The COVID 19 pandemic created a lot of problems for us, but the social distancing requirements and lockdown also threw up some new possibilities. We found that it was possible to work from home and ditch the stress of the daily commute. We discovered the joys of working in our pyjamas, and not having to buy formal workwear. We discovered flexible hours! But now, a couple of years on flexible working hours don’t seem to be as great as we first thought:
People thought that they would be able to save time and effort on their commute and work in their own time. That would give them more time to do stuff around the house and maybe even some more leisure time. However, things didn’t quite turn out as expected.
There is something to be said about a having a regular routine so that things get done when they are supposed to. However flexible hours can mean irregular working sleep timings, procrastination and all that hard-won discipline going for a toss.
A lot of people found that ‘flexible working hours’ became a euphemism for more work being piled on to them, longer working hours and no fixed time to actually clock off. It turned into an always-on-duty kind of gig.
Employees had expected to be able to get more time to sleep in, enjoy leisure time and chill. That didn’t happen because a lot of bosses took flexible hours as an excuse to assign extra work, schedule zoom calls at unearthly hours and to intrude on personal employee time.
In many cases, flexible became code for ‘extra’ or ‘beyond working hours’ or ‘more’. Employees thought they were getting a good deal but bosses found that they had got the better deal.
Earlier, employees could call in sick or make some excuse for when they wanted some personal time. Alas, those don’t seem to work any longer.
‘Flexible hours’ has come to mean – as flexible as the boss needs you to be. However if the employee wants the boss to be flexible, that doesn’t seem to work as well.
Because there is no routine and work tends to intrude so much on personal time, health and mental wellness can suffer. Motivation may be low and productivity may actually fall.
It can feel as though one is working all the time. The hours of the day and night blur into each other and there seems to be no time at which one can actually clock off work.
Expected to be the primary caregivers at home, flexible working hours can be even worse for women. While regular working hours meant that there would be someone else also doing their bit of household chores, the so-called flexible hours would mean that women are left to pick up all the slack. The entitled man-baby at home can be more difficult and more demanding than actual children – because she supposedly enjoys ‘flexible hours’ – code for always on duty.
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