Should employers abolish 9-5?

This obviously wouldn't apply to certain professions where you have to be available during the hours of 9-5 in particular.

Should employers trust employees to clock up their contracted hours rather than making them rigidly work 9-5, set lunch, etc?

Should an employer not trust an employee to make up for coming in late, taking a longer break to do chores, etc? So if I come in to the office at 11.00am instead of 9.00am, can I not be trusted to then to make up for those 2 hours either that day (by working until 7.00pm) or another day?

Just seems ridiculous to me that most employers still adhere to 9-5 in a manner akin to school (i.e. no flexibility).

Reply 1

BKS

I mostly work in the voluntary sector where flexibility is pretty standard. You'll be contracted as 9-5 being your expected hours but in reality if your boss trusts you then taking an extra half hour for lunch then working until 5.30 is fine. In my last job my train meant I would either be 30mins early or 10 mins late so I always arrived late and nobody kept score because I didn't run out the door at 5 on the dot. to me that's just common sense, being totally strict about 9-5 when it doesn't effect the work done is just pedantic.

Reply 2

kka25

Original post by Lady Comstock

I've been asking myself the same question really. I was talking to a senior the other day and she said that if the option to work-from-home is brought back to the office then (some of the) staffs might abuse it.

Too bad some people still think like this... :erm:

Reply 3

MagicNMedicine

A lot of employers do have flexible working arrangements these days, variable hours, work from home arrangements. It depends upon the workplace though: if you need to provide a service, you need to be there. You can't clock on an hour after pub opening time if you're opening up the bar...

In general though the idea of flexible working time is more that you can respond to peaks and troughs rather than sticking rigidly to stuff like "I am coming in late today so I'll work longer hours tomorrow"...there's no point being there when you don't need to be just to 'clock up flexi time'.

Reply 4

Psyk

Where I work now and the last place I worked both have core hours. So you have to be in during the core hours (10-4), but you can make up the rest of your working hours outside of that. I think that's important because there should be a time when everyone's available for meetings and discussions.

Reply 5

Abstraction

Yes, because no one should have to rent themselves out for 8 hours a day by doing what they have no passion for in service of a company who tries to give them as little in return as possible. The sooner we work towards a world where technology is used to benefit everyone and reduce everyone's working hours so that we can have more fulfilling lives, the better. Unfortunately, I have little faith that we as a society will work towards abolishing this slavery anytime soon.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 6

kka25

Original post by Psyk

Within those course hours it's fine, but outside those core hours when managers start to have meetings and discussions, then it's another different story.

Reply 7

lucaf

I suppose for most jobs you are not working alone. No point staying til seven when you can't do your job without your coworkers.

Reply 8

Mackay

The concept of 9-5 is pretty much non-existent these days.

Reply 9

InnerTemple

I have a few friends who work in jobs where they have to be in at 9 have a set amount of time for lunch and a set home time. They are just office jobs and I can't understand why there is no flexi time arrangement.

I work flexi time and it is nice. However if I am feeling lazy I tend to screw myself over and end up having to join my friends at the pub slightly later on a Friday - pretty terrible stuff.

But to answer the question, yes I think it is in the employer's interest to abolish 9-5 where it is not needed. People like it and you get more out of happier people. Nothing better than getting out early and beating the rush hour.

Reply 10

username234673

If I were not available every day between 9 and 5:30, my work would be screwed really. I do tech support (amongst other things tbh), and if I weren't there during the hours when most of the staff were in, it'd be pointless.

Reply 11

username677182

Original post by Lady Comstock

This would never work.

For example, you may be willing to work until 7pm, but you may not be in a 'key holders' position. Therefore it forces someone else to stay until 7pm, to lock up the building.

Most jobs, this wouldn't work with.

I have unscheduled meetings, I have phone calls to take/make, customers to liaise with...this all starts from about 8am and will finish around 5pm, reason being? Those are the standard working hours most companies abide by. Which means it's the same hours my customers/suppliers abide by. I can't be ringing them at 7pm, I won't get any response, they'd also be pretty annoyed if they tried contacting me at 8/9/10am and didn't receive a response from me either.
If one morning I decided to stroll in at 11am, without giving anyone any notice, it could cause a lot of problems.

Having a company where people can stroll in and out when they like would work in only a select few jobs.