Are Standard Office Hours Dead?

Traditionally, employers expected employees to report to the office at 9 am sharp and stay till the clock reached 5 pm. It’s easy to envision workers dressed in charcoal grey suits funnelling into the workplace in an orderly fashion. Punch the clock, do the work, clock out.

Employers liked this way of working as it gave them more control and visibility over employees. They didn’t need to trust employees as they could actually watch over their work and make sure everything was ticking over smoothly. From a financial perspective, it also allowed employers to make sure they were getting the biggest bang for their buck. 

But, does this way of working actually work? 

Where Do Standard Office Hours Come From?

I believe many of our ways of working stem from 19th-century models for running factories. Employers during the Industrial revolution had a nasty tendency to consider man as a machine. With some going as far as claiming:

The soul is only a principle in motion or a tangible material part of the brain that we can, without fear of error, consider as the mainspring of the whole machine.

If employees are simply machines, rather than individuals, then it makes sense to look for ways to optimise efficiencies and regulate every aspect of their work. Taylorism, one of the leading theories during the Industrial Revolution, laid out precisely how employees should work, including specific rest periods and finish times.

While our society has evolved so most employers would deny treating their employees like machines, this is exactly what happens with a strict clock in and clock out times. Employees are not machines and controlling when they work, simply doesn’t work -- especially when you want employees to be creative.

Why Do Standard Office Hours Not Work? 

I’ve always said, “you can’t make someone write if they don’t feel like writing.”

Sure, this may not be technically true. Of course, you can physically make them work, but delivering high-quality work is a different story.

Expecting employees to work standard office hours, assumes that they can switch on on-demand and channel their creativity, passion and enthusiasm on your schedule. It also assumes that things like family, relationships and their personal life have no impact on their work.

Have you ever tried to motivate an employee who’s struggling with family or partner issues?

Employees' work lives don’t exist in isolation. Empowering them to bring their best selves to work and deliver the highest quality work, requires viewing them as a human rather than a machine.

Setting Objectives: What Matters at the End of the Day

You have to ask yourself:

‘Do you care more about when employees clock in or the quality of their work?’

You can’t have both as even the best employees will struggle to perform on demand. So it comes down to understanding what you want to achieve from your employees and the work environment they need to deliver that.

For me, I want my employees to bring their best selves to work as this allows them to be happy and love Copy House, the way I do. I also want them to deliver the highest quality of work possible as this allows us to create content that our clients love.

As long as they deliver high-quality work by the deadline, it doesn’t matter when it gets done. 

Benefits of Ditching Standard Office Hours

Our attitudes towards flexible working have allowed us to attract and retain top talent. Keeping talented employees is so important, especially when you spend time training and developing them. 

I’ve experienced this first hand. One of our employees approached me last September to tell me that he wanted to take a gap year to Australia.

Most employers would have parted ways with their employee at this point. After all, how can someone work the standard 9-5 office hours from halfway across the globe?

Now, this employee is extremely talented, and I had spent a great deal of time building up his copywriting skills and training him into a very strong employee. By saying ‘no’, I knew I’d be parting with a valuable member of our team.

Instead, I said ‘yes, he could move to Australia but still needed to deliver work before the deadline.’ It was a leap of faith and trust that he’d be able to keep his commitment to Copy House.

Do you know what happened? He never missed a deadline, and he’s still part of our team today.

How to Ditch Standard Office Hours

Ditching standard office hours can be scary as it requires you, as an employer or manager, to trust your employees. I hear your protests:

How can you trust someone if you can’t monitor them? 

What if they don’t deliver on time or take advantage of flexible working?

Throwing the rule book with office hours out the window isn’t about getting rid of all boundaries or not having expectations -- it’s about having different ways of measuring performance.

Rather than expecting employees to clock in at a certain time, set deadlines for their work and monitor how much they actually achieve. They’ll still work the contracted hours, so should still deliver the same amount of work, if not more.

For example, our contracts include a clause that says:

We acknowledge that inspiration can happen any time of the day, so as long as you work your X amount of hours in that week, you can work them in any 24 hours.

Once those guidelines are in place, we set further expectations in regards to their tasks. Before going into the next working week, every employee knows what they need to achieve and when they need to achieve it by. If work is late or not delivered, we’ll then have a conversation around why.

So, Are Standard Office Hours Dead?

Yes. 

Or at least they should be.

With only 6% of employees working standard office hours, it’s high time employers recognised the benefits of trusting their employees and approach a more supportive approach to managing employees. Standard office hours are not only outdated but treat employees as machines rather than creative, awesome humans.

Don’t forget -- employees are your organisation’s most important assets, and it’s your job as a manager to help them bring their best selves to work. Treat your employees right and you’ll see returns in spades.