Flexible Working Hours – Dos and Don’ts

The idea of working flexible hours has been tantalizing employees’ imagination for decades, but, if not done properly, it can cause more harm than good.

Whenever I hear colleagues and friends dreaming of working from home, or waking up without the sound of the alarm clock, or replying to clients’ emails on a sunny beach; I am often reminded of the “island dream”: the goal of retiring at 30, moving to a desert island and living an idyllic life for the rest of your days. What many find out – and few tell you – is that said lifestyle might not suit everybody and, indeed, it might make you unhappy, stressed and disconnected if not carefully planned.

Moreover, the rise of new technologies, and how those affect our lives in and out of work, has created a kind of frenzy among psychologists, occupational health experts and governments who are still debating whether more flexibility can improve productivity, reduce work-related health problems and, in short, make us happier.

Here are some basic principles to keep in mind when opting for alternative working schedules:

1) Assess and choose the most suitable and realistic pattern

Flexibility at work can take many forms – flexi-time, zero-hour contracts, compressed workweeks, job sharing and many more – and identifying which one is the most suitable for both the employee’s satisfaction and the company’s goals is the first, important step.

Some employees might need to be able to come to the office later or leave earlier to meet their family’s needs, but others might prefer to work five days a week to have a long weekend for their private projects.

2) Keep your technologies up to date and functioning

If your technologies are not properly customized, they can create more headaches and stress to those who have to access them outside of the main work place. Furthermore, they can slow down the productivity of said employees who spend more time trying to access the programs they need to carry out their daily tasks than doing actual work; finally, they can hinder the communication with other colleagues.

3) Be organized and keep everyone on the loop

Some people work better in an office environment. They prefer structure and having their colleagues at hand when they need to work on a project together. Keeping everyone informed on what others are doing, regularly planning meetings where employees can meet face to face and arranging detailed projects help streamline the workload and it avoids creating animosity and resentment within the workforce.

4) Don’t treat flexibility as a perk

Often employees see offering alternative working patterns to their employees as a perk, and they feel entitled to ask more because of it. A recent survey has determined that smartphones have replaced laptops as our main mean of accessing work-related tasks, e-mails and messages.

Since we have our smartphones on us all the time, employees are expected to be available to work anytime, anywhere.

When this happens, even the most workaholic of people will eventually feel burnt out. It is important to set clear limits between private time and work time, and to inform those to the relevant employees.

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