Published on
Updated
Reading 2 min.
A few decades ago, Dolly Parton sang the virtues of classic office hours in “9 to 5.” But those days seem to be over. Many employees find that these hours no longer correspond to their work rhythm, according to an American survey.
In detail, 57% of Americans questioned as part of a survey by the Financial Technology Association* believe that traditional office hours do not suit them. This is due to the fact that more and more workers are working atypical hours, whether during the week in the evenings but also on weekends.
The explosion in the use of teleworking has a lot to do with it, as does the intensification of the pace of work. Employees are increasingly complaining that their workload does not allow them to accomplish the professional tasks assigned to them during office hours, which feeds a feeling of permanent pressure and cognitive overload.
The phenomenon is such that 51% of respondents declare that the lack of flexibility in working hours is no longer in keeping with the times. They would like more flexibility in their work and meeting schedules to find a better balance between their personal and professional obligations. This is why they tend to show a keen interest in different working time arrangements, including the four-day week and asynchronous work.
Soon the era of “chronoworking”?
Employers would do well to take more consideration of their employees’ time preferences to help them improve productivity. Because employees are not efficient at the same time of day, some being more “morning people” than others. Early risers are generally more efficient at the start of the day but their performance declines as time passes. Conversely, “evening” people often struggle to get up to go to the office or start their day by teleworking. They are in great shape in the evening, which theoretically makes them unsuitable for standard professional life.
In any case, this is what Finnish researchers say in a study, published in 2021 in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine. They found that evening workers perform half as poorly at work as their morning counterparts. And this, regardless of their gender, their usual sleep time or even their working hours.
Voices are being raised for those in the world of work to rethink organizational methods in relation to flexibility and, more generally, quality of life. “Chronoworking” is one of them. This portmanteau word, resulting from the contraction of “time” (“chrono” in Latin) and “work” (“working” in English), designates a practice which consists of adapting the work rhythms of employees according to the everyone’s biological clock. Enough to make traditional office hours even more obsolete.
*This survey was carried out by OnePoll, on behalf of the Financial Technology Association, among 2,000 American employees. Data was collected online between February 23 and 29, 2024.
Slide: 10 toxic behaviors in the office