Current Events > We need to move away from the 8-5 work model.

(+) Yeah! (+)

It served its purpose when it was created, but now times have changed. With technology, a lot of work is done throughout the day from different locations, at different times, for different reasons. Forcing you to stay in an office 8-5 every day is pointless, as most of the time there isn't enough to do for 8 hours every day.

At the very least, businesses should be trying different work models. Pay for output, not necessarily for hours worked. If you can get a day's work done in 3 hours, and of sufficient quality, why shouldn't you be allowed to leave?

Or for other industries, work is done at random hours, like lab work that is done in the evening, or meetings that are done virtually accounting for different time zones, or event-specific industries like catering and audio/visual companies.

If companies want to stick with the 40-hour standard, at least allow for more flexible hours that don't fall within the traditional range. Or allow working from home, as jobs are increasingly being done on computers.

This obviously doesn't include industries like retail or other customer service jobs where daytime availability is key. But even then, why do most customer service industries only open 8-5? I think society as a whole would benefit from having different hours. Have dentists that are open from 4pm-10pm. Have tag agencies, post offices, or insurance companies that vary in hours.

It's a slow day at work today and I could be doing something more productive elsewhere, but I'm stuck here till 5pm for no reason other than I'm being paid to do so.

Thoughts?
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Zanzenburger posted...

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Personally I'm so swamped with stuff that I can easily fill 8 hours, with more constantly trickling in.

Itachi157 posted...

Personally I'm so swamped with stuff that I can easily fill 8 hours, with more constantly trickling in.

Is this all the time, or seasonal? There are "peak" seasons in my job where 8 hours aren't enough, but once those peak seasons are over, things die down again and I have nothing to do for a few weeks.
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I'm all for less work.
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I handle projects at my job. If I have a few good sized projects all lined up in the engineering phase I can have a solid stream of work to go through.

When I order parts and wait on fabrication, there is literally nothing for me to do but wait. I sent out drawings for approval last Friday and the customer hasn't even responded back yet with approval/revisions.

I get maybe three emails a day that I need to respond to.

8-5 is absolute bullshit.

and the infrastructure of roads/machines/buildings being empty at certain times. why cram everybody onto the roads at 0700 trying to get to work
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The concept of 8-5 is fine as it pertains to the idea of "normal business hours," where you should be reachable at any point in those hours (minus lunch).

The issue is companies that refuse to promote any sort of work-from-home policy.

I have no problem being on the clock from 8-5, but yes, being physically present when there are literally no meetings or anything that require my body to be there is extremely dumb, and frankly, counter-intuitive.
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Zanzy! How are you, the wife, the kids, and the business going? It's been a while since I've seen you around.

I'll actually respond to the topic later.
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Drpooplol posted...

Zanzy! How are you, the wife, the kids, and the business going? It's been a while since I've seen you around.

I'll actually respond to the topic later.

lol, just got done with the "peak" season at my job. Haven't had a moment really till today.

Family's fine. Well, I don't have the kids anymore. Fostering just wasn't working out. Long story. Business still strong. Actually on the job market. I may be moving in a few weeks.
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If you have time to lean you have time to clean
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i work 10-6 and working from home is very lenient

and i'm still conflicted.

on one hand, i hate taking work home or working from home. as comfortable as the chance may be, i actually enjoy distancing my work life from my real life.

on the other hand, i hate going into the office, even if it is a bit later than most do. where i work, it's always crunch time too, but that doesn't mean i necessarily need to be in every day.

i don't know. working just sucks in general, imo.
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I work 8-4, have tons of work to keep me busy daily year round, and no one would give a shit if I took off early here and there assuming the work got done

I'm sure this will greatly upset the people on here who get paid to do fuck all
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mostly i feel i am here in case something happens not because i need to be here 8 hrs to do my job

but then i am tasked to about 300% time so they are trying to fill all 8 hrs
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And to piss you guys off even further, I can work from home whenever I want!
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Mods need to work more hours.

I work from 7-6. I'm so used to it now I don't know if I can work any other schedule.
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Trying to shirk on your mod duties, eh TC?
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Darkman124 posted...

mostly i feel i am here in case something happens not because i need to be here 8 hrs to do my job

yeah

I do of course support more work from home leeway and my job is pretty good about it, but I also understand the upside of face to face interactions in a lot of industries, especially idea industries. Like, I am suppose to be here from 8 to 5 not because I am going to be working that whole time, but because other smart people are also here at that time and they might be working on something that I could have unique insight into and that is more valuable to the organization than having me sit at home reading articles or whatever

that kind fo thing
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I think the 9 - 5 model is a holdover from the pre-internet, pre-cell phone era, and it will go away in the next few decades.

with high-speed internet being ubiquitous, laptops becoming more powerful & portable, video chat becoming simple to use & deploy, etc I think there is going to be a huge increase in remote work and flexible working hours.

IMO once BYOD is widespread and the old people retire, I'd imagine there is going to be an influx of people who are not necessarily in an office but are on the clock and will be ruled more by their Outlook calendar than by an 8+ hour workday.

The downside to this is that people are going to be expected to work much longer. The old model is that you go into work, do your job, and go home, and that's it, but now that people have access to email and voicemail and skype and w/e all over the place, you're pretty much always going to be on the clock. Have to hop on a conf call at 8pm to iron out some details? that's life
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I've been thinking about how shitty it is that we spend so much time at work/school ever since I was a kid. The feeling intensified when I started my career, especially when I saw just how much of that time is wasted.

I think my only hope is to work at retiring early.
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If anything we should move more towards a 6:30 to 2:30. Being dine with work when there's 2 hours of daylight or less is terrible
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Perascamin posted...

If anything we should move more towards a 6:30 to 2:30. Being dine with work when there's 2 hours of daylight or less is terrible

yeah im a fan of shifting hours to avoid shit like rush hour. if i was a manager of a 9-5 job, i'd tell my employees they can shift to like 7-3 or 10-6 or whatever they wanted, so long as everything gets done and they're there for meetings and shit
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I'd support this if it didn't mean being accessible 24/7. I'll deal with looking busy a few hours a week when it's quiet if it means that my hours are defined.

I will not entertain work questions while I'm at the park with my son. That's my time with him and I will not let work take that away from me.
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