My alarm goes off every morning at 6.40am (I’m not going to lie, that’s the first alarm of 3) but would I get up earlier to be able to finish work at 4pm?
Absolutely.
At a previous job, I was in the office most mornings by 7.20am so that I could leave at around 4pm. I never realised how much you were then able to utilise the rest of the day, squeezing in gym classes (which certainly doesn’t happen anymore), spending more time on making a cracking dinner rather than a quick fix, and of course more family time.
But are there any cons of starting and finishing work earlier? The earlier starts might work well for some, possibly giving you the benefit of catching up on bits & bobs, but the earlier finishes could be trickier. At PIE, we’re generally here till around 6pm and the team often stay much later than this. So even if they did ‘finish’ earlier, chances are they would still be making and taking calls to work around our candidates and clients. That said, we could do so from wherever we happen to be – not necessarily from the office.
UK businesses seem to be moving generally towards a more flexible working culture, with many now offering core hours working, telecommuting and compressed hours as options to employees. There are potential downsides to this from a business perspective but on the whole, employees are responding very positively to such initiatives which allow them to balance their work and personal lives outside of the traditional, regimented 9-5 existence.
Of course, this doesn’t work across all industries and professions but it’s definitely something that employers need to take seriously if they want to retain the talent in their organisations.
Two thirds of British workers would prefer to start and end their working day earlier than the traditional 9am to 5pm, a new survey has found. YouGov said starting at 8am and finishing at 4pm was the most popular option, chosen by 25% of respondents.
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