Let us rewind to 1975. Where did people go to work ? Who decided the schedule ? We have a lot of bias from what has worked for us in the past. People used to work in the cotton mills, factories and many other manufacturing workplaces. The job required skill but people were easily replaceable. The skills could be taught to anyone easily. If you woke up someone at 2 in the midnight and made him work for 8 hours straight the productivity would be same more or less.
When we started transitioning into desk jobs, we still followed the same work pattern. 9–5. Everyone comes to work in the morning leaves at 5. The nature of work has changed but we still stuck to our biases from our farming, industrial working days when it comes to work hours.
It’s all about productivity!
No matter what “brain jobs” you do; your efficiency cycle is not same. Some people are most efficient during the evenings and some during early mornings. The initial desk jobs couldn’t be taken home. So I feel this leads to a lot of inefficiencies. People could take 4 hours for a job that could take 30 mins if they cannot focus. The worst part is they could still produce low quality work when they would have spent 4 hours.
Enter the Tech “Savvy”ours!
With programming/tech jobs we did the same mistake. And it is costing us dearly. I have seen people solve a problem in 30 secs which could have taken them 5 hours just because they were not in the “zone”. We have gone one level higher where we are more productive in a coffee shop or the beach. Wouldn’t it make sense to finish the jobs early at a suitable environment and time for both the employees and employers ? It is a win win the employee has more time and the employers spend less per hour.
Conclusion
I think we should move away from setting times and places for our jobs. We will save commute time as well as make the earth greener and peaceful! Time to say Goodbye to 9–5 mentality!