Words: Jack Flanagan
EIGHT FIFTY-NINE. Is there a sweeter time? You’re not just on time… you’re early. Managers are pleased. Colleagues are envious. You may even develop an affectionate nickname – ‘8:59’ – which, though it sounds chastising, secretly praises you for being early. What a difference a minute makes. OK, perhaps this is a little over the top. In fact, 8.59 might be the worst time of day as, having fought your way through the rush hour, you sit down at your desk one more time, ready for eight hours of relentless grind. However, you’ve probably noticed the winds of change. There’s been demand from workers, and work theorists, to offer much more flexi-time to employees, with working hours based on conversations between managers and staff, not the traditional nine-to-five. It’s argued that this boosts productivity by giving employees ownership of their work/life balance. Tech companies love flexible working hours. Politicians love the sound of them – David Cameron has campaigned for years to ‘change the work culture’ in the UK in this way. France and a number of states in the US have actually introduced legislation against working long hours and protective clauses for employees who seek flexi-time. In the UK, employees with at least 26 weeks’ service can put in a request for flexible working hours. And in September this year, Jersey enacted legislation giving employees the right to request flexible working hours as long as the request is
based on the need to care for dependents. Advocates say that old shift patterns are doomed to ‘presenteeism’ – with employees merely putting on a front of being productive as the hours tick away. They say managers must step back and rethink effective ways of working. Of course, theory is one thing, practice is very different. Katie Bellingham, Director of Focus Group, which provides HR outsourcing services, says countries such as the US and microcosms such as London could adopt modern styles of working, and this can be put down to hypercompetitiveness stimulating innovation. She isn’t entirely convinced, however, that such thinking will reach the cool shores of the Channel Islands any time soon – where beaches (or bars) are generally well populated by 5.30pm. “It’s very hard for people to move away from it. It’s built into our history,” she says.
EXPANDING HORIZONS Joshua Pines, Corporate Developer Lead at Sirenum, a cloud-based platform that clients use for scheduling, monitoring, paying and managing staff, says that change elsewhere in the world is very visible. “The number of people, and their
There’s been demand for more flexi-time, with hours based on conversations between managers and staff, not the traditional nine-to-five
companies, who are totally comfortable with flexi-time is exploding,” he says. “Over a brief period – 18 months – it’s become noticeably more common. “You can see it when you go to coffee shops – it’s not just the writers and the start-ups any more; it’s everybody.” For a number of reasons this shouldn’t come as a shock. For one, nine-to-five working hours just aren’t practical. Parents drop out of their jobs to raise their children; summer holidays are a nightmare for working parents; and many of life’s little chores tend to occur during the working day – doctor’s appointments, burst pipes and important deliveries. Plus, the reality of being a professional has changed drastically. People travel more, and the freelance lifestyle is increasingly accepted as a career choice. This in turn has broadened our understanding of how productivity happens – beyond being nailed to one’s desk. Office guidelines and cultures have had to update to cover not just in-house staff but people on the periphery as well. Unsurprisingly, increasing awareness has inspired in-house staff to ask: what about the rest of us? ‘Millennials’, ‘Gen Ys’ – or just good old ‘twentysomethings’ – have also played a part in the culture shift. These employees tend to want non-traditional benefits to their jobs. Gen Y workers often emphasise abstract benefits – such as a good work/life balance and a ‘sense of meaning’ – as the important characteristics of a job. Millennials expect flexible work hours so they can take on other assignments, learn and travel more (see page 50). If you want to retain Millennials, you need to make sure flexibility is part of their contract. Thanks to digital communities such as GlassDoor – where employees rate employers – we have new evidence about what works and what doesn’t. The company released a report in July, which
www.blglobal.co.uk september/october 2015 49
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