Has flexibility of working in the military helped people achieve more?

I’ve always loved figuring out how technical things work and solving problems, so it was a real privilege to join the Royal Navy as an engineering officer after graduating from university in 2004. I spent a decade in the forces, and three years running the IT on the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, travelling the world and solving technical issues as they arose. It was stressful, busy work, but it felt like a huge honour - the views were something else, and I was in my element.

Only an office will do ...

Throughout my Naval career, access to information and computing required me to be sat at my desk in my office, whether this was at sea or ashore. Sometimes, reaching it required a long walk. When serving in HMS Sultan, a military base in Gosport on the south coast, I lived in the Wardroom accommodation at one end of the base, and had a mile’s walk to my office at the other end. I’d pass officers doing parades, huge silver aircraft hangars and majestic Sea Kings – naval helicopters that could land on ships.

The distance to my office meant that I worked hard when I was there, and learnt that everything had to be finished before I left for the day. I couldn’t just send a couple of emails after dinner, or put the final touches to that presentation before breakfast. I also learnt that contacting the right person could be difficult, so I had to think ahead to make sure that I’d spoken to who I needed, to meet distant deadlines. The odd jog back when I had forgotten something taught me to be very efficient!

Working from anywhere – the flexible present

After leaving the military in 2014, I set up a company called Ctrl O that I’m still running, and we work in the defence sector, running the Ministry of Defence’s overseas engagement tool. I’ve been struck by rapid improvements in accessing information and communications in the last decade – when I email our customers in the MOD, I’ll often get a response back at any time of day (with a polite footer that the sender’s work hours are flexible and not to feel I need to respond immediately).

It seems that the military has quickly embraced the new information age, with personnel able to work on laptops from anywhere, as I do. It’s struck me that in some ways this is much more effective, as we can quickly get senior officers to make decisions based on the most up-to-date information, and have work at our fingertips. But I’ve also wondered if this really has made us all more effective overall. For example, because we no longer need to make sure everything is planned in advance, discussions can continue over several weeks. Often I’d need to make one focused phone call and a decision was made, whereas now, we can all discuss things on email threads ad infinitum. I don’t have any objective information on efficiency, but UK productivity figures as a whole have flatlined for many years, despite most of us being able to work more flexibly.

I’ve also wondered about the knock-on effects of having access to our work email more readily. For a start, people seem to feel much more pressure to respond immediately. I also wonder if we now all feel less distance from work - to rest, refresh and enjoy ourselves, which could affect productivity in itself.

A golden middle ground?

Could there be a golden middle ground, where we can all have access to instant communications without it inducing overuse? Maybe the occasional communications outage is beneficial. Separation from work is clearly advantageous: should we force ourselves to walk around the block before hitting the home office? We might not see a Sea King, but you never know what might pop up, and giving separation from home and work could even increase our productivity.