Friday WFH for Civil Servants: Between Flexibility and New Burdens at Home

The discourse on Work from Home (WFH) on Fridays for civil servants or ASN has sparked hopes for more flexible working arrangements, but its impact on workers’ work-life balance is considered unlikely to be substantial. For some young workers, Friday WFH might seem like an opportunity to work more calmly without commuting and the dense office rhythm. However, for workers who also shoulder domestic affairs, working from home can blur the boundaries between office work and household tasks. A sociologist from the University of Indonesia’s Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP UI), Dr. Ida Ruwaida, M.Si., assesses that Friday WFH will not significantly alter work relationship patterns or the division of roles between men and women in the family. “If Friday WFH is only applied to ASN, in my view, it won’t have much impact because the percentage of ASN from ministries or state institutions in Jakarta, in particular, is relatively small,” said Ida when contacted by Kompas.com on Wednesday (6/5/2026). There are agencies that fill Fridays with krida activities, sports, religious study sessions, or other activities. This condition is one of the reasons why Friday was chosen as the WFH day. “For ASN, before the WFH policy was established, Friday was a krida day, a relatively more relaxed day,” said Ida. According to Ida, because the context of Friday is already different from other working days, the WFH policy on that day is unlikely to trigger major changes. Its impact is also considered not significant on the division of labour between men and women, especially since there are government agencies where the majority of employees are women. This experience was felt during the Covid-19 pandemic, when many workers had to handle office work alongside domestic affairs from home. “With WFH, it might be possible for female ASN to feel more burdened as during the Covid-19 period,” said Ida.