The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed so many aspects of everyday life, not least of all in the workplace. The explosion in remote work is perhaps the most obvious example, but that foundational shift has also had repercussions in other areas of work life.
Goodbye to the 9-to-5
One example of this is the rise of the nonlinear workday, meaning employees aren’t necessarily working a steady 9-to-5 job anymore and instead are often breaking their day up into chunks scheduled around errands, family obligations, hobbies, and other activities.
“For decades, the workday has generally meant employees arrived at their office desks at 0900, grabbed a midday lunch, then clocked out at 1700 or 1800, full stop,” writes Alex Christian in an article for BBC Worklife. “The pandemic, of course, changed this. Not only have workers been doing their jobs from remote locations for more than two years, but they’ve also changed when, exactly, their work gets done. This shake-up has given rise to all sorts of new working patterns, including the ‘non-linear workday.’”
Personal Flexibility Valued
Christian says employees in a nonlinear work arrangement can do their jobs outside the traditional rigid 9-to-5 block. Instead of working straight through a traditional shift, employees now have the ability to work in briefer bursts throughout the day, leveraging an asynchronous environment that doesn’t require everyone to be in the same place at the same time.
Downfalls to Non-linear Work
Proponents of the nonlinear workday argue that granting workers greater flexibility is beneficial for their levels of productivity and creates a greater focus on outcomes as opposed to activities.
There are, of course, some drawbacks to nonlinear work, particularly when it comes to collaboration and availability. It’s hard for a team to work together effectively, for example, when team members are all logging in on their own schedules. Still, with appropriate guardrails in place, employers can harness the benefits of the nonlinear workday while mitigating the potential drawbacks.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.