Flexible work hours

Everyone seems to be talking about office versus remote post-pandemic. Most people are most interested to see how companies, specifically big tech will react. Will they force employees to be in the office or let them go remote full-time? I suspect most will fall somewhere in the middle.

Perhaps the more important debate topic that we should be discussing is changing work hours. The pro-remote work crowd is quick to call office culture archaic, but fail to mention perhaps the most archaic topic which is a predefined 9-5 workday.

Out of the remote/office debate, there’s one thing that’s universal and no one can disagree on: everyone wants flexibility. One way to provide that flexibility is accommodating flexible work schedules. The 9-5 workday was invented as a product of manufacturing to ensure that all cogs in the machine are there during defined hours.

I don’t believe that forcing someone to work a standard 9-5 M-F is the best way to get the most out of an employee. I am a great example of this as my best work hours are between 6-9pm. I’ve never really been a morning person.

I’m going to run an experiment as I live on east coast time for the next 3 months. My plan is to work west coast hours while living on the east coast.

Today, I woke up without an alarm clock at 8:30am ET. I made breakfast, meditated and ran 5 miles. I was in front of my computer feeling great by 11am ET ready to work. On the surface, this accommodates what I feel can make me the most productive, but only time will tell.

My hope is that by the end of this 3 month experiment, I’ll find out if the better question we should be asking is whether we should offer flexible work schedules rather than whether we should return to the office full time.