21–30 of 148 posts
It's absolutely great. Unless you start having kids. Or work in an area where you need to meet customers face to face. Or both. Just like working from Bali, working from a van, working from a plane, etc. If you're a SINK or a DINK, go for it, 100%.
I've worked in remote jobs where, in general, people worked whenever they wanted, and we'd get on phone calls at agreed upon times if needed. I've also worked in jobs where we set aside a 2 hour window each day for everyone to be there, not caring if that window was the beginning, middle, or end of your day. Both of those scenarios felt more productive than "9-5".
Even with a 40-hour week, I would love if the work day was shifted to allow one to get sunlight for a few hours each day.
This is predicated on the idea that you're only really productive in the afternoon, and that the morning is just wasted time. I'm most productive in the mornings, and my productivity only takes a dive in the afternoon because that's when all my meetings are. Turns out, anecdotes about an individual's workflow aren't broadly generalizable!
I agree that the ideas aren't necessarily generalizable, but what if we shifted to an idea that people's individual schedules reflect when they specifically are most productive. Someone else who replied said they were most productive in the morning. Great! Let them have and earlier start time. For me, I'm completely useless in the morning. Sure, I can be in the office at 8:00am, but you're not getting any meaningful…
Part of the "why not" is a deeply ingrained belief in at least American culture that morning people are just "better" than night people. It's so ingrained that we mostly forget to talk about it and it's just assumed. "Early bird catches the worm" and all that.
I once saw a workplace where there were night-person-friendly policies and schedules. Then one insanely morning person joins and wants to leave at 3:30 every day. Suddenly all of his scheduling preferences were presumed valid, and all night-person preferences had to be fought for and justified.
So if you want to reach a world with truly optimal flexible schedules, first you'll need to wrest ownership of the culture from the "morning people are better" people who currently dominate it.
I'm sure it sounds like I'm being pithy, but you fall into line when your kids get home at 4 and you want to spend time with them before they go to bed at 8.
Maybe his point stands in some sense, but once you add kids into the mix it quickly becomes "9-5" again or "burning the candle at both ends."
I live in a region where winter days are very short. I go to work and it's dark, I leave work and it's dark. I don't understand why we have decided to go sit in buildings during daylight hours. Even with a 40-hour week, I would love if the work day was shifted to allow one to get sunlight for a few hours each day.
I live in a region where winter days are very short. I go to work and it's dark, I leave work and it's dark. I don't understand why we have decided to go sit in buildings during daylight hours. Even with a 40-hour week, I would love if the work day was shifted to allow one to get sunlight for a few hours each day.
Nice idea but probably not written by someone who writes code or debugs for a living. Activities that imho benefit from long stretches of deep focus. Now perhaps you could work like that -- 16h sessions -- for three days then snowboard for the remainder of the week. That might work.
I'd also be okay starting at a 1-9 if people are against the idea of working less hours per day.
Now this would only work if everything adapted. Schools, shops, banks, would all need to shift their hours.
Finally we could enjoy daylight. Imagine spending time outside in the sun with your kids and wife during the day!! Everyday!
Imagine not being too tired after your hard day of work to spend quality time with your family, hangout with friends, so household chores, work on that hobby project of yours, exercise!
I don't think its feasible without a King or dictator forcing this change though. I hope we did, the idea of working on the hours that the sun is out is old, everyone works indoors now.
Also, its difficult to gage the health and mental health impact of how little less sunshine we now consume compared to days past when we were outside a lot more during daylight times.