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Today’s episode is the first part in our series about the concerns that are often raised about flexible work and what we can do to combat them. 

In this episode we talk about why employers hate flexible work and how they can shift their perspective. Keep an eye out for episode 87 where we will look at why women hate flexible work too and what we can do about that. 

This week, we talk about these three common concerns about flexible working:

1. Flexible workers are inaccessible  

This misconception comes down to managing expectations. One of our favourite topics!  

Often the big misconception is the perception that if a client or colleague wants something and the flexible worker isn’t present to do the job, either it doesn’t happen or someone else will have to do it.   

But does the work really need to be done immediately? What will happen if it waits until tonight, tomorrow, or next week? 

More often than not some simple expectation management techniques are enough to combat this issue. 

2. Loss of control over employees 

A big concern is that staff will focus on their own needs and won’t get the work done.  

Our response to this is always the same – how do you know they’re working when they’re in the office? Bums on seats is not the same as engaged and effective bums – wherever they might be located! 

The mindset shift here is to move to a focus on outputs and outcomes instead of time. If a flexible worker has achieved the same output in 6 hours they worked at home as the 6 hours they worked in the office, does it matter where they were when they did the work? 

3. Flexible working arrangements are inflexible  

Of course the whole premise of flexible work is that it is flexible! It involves give and take from both parties. If something isn’t working for someone, it needs to be addressed.  

Thank you to our episode sponsor, LawCPD 

This episode is sponsored by LawCPD, Australia’s premium supplier of online continued legal education.  

LawCPD are kindly offering juggle listeners a discount of $25 off the next course they buy with LawCPD until 31 October 2019. Simply use the discount code JUGGLE25 at the checkout. 

Links mentioned in this episode:  

• Our interview on the Happy Lawyer Happy Life podcast 
• The Juggle Community, our online Facebook group 
• Subscribe to The Juggle Podcast on Apple Podcastst, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or Android  
• Find us on Instagram and Facebook 
• The Juggle website, where you can find all episodes of The Juggle and sign up to be notified when a new episode is released 

Happy juggling!