Escape the 9-to-5

COVID-19.

If there is a silver lining to the lockdown, it’s that the pandemic-inspired, year-and-a-half long experiment has proven without a doubt that remote-work…works.

Prior to the pandemic, many people may have experienced pushback when it came to remote work policies. Plus, plenty of people felt remote work lowered their prospects for promotion. But now, it’s too late to put the genie back in the bottle.

People have caught on and now they’re wondering why:

• Why is it necessary to work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., five days a week?
• Why combat long, tedious commutes on decrepit crowded highways that may take three hours door-to-door round trip just to in a sterile cubicle farm with harsh fluorescent lights, little access to window views, sitting in uncomfortable chairs, poor ventilation and it's either too hot or cold?
• Why arrive home exhausted with little energy left for your family, friends, and passions? Just enough time for some dinner, TV, and it's time to go to sleep and prepare for the hamster wheel of tomorrow.

Except it doesn’t have to be that way…

According to Jack Kelly, CEO, founder, and executive recruiter at a large global search firm, “The change in 9-to-5 will eventually happen, one way or another. The Gen-Z and Millennial generations watched their parents burn out. They saw them laid off, passed over for promotions and leading lives of quiet desperation. They don’t want this for themselves. Being stuck inside of an office for hours on end feels antiquated and barbaric to the younger workers. They want flexibility and control over their lives. Eventually the Baby Boomers, who have done the 9-to-5 grind for over 30 years and are so used to the toxicity of the grind, will retire.”

Life is short, and you only get to live it once. You don’t want to waste it doing something you hate or don’t care about.

The best companies are realizing this, and are restructuring themselves to accommodate this new reality. The future of work is going to look very different from what we're used to today.

The sheer number of remote workers and freelancers is fast bringing the era of the 40-hour workweek to an end. People are finding that they can get more done in less time when they're left alone to focus on their work without interruption, and they're also discovering that they enjoy their jobs a whole lot more when they have the flexibility to spend time with family or just do things they love outside of work.

In short: we want our lives back!