Ms Joanne Mangan:

Absolutely. It is a good point. Anecdotally, it does seem to be the case that for some people the additional time they are getting back from their commute is being used to work. It goes back to the point that we need to make a cultural shift and not look at remote working as a gift, benefit or favour an employer is giving to individual employees. Remote work is not simply another benefit like health insurance or a gym membership; it is a culture and within that culture one has flexibility. The onus is on employers to ensure they build that culture internally so their employees know this is not just a favour they are getting for good behaviour; it is the way the company works. In that way, employees do not need to feel like they have to work the extra hours but, rather, those hours are for them. We in Grow Remote feel strongly about the potential of that extra time and are in the process of working on a project to capture the additional time people have, how they are spending it and whether they are spending it in their local community. Yesterday, the Western Development Commission and NUI Galway released a survey that I completed yesterday evening. One of the questions asks how the respondent is spending the time saved on commuting. It is important that we capture that because if people are spending that time working, it is work the employer is getting for free and the employee is not benefiting. A cultural change is needed at the level of the employer. It needs to be clearly articulated to the employee that this is not something that will be taken away again but, rather, it is systemic and normal that one works remotely and it is part of our culture, so there is no need for an employee to do any juggling or bells and whistles to make sure an employer does not take it away. Employees should not have that worry.