CNBC.COM
With the rise of remote work, few employees truly need to be present in their offices for eight hours a day — and it's time for companies to adjust their workplace norms accordingly, says Anessa Fike, founder and CEO of fractional HR consulting firm Fike+ Co and author of "The Revolution of Work."
According to Fike, the standard schedule of working in-office from 9 to 5 is "really archaic."
"We've seen so many changes in every other area of our lives, yet we are still doing the same thing that our parents and some of our grandparents did in the workplace," she says.
The traditional work model can make it difficult and stressful for employees to juggle their other responsibilities: Fike points out that the 9-to-5 schedule doesn't line up with school hours, which makes it challenging for parents to coordinate child care.
"We cannot sustain this working environment with so many people burned out and disengaged," she says.
The Covid-19 pandemic marked a turning point in the workplace, Fike says. After getting a taste of remote or hybrid work during the pandemic, many workers are pushing back against strict schedules and return-to-office mandates.
"I think we are collectively just super tired of being told what to do as humans," Fike says.
Companies 'don't feel like figuring it out'
There are several reasons that companies may be reluctant to relax their hours and location requirements, Fike says.
In Fike's view, recouping office space costs is a significant factor in RTO mandates: "Lots of people who own real estate want to make money. That's why it's a big push, 100%."
RTO mandates can also be a "control mechanism" for bosses who don't know how to effectively manage their teams without seeing them in-person, she says.
"I think managers and leaders get lazy," Fike says. "They can get creative with a lot of these things; they just don't want to. You hear 'it's hard' a lot, or 'that wouldn't work for us.' What that means to me is 'I just don't feel like figuring it out.'"
Lack of flexibility is a major motivation for employees seek other jobs or leave the workplace altogether in favor of freelance or contract work, Fike says.
"They're really just fed up with someone telling them where and when they can work, and where and when they can have lunch," she says. "We're adults. Do we really want to be told this?"
The future of work is flexible
The key to a successful workplace is "asking people what they need," Fike says.
Many Gen Z employees prioritize coming into the office so that they can learn from their peers. On the other hand, there are plenty of workers "who never want to go to an office again – and that's OK, too," she says.
Not everyone feels most productive between the hours of 9 and 5, Fike says.
"There's so many different ways that our brains work, and yet we want to pigeonhole every single human being that's nuanced and complicated into the exact same way of working — and then we wonder why it doesn't work."
Fike says that she didn't figure out her prime productivity hours until she stopped working in a corporate setting.
"If we could actually help people discover those things in their early 20s, as opposed to their late 30s or early 40s, which is where most people actually discover that, imagine what we could do in productivity in that time," she says.
One successful strategy that she's seen companies implement is setting 'core hours': employees are largely allowed to make their own schedules, but they are asked to be reasonably available during a certain time frame every day.
"I always encourage businesses to just talk to people, set up various ways of working, and try things in in the workplace," Fike says.
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