Flexing about hybrid working

The four-day work week: luxury or necessity?

Today I listened to Adam Grant’s latest podcast “The four-day work week: luxury or necessity?” as I started my first non-workday for the week. I’ve been interested in the idea of flexibility (previously called work-life balance) for over 20 years – I even did my post graduate thesis on it!

Despite my curiosity it’s taken more than 20 years of working, mostly full time, for me to take the leap of structuring things in a way that better suits me. I have the physical and mental space to be a happier and more present mum, actively manage my mental and physical health whilst still make valued contributions at work. I’m not saying it’s all sunshine and roses all the time. There absolutely are hiccups and trade-offs being made all the time. It’s about being real with myself and the people in my life (family, friends and work colleagues) about what is possible and what is not possible.

There was plenty shared in the podcast that resonated for me. For example:

• recognising the change in perceptions about time and what constitutes a working week

• caring for others – whether it be animals, children, parents, or friends – is not only a 4-day week thing – it’s around the clock thing

• needing to rethink the linear life and what enables human flourishing

• considering the full system e.g., climate impact of working full time, economic considerations, and human wellbeing

• adopt an agile / experimental approach with hybrid working

Complex opportunity

Yet, I was still left with this overwhelming view that we are trying to apply a simple / consistent solution for everyone - e.g., 4-day work week. This will not really seize the opportunity being presented. I choose the word opportunity quite deliberately because I sincerely view it as such. We have an opportunity to better understand the complexity of the situation and rethink things like….

• How we derive a sense of worth and value

• How what we value individually, in our teams, organisations and society influences what we say, do and prioritise

• Test long standing (and often limiting) assumptions

  • leaders can control what their people say and do – you can’t and need to get curious about why you want to control anyone

  • flexibility at work only relates to where you work and how many hours. It’s so much broader than that and requires us to be flexible in how we think about hybrid / flexible working

  • flexibility is too hard for frontline roles – only if you have a fixed view of flexibility

  • the way we share information, learn, make decisions, solve problems, and innovate works for everyone. We live in a world of mass customisation – from coffee and tea orders to mobile phone covers and ring tones, laptop covers, and sneakers etc.

  • productivity, efficiency, and financial growth equal success

  • clear rules and guidelines in our policies are needed for managers and their teams to make effective decisions – well in my experience it’s often poorly thought out, poorly written and poorly implemented policies that prevent quality and equitable decisions to be made.

I could go on, but you get my point.

Get curious and engage others

Instead of jumping into solutions and actions we need to actively engage in open and curious dialogue with each other. Explore and understand each other’s preferences and constraints. Then we can work together to generate solutions that meet the multiple people’s needs – the individual, their team, the organisation, and the customers they serve.

So ask yourself what’s getting in the way of starting a conversation with your teams about hybrid working? Are you worried you will be opening pandora’s box and chaos will ensue? Everyone in your team will ask to work 3 days a week, get paid for working 5 days and never come into the office?

The organisational psychologist in me says that magical thinking might be your brain’s way of protecting you from danger / fear. So, perhaps get curious about your assumptions about hybrid working. What are your concerns? What evidence is there to prove and disprove these concerns? What experiments can you engage in to test them?