When you work
Have you changed your work hours during COVID?
First things first: Happy new year! May 2022 meet all your dreams and expectations.
If one of those expectations is that this would digress into a 2021 year in review or a forecast for the coming year, you will be happily disappointed.
Instead, we will focus on a recent LinkedIn poll conducted by yours truly regarding the hours people now working from home are keeping.
The questions fell into the following categories:
My work hours haven’t changed
I start later and work later
I start earlier/end earlier
Work longer but take breaks
While it was a small sample size, 53 votes, the results were quite telling:
This survey proved more even than expected. In general, most work-from-home professionals and home-based business owners feel they work more but do have some flexibility with their schedule and can take a kid to an appointment or practice or go to the gym and grab a workout during a work day. So, it’s not surprising that trend continued with folks who began working at home during the pandemic.
The other results show some other interesting patterns with people who work from home. Most of us like some sort of structure. So, we will create a work day that starts at a certain time and ends at a certain time. It’s really no surprise that more people choose to start their work day a little later. Without trying to beat traffic in the morning, who wants to start work that earlier? Particularly in the winter when the days are shorter. Even remote workers don’t like starting the day in the dark.
The start early/end early is probably the most intriguing of all. There are some who prefer getting an early start to the day. Particularly if your household has younger or school age children. There certainly are enough golfers out there who know how to sneak nine to 18 holes in if you can end your work day at 3pm.
As always, the comments provide deeper insight. Here’s a sampling:
“Same hours for me…Although as a business owner, there's no complete disconnect.
“I am finally glad to have company! Finally, after 20 years of being a virtual company with employees in UT and MA, I'm not alone anymore! I always joke, my computer is one flight of stairs, and I would not have it any other way.”
“I'm self-employed so my situation is a bit different, but I've found that I like to start working earlier in the day while I'm having my coffee. It also helps me end earlier so I can take the dog for a long walk!”
There were some comments that stood out beyond the others offering a very different perspective:
“Work is fun for me…it does not matter when the mood strikes. If it is at 2 am, I get up. I do not use alarms. Listening to my body is the best way I keep the flow of energy when and where I need it. This works for me, it works for many professions. There are other industries though that I am grateful that people must appear in person and it's our responsibility, those employers, to protect and care for these people. They are the ones that make the secret sauce to us enjoying the opportunity to work from home. Thank you for your post, it gave me pause as I recall the days when there was a real fight over 'having to be in the office' versus WFH. Your post focused my attention on how luck some professions are that they can do this. To that point, for the people who do work for home, make it worthwhile for your employer.”
Finally, there was one that revealed the true benefit of WFH: self-care:
“…it's interesting to see how many work longer but take breaks. Many people I've talked to initially replaced commute time with sleep or exercise, and now have started logging in earlier and earlier. It's so important to find ways to get off that hamster wheel and take care of ourselves.”
Have your WFH hours changed during Covid? How could it not, right? Please feel free to submit a comment. Maybe we’ll do a When I Work, Part Deux.
If you haven’t signed up yet for My HOH, what are you waiting for?
And, as always…