Provide education in ethics (Ethical Literacy)

For the 3rd quarter of 2022 we would like to report on the topic of working from the home office.

We started with an article that included an online poll (see below). 

We will also be hosting a Philo-brunch on this topic mid-November (please find the invitation at the bottom of this report)..

Home office and the daily struggle with our conscience

The post-corona era in the world of work will be characterized by the fact that some employees will continue to work partially or permanently from home.

The degree of work performed from the home office will be based on the respective task of the individual employee and on how much and to what extent the individual task requires physical attendance in the office. This new "normality" of the working world, a mixture of office and home office, has already become a more or less fixed part of the modern working world in recent months, and it will become even more so in the future.

With so many people working from home, the lines between private and business are blurring. On the one hand, you may no longer have a proper separation between private and work life. You are always reachable and quickly feel obliged to work on something after work or during vacation. Conversely, you can easily deal with private things during actual working hours - picking up the kids from day-care, doing laundry, making private calls, taking long lunch breaks or smoking breaks, or even a bit of sport to stay fit, etc.

It should be noted that the (German) Working Hours Act naturally also applies to the home office. So work should actually be over after 8 hours, in exceptional cases it can also be 10 hours, as long as this overtime is compensated for over a longer period of time. Which also means that you have to work during working hours – just like in the office. Basically, everything that does is not considered work is excluded from working hours! At first glance, this abstract rule sounds easy to comply with, but a closer look will show many situations that lie in a grey area, unless there is a precise agreement between employee and employer. It is precisely within this grey area that we will inevitably come into contact with our conscience. We ourselves have to "conscientiously" decide whether what we want to do is still closely related to work and therefore still counts as working time, or more closely to our private life and is therefore no longer part of actual working time. We would like to address the handling of these grey area situations below.

The topic is made even more tricky by the fact that many employees who work from home do not have fixed office hours and can freely decide when they want to work. It only counts that the work is done, when and above all where is no longer relevant. That doesn't make the subject any easier if you want to weigh up whether you're still acting within the "morally" justifiable framework or not, because private matters, such as "going out to lunch with a friend for a while" can actually be compensated for after hours or on the weekend. No one but our own conscience will warn us when we overdo it, either by working too little or when we work too much.

What do you think about the subject? Let us know whether you find your thoughts reflected in any of the below statements

1. I am of the opinion that the working hours in the home office must be observed exactly as in the office. That means I start work at the same time as my colleagues who go to the office; I take my lunch break at the same time and I also finish work at the same time.
2. I am of the opinion that you do not have to be absolutely precise with the distribution of working hours in the home office over the day, even if I of course fulfill my total working hours. This means that I work flexibly with regard to the beginning, breaks and end of my working hours, i.e. the work that needs to be done is done, but I do not necessarily coordinate with others when distributing my working hours. The main thing is that I get the job done.
3. I am of the same opinion as under 2) but with the difference that I coordinate my working hours with others so that my flexible distribution of working hours does not lead to any impairment of availability, punctuality, reaction time, etc.
4. I enjoy the new freedoms that come with the home office. I believe that "Life" is a very high priority in my work-life balance. That means if I'm doing well, I'm better at my job. I do the work that needs doing, of course, but in a way that suits me best in my daily routine.
5. Working from home, the flexibility I have gained, and the mixing of private and business matters often mean that I have to struggle with my motivation and occasionally lose control of my working hours. I lack a framework of a regulated working time schedule, the regular proximity to my superiors, employees and colleagues. The flexibility puts me under stress. I keep wondering whether I'm working too little, or too much, or not well enough.
6. None of these views correspond to my opinion.

Don't see yourself in the proposed views? Then send us an email to info@ethica-rationalis.org.

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And here is the invitation to the PhiloBrunch on November 12th on the topic "When HOME and OFFICE meet at my house..."

After a long Corona break, there will be another PhiloBrunch at Ethica Rationalis, to which we cordially invite you! The theme will be "When HOME and OFFICE meet at my house..."

Our guest speaker who will introduce the topic is Dr. Karl Kreuser. dr Kreuser is a graduate engineer and has a doctorate in philosophy. He accompanies executives and companies, is a passionate trainer and also works on scientific projects with various universities. He has been able to gain management experience, even in extreme situations, over more than 40 years with the volunteer fire brigade. His concern is to enable people to (again) tackle their challenges themselves.

Our topic: When HOME and OFFICE meet at my house...

...then things suddenly change. Personally, many of us humans wer confronted with our-selves in a very different way. Questions of self-organization, self-responsibility and self-overcoming have shown up in surprisingly new contexts. That was often challenging and occasionally revealed the limits of previous values and actions.

Behind all the hardships we experienced during the pandemic is our own foundation of values, which becomes more conscious in the home office: Who do I want to be, who for my family, who for my company? And who doesn't and by no means...? Home office is perhaps a great trigger to recognize and develop myself as a person with my values. That's better than a guilty conscience.

In particular, the DNA of Ethica Rationalis includes applied ethics in everyday life, the ethics of small steps, in togetherness, in interaction with others. In this sense, we want – guided by a few impulses – to enter into a mutual exchange that gives suggestions and opportunities for gain and added value in our own value development.

When? Saturday, November 12, 2022, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m

Where? IBZ, Amalienstrasse 38, Munich

As always, there will be a nice brunch, plenty of room for discussions with our guest speaker and the other participants.

In addition, as always, we will of course ensure that there are enough breaks during the event.