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In the 80s, Dolly Parton extolled the virtues of the 40-hour week on “9 to 5.” But those days seem to be over. In the United States, many workers no longer work office hours. A phenomenon that is disrupting rush hour traffic.
9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a short lunch break at noon. That’s what the workweek looked like for millions of Americans for a long time. But the advent of hybrid work has given rise to new types of workweeks, including the popular “10 to 4.” Its adherents go into the office from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and work remotely the rest of the time.
This alternating work schedule is having an impact on traffic patterns. “There’s less commuting in the morning, less commuting in the evening and a lot more commuting in the afternoon. That’s the ‘new normal,'” said transportation expert Bob Pishue, author of a report on the matter for INRIX Inc., at CNBC. As a result, there is now a midday rush hour. INRIX analysts found that there are almost as many people on the road at noon as at 5 p.m., which was not the case in 2019.
Because the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the work routines of millions of Americans. Many companies had initially allowed their employees to work from home to slow the spread of the virus. But they have since backtracked, and are asking their employees to come into the office a certain number of days per week. This step backwards is annoying the main stakeholders, who are too used to the flexibility of telework.
Some employees who are required to be in person are therefore competing in stratagems to pretend to be in the office. They go to the office for a few hours, the time to make a few photocopies or to be seen at the coffee machine, before discreetly going home. The smartest also leave an item of clothing lying on their chair to cover their tracks. 58% of employees who alternate between teleworking and in person are likely to resort to this practice, better known as “coffee badging”, according to a investigation from Owl Labs company.
Other workers only come into the office when necessary, whether it’s to check in with their manager or attend a team meeting. They work from home most of the time. Americans continue to telecommute regularly, overall. By 2023, 35% of Americans were doing some or all of their work from home on the days they worked, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In this context, it is not surprising that the working day with traditional hours, from Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., is increasingly becoming obsolete.