an agile working policy to allow everyone in the London office to work at home once a week. I thought I'd share a few observations about the firm's experience from the perspective of someone who's an old hand at working from home:

1) Working at home has become normal. I never have to explain (or justify!) my arrangement now, which is very refreshing;

2) There are still (small) pockets of resistance. You occasionally hear of the odd partner who doubts whether we can really all be trusted to work at home;

3) Much to the chagrin of the naysayers and doom-mongers (see 2 above) the firm is still standing six months after the roll out. Not only are we still standing, but by all accounts our London office is heading for a record year (naysayers and doom-mongers take note: we are obviously not using our day working from home to catch up on Jeremy Kyle and Loose Women after all);

4) People work well at home. According to a survey commissioned by the firm following an initial pilot, most people believed they worked more efficiently on their days at home, which mirrors my experience. It's much easier to make headway with a big project without the constant distractions and interruptions of being in the office;

5) Fitting around other people requires more effort. When I was the only one working at home, it generally made no difference which day I chose or how much notice I gave colleagues. Now we have a formalised process to record home working plans in advance and make sure we're not all out of the office on the same day. This is absolutely essential if the policy is to work properly for everyone though, so I'm not complaining;

6)  It is a little harder to keep in touch with people now. Despite myriad electronic means of communicating with each other, there is no substitute for bumping into someone in the corridor or popping your head round a door. The more people work at home, the harder this becomes.

Overall, the agile working policy has had a positive impact on colleagues' wellbeing and work-life balance (just as my flexible arrangement did for me), with no major drawbacks and my firm should be commended for implementing it. (Even if it does mean that, in the words of one partner, I'm "not special any more").

Tom is a senior associate in a magic circle law firm. He is married with three children, and works fulltime with one day per week spent working at home.