9 to 5 is Dying
The workdays of a strict 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule are dying. Instead, 9 to 5 is becoming a loose guideline, a period where most work is agreed to take place, but not all. Remote working has blurred all the lines, and we’re entering a new era where flexibility and accountability reign over rigidity and top-down control.
What works best for some doesn’t work best for others. The days of “one-size-fits-all” when it comes to work are changing. Some people do their best work early in the morning, while for others, it is late at night. Some roles and tasks must be performed in a specific time frame, while others do not. Some people have kids with all the time obligations that entails; others have elderly parents at home to care for; and others may have stress-relieving hobbies that are best tended to during the day.
On top of that, the unexpected happens all the time. For example, I had a recent health scare with my husband. Thank goodness he is okay, but having the flexibility around tending to that situation, without the added stress that I was working hours and times that were outside of the “norm” helped me tremendously. I could not imagine going through that, working somewhere in which flexibility was not honored, which would only serve to add stress to an already stressful situation.
At my company we’ve implemented “flex time”, where extended midday breaks can be taken (with the approval of one’s immediate team members that would have to serve as backup for any time-sensitive work) and be made up in off-hours. As long as client needs are tended to, and one is responsive to colleagues that need help, starting-a-little-later/ending-a-little-later or starting-a-little-earlier/ending-a-little-earlier are fine. We have a Team in Microsoft Teams where we post availability with a lighthearted name: Where’s Waldo? (A popular puzzle book series from the ’90s where you had to find the character Waldo in a crowded scene). I’m doing my best to support flexibility wherever I can while maintaining fairness to the entire team (which sometimes can be a tricky balance to strike).
I believe providing my team with the flexibility to choose when and where they do work as much as possible creates an atmosphere of trust that is priceless to our company culture. At the end of the day, we all want to spend our time doing something meaningful — and that could simply be working with a team that truly supports one another. I often think about a story from Larry Little’s book about leadership — Make a Difference — where he told how we could learn to be better leaders by understanding how a flock of geese operates:
The geese fly in a V formation that is seamless, with each bird fully aware of its responsibility in this process . . . . as an individual bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird following within the formation . . . . (this) allows the whole flock to add 71 percent greater flying range than if one bird flew alone . . . . the leadership position of the V is shared by each goose in the formation. When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates to the back of the formation and another goose flies in at the point position . . . . While flying in formation, the geese consistently honk at one another . . . . this honking is used to encourage and to sound the alarm of a dangerous situation . . . . Should a goose get sick, wounded, or shot down on their journey, two geese will drop out of formation and follow it down to help protect it . . . until it is able to fly again.
Just because something has been done a certain way for a long time doesn’t mean it is the best way to move forward. We all have the opportunity to create a better work-life balance for ourselves and our teams, one choice at a time.