Is It Time to Rethink the 9 to 5 Schedule?
After USB drives and cable television, the infamous 9 to 5 schedule may be the next thing on its way out.
Our work has changed so much over the years, yet our work schedules have remained mainly the same. The 9 to 5 workday is a legacy social agreement that has been grandfathered in from a drastically different world from the one we live in today.
How is it possible that the vast majority of people need approximately 8 hours a day to meet expectations and complete their work? Does it make sense that the bulk of the workforce is expected to start operating optimally at the same time as each other? And what if your someone whose most creative and productive hours are in the evening? To understand why we should re-consider the 9 to 5 schedule, let’s look at where it came from.
During the industrial revolution, workers experienced harsh work conditions, long work days, and often exploitation at their employers’ hands. With the push of labour unions and government intervention, laws were passed that called for an eight-hour workday. This change then started becoming more popularized when Henry Ford implemented it. Ford Motor Company saw an immediate boost in productivity and, with Ford’s influence and stature, this move became mainstream and, eventually, the norm. Now, 100 years later, not much has changed even though so much has changed.
Virtually every aspect of our professional lives has changed since the 1920s, and so has our work. Manufacturing and work on assembly lines are no longer the bread and butter of our North American economy. While you can measure productivity by volume of work completed or products produced in terms of time in the manufacturing sector, you can’t do the same for most corporate jobs. Many modern-day jobs measure productivity by value. Therefore, time does not necessarily equate to productivity or even results.
Too often in the corporate world, the wasteful use of time is a matter of habit and the outdated legacy of the 9 to 5 culture. Being in the office or working remotely from 9 am to 5 pm, and being productive, are no longer mutually inclusive. This old way of being and working is contradictory to what research now tells us.
Working for eight or more hours straight is in opposition to the way the human body works. Every human being has their own unique daily biological cycle, known as the circadian rhythm. One’s circadian rhythm is based on many different factors, including our hormones, diet, sleep cycle, and much more. Thus, the most productive hours vary for each person. So, to create an arbitrary work schedule and expect everyone to be productive during the same hours as each other is contradictory.
Parkinson’s Law sums it up best. Work will expand to fill the time allotted. In other words, how long you need to finish a task will adjust to the time you are given to finish it. Since the 9 to 5 schedule provides 8 hours to fill, 8 hours will be filled. Work will swell in importance in correlation to the number of hours allotted for it. The same can be said for the many meetings held during the workday. Because everyone is available during the same hours for at least 8 hours a day, the perceived importance and necessity of many meetings accordingly swell in criticality.
With the many advancements made in technology and knowledge, it’s almost concerning that there isn’t enough critical thinking and discussion around a social contract developed a century ago. It’s time to start having open conversations so that our lives can match our modern-day needs.