When offering or expanding flexibility, employers often worry about practical matters. For example, that the floodgates will open and they will be inundated with requests that they cannot manage, that staffing and other costs will rise from accommodating employee requests for flexibility, and that they will face some backlash and possible legal exposure by making flexibility available.

The following information can help clear up some of the misconceptions about flexibility:

Myth: Permitting or encouraging flexibility may cause a drain on performance.
Reality: Flexibility can actually enhance both individual and team performance when it pushes individuals, teams and managers toward better planning, coordination and clearer expectations and methods of measuring results.

Myth: Flexibility is an exception to the standard way of doing things.
Reality: Flexibility is quickly becoming the standard way of working, valued by men and women of all generations, and in all types of positions, and life circumstances.

Myth: Flexibility is about holding some people to a lower standard of performance.
Reality: All employees in a flexible environment are held accountable for results--all kinds of results, including maintaining communication, relationships, being up to date on what's happening with the work group as a whole, etc.

Myth: Employees will request flexibility if they need it.
Reality: Often employees are concerned that they will be viewed as less serious, committed, or promotable if they request flexibility. Managers should be on the look out for real and perceived barriers to flexibility and ensure that employees who choose to work flexibly are good performers and are not penalized for doing so.

Myth: Flexibility will create more work for supervisors.
Reality: Done right, when systems are created such as self-scheduling, the managers job changes but is potentially less cumbersome.

Myth: Flexibility will create more work for co-workers who have to pick up the slack, and therefore, create a backlash.
Reality: Nearly all employees need to be able to change how, when, and where they work (which is the definition of flexibility) at some point, and if flexible opportunities are broad and well-communicated, most people will eventually use them. Still, work groups and managers must figure out together how they will deal with potential issues. Some potential challenges include short-time emergencies that require a quick or in-person response, communicating with people working in different locations and times, etc. It's much the same as coordinating when people travel or are booked with other assignments. Coordination, planning, technological support, communication systems, etc. are key elements of successful flexibility.

Myth: Everyone will want to work flexibly and it will create chaos.
Reality: The secret is to empowering employees and set up the systems by which they can coordinate among team members, figure out how best to get the work done, plan ahead, focus on results, etc. It not only reduces the load on supervisors, it often results in less stress and greater focus on accomplishing the work goals. The manager often can focus on higher value work.

Myth: Flexibility only works in certain kinds of jobs.
Reality: Most jobs even manufacturing jobs and other jobs that require in person presence -- can have some kind of flexible component. (e.g., at First Horizon National Corporation, with its retail bank branches and operations centers, over 90% of employees work flexibly.

Myth: Flexibility is something done primarily to help employees.
Reality: Flexibility - broadly defined -- can be as beneficial to the business as it is for employees. It can increase performance and decrease inefficiency and should be adopted equally for business reasons as well as because it is valuable for employees.

Myth: Flexibility is primarily for female employees with family obligations and employees who are less driven to advance in their career.
Reality: Flexibility  having greater choice and control over how, when, and where one work -- is becoming the working style of choice for men and women in all kinds of positions, ages, and incomes  from leaders to hourly employees. In fact, 79% of employees are seeking more flexibility in their jobs. It's especially valued by some of the people that organizations are trying hardest to recruit or retain. The shape it takes depends on the individual. It is essential, as 24-7 work and personal lives no longer allow a neat separation of the two sides of life.

Myth: Flexibility is a program or initiative coordinated by the HR department.
Reality: When organizations first implement flexibility, it is often considered a stand-alone program. But as they mature in their understanding of what it is and what it does for the organization, the essence of flexibility greater choice/control over how, when, and where work is done -- becomes integral to how people are managed and touches most systems and aspects of the culture.

WHAT MANAGERS WORRY ABOUT VS. WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS

We now have the benefit of two years worth of experience with 'light touch' laws in Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands that encourage employers to respond positively to requests for flexibility. This experience is tangible evidence that the risks, that employers often anticipate will happen if they offer flexibility broadly, tend not to materialize. The laws are the Dutch Working Time Adjustment Act 2000, the German Part-time and Fixed Term Employment Act 2000 and the UK 2002 Right to Request Flexible Working.

The following describes typical concerns about risks and problems and what employers actually found to be the case. While the experience is European, the experience of the large number of employers involved yields valuable information.

1.