Shaping the future of remote work

Leaders must learn to trust, support and care for their people

- ANDRE RUST BUSISIWE MADIKIZELA-THEU MARTHA HARUNAVAMWE HERBERT KANENGONI NASIMA CARRIM WILLIE CHINYAMURINDI

THE COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of employees to work from home almost overnight.

What started as a crisis measure soon became a preferred way of working for many South Africans. Remote work promised freedom and flexibility. But new research from a team of scholars from the University of Fort Hare, University of Pretoria, University of Johannesburg and Nelson Mandela University shows that for female middle managers in South Africa's public service, remote working has also created new ethical and emotional challenges.

Our research relied on in-depth interviews conducted with 23 female middle managers from government departments in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The participants represented diverse fields such as human resources, supply chain, accounting, information management, and law.

As researchers we relied on a qualitative, narrative approach, we asked the participants to describe what it’s really like to manage people and tasks remotely.

Far from being an escape from the pressures of office life, remote work was found to become a space where questions of trust, control and disclosure shape daily experiences and mental health.

Three ethical tensions emerged from our study, each highlighting how the shift to remote work has reshaped power and trust in public organisations.

First, the female middle managers experienced an ethical tension with a nexus between “to disclose or not to disclose” when working remotely. Participants described a sense of guilt that accompanies a decision to incorporate a non-work-related activity while working remotely. Two poignant quotes illustrate. One middle manager regrettably resorted to lying to cover up, “often one must lie to senior colleagues when asked what you are doing.” Another participant reduced the experience to guilt, “when I attend to something not related to work, I feel guilty”.