We all work to different schedules, even if we’re in the same workplace. For instance, parents will have different lifestyles and sleep schedules from those without kids. Elsewhere, a colleague might be attending night school, or have hobbies, responsibilities or needs that require some flexibility in when they work (and when they sleep).
Additionally, we all have sleep schedules that suit our own needs. Some of us are “night owls”, who like to stay up late and get up late, while “early birds” naturally wake up earlier.
So, it doesn’t make sense to enforce the same start and finish times to this broad range of people and lifestyles.
Flexible hours allow staff to start and finish at times that suit them. And a compromise can be reached between employers and staff. It’s not uncommon for a business to have “core” office hours (10am to 4pm, for example), which means that employees must work those hours during the day, but can start early or finish late. Productivity has never been easier to track, so employees don’t have to be present at specific times for management to know whether they’re doing a good job.
A UK survey found that, “13.1% of workers use flexi−time with a relatively even spread between age groups and genders. Flexi-time working has been increasing for much of the last decade and despite a blip during the pandemic, continues to grow.”
This should, ideally, also expand to working from home, as employees sometimes need an early start to make it to their workplace. Remote-working, even on a hybrid basis, greatly encourages healthy sleep habits