I’m confused by the excitement of the 4 day week. For some, I do understand, it’s perfect. I’ve done a 4 day week before, it was great at the time. But then for some the 5 day week is perfect. For some no work at all.
Flexible working in this way, where it’s about hours / days rather than output has been around in some businesses for a very long time. It’s not really a new thing. In some places it was called compressed hours. But compressed hours rarely got signed off because managers just couldn't rethink how to make it work. They’d say ‘ but if one gets it they’ll all want it’ ‘who’ll do the work’ ‘how can we build team dynamics if we are all not here all the time’.
They were trying to force the flexible peg into the jelly shaped requirement. (I don’t know what that means, it made sense in my head).
Basically flexible working needs a complete rethink of work. Not old views of work rearranged.
So the 4 day enforcement feels like a little cop out. An easy way to just put different time restrictions around work that still might work for some, but still might not suit others.
For me the perfect week is 24/7 - yes 7 days to do whatever I need to do in which ever way I want to do, and be flexible to shape my days around all the other stuff I need and want to do.
But I can do that because my work allows it.
So the only reason I couldn’t work like that is if a client, manager or company culture doesn’t want it like that. They haven’t allowed a rethink.
So that’s the first real issue of flexible working - not the hours / days but how work is created, how work is judged, how work is defined. And the skill of rethinking defining work needs a whole set of unlearning, relearning and application all over again.
And we know that managers are notoriously bad at managing so the chances of managers relearning how to manage differently is slim - ok that’s maybe not fair, maybe companies need to support people better to relearn (rethink).
And maybe managers could do this as its why they are struggling now!!
Which brings us to the next issue - leaders. For the rethink of work to truly happen leaders need to rethink success, kpis, how work is done, expectations.
And we all know there are more books about Great Leadership than great leaders - so the chances of any rethinking is slim. But then maybe not. What if people want to but they struggle with change - they just need some help to think about things differently. So there is possibility here.
And then the final issue that some jobs can only be what they are.
So are we prepared to think differently about what we consume, our expectations, what we are prepared to pay, how long we are willing to wait for things?
Are we ok to let go of the click and get the next day so that those workers can enjoy flexible working?
Are we ok to not be able to book appointments on our day off because, well, those people are having their day off.
This is where is gets complex, and hard, and sounds a bit too much like hard work. You might even say this is over thinking.
I’ve worked in a team that supported flexible working. It required ultimate team work - and it required compromise at times. For everyone to work how they wanted for most of the time, it meant all of us working to help each other. And it required immaculate work planning, sticking to plans, not shuffling meetings in and out of diaries, and being clear with stakeholders on deadlines and deliverables. It also meant recruiting people who could work like that. It was hard work but it worked. But most of all it needed us all to understand what flexible meant to us personally, and it needed us to get to know ourselves better. It only worked when we really understood how we worked at our best.
So maybe everyone can have 4 days, but different days. Like a universal rota?
So maybe 4 day week is a small bit of progress.
But also we need to help people to rethink deeper implications, and opportunity. Leaders need to rethink work - how its done and why.
Otherwise 4 days is just another sticking plaster. People will still have the same amount of over / under work, the same amount of stress. pressure, harassment - but in shorter (theoretical) time. Solving nothing.
And then it comes back to us, individuals. What do we really want?
Do we really want a new enforced policy?
If we are prioritising flexibility then we find work that gives us that? Isn’t that the free dream?
My friend recently turned down a promotion because she values her free time too much. She told me how her colleagues just couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t want the job. One person told her she might be suffering from imposter syndrome and maybe she could work on it ( ! ). This is where our preprograming of what work is, what is success and what we should be doing completely clouds our view of how we want to work.
There is a difference between rethink the world of work and how we do it, and how we make it flexible and more agile to help people be more productive, versus a rearrangement of hours and days.
A proper exploration today. Thinking out loud in action!
I’m not sure of my point - but I know my feeling, which is something isn’t quite right.
This was a tricky one to write, because my thoughts are newly forming. But then I think a good example of where its ok to share early thoughts because the only way to develop them, and see other possibilities.
eleanor
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What are your Flexible thoughts?
Jelly shaped requirement - love it!
I agree with 24/7 being the only truest flexible work pattern. In my last role I wanted to work the weekends my children were with their dad, releasing two days for me to be mum at home. Request dismissed on the grounds that I might be needed on those two days. And this in a business that operates 24/7.