This week, people across New Zealand had a day off – a public holiday known as Labour Day.
Labour Day was first marked in 1890 to commemorate the work of a carpenter who fought for an 8-hour work day.
In 1840, carpenter Samuel Parnell had recently arrived from England, and was asked by an owner in Wellington to build a store. He said yes, but that he would only work for a set time. A person, he said, should have eight hours for sleep and eight hours for recreation, and therefore only work for the eight hours that were left.
The owner wasn’t keen, but given that there weren’t many carpenters available at the time, Samuel got his agreement. Subsequently he enlisted the support of other workers arriving on ships from overseas, and in October 1840 a meeting of Wellington workmen reportedly resolved to work from 8am to 5pm each day.
By 1890, the eight-hour day was standard for most tradesmen and labourers, but many others still worked longer hours. The unions campaigned to get the government to enshrine working hours in law, but this took a while. What the government did do in 1890 was to create Labour Day as a public holiday, one which New Zealand still celebrates today.
Today, a lot of us take the concept of an eight-hour day as a given. But that doesn’t necessarily work for everyone. In the modern workplace, there are many options for flexible working.
Five ways to make work more flexible
Not every option will suit every organisation. Some roles require on-site cover, set service hours or close collaboration. But that doesn’t mean there is no room for flexibility.
Flexible start/finish times: Flexible start and finish times can help employees manage school pick-ups, appointments and commuting. Staggered hours or adjusted schedules can offer flexibility without reducing someone’s hours. From an organisational perspective, it can help to offer services over a longer total period of time too, if you have employees starting and finishing at different times.
Chronoworking: A variation on flexible start/finish times, chronoworking allows people to change their working patterns to suit their body clocks. Morning larks can start early while night owls can start and finish later.
Results-Only Work Environments (ROWE): In this set-up, employees don’t have to do set days, or even a set number of hours, as long as they can meet their performance deliverables and targets. This gives employees more control over how they organise their day, while still giving organisations confidence that the work is getting done.
Part-time work and job sharing. Some roles can be easily filled by part-time work, which can appeal to job seekers such as parents returning to work or people who want to be semi-retired. Where roles do need to be full-time, job sharing can add flexibility and widen the pool of potential candidates.
Condensed hours: This can take two forms. One is allowing employees to work their set number of hours over fewer days, for example, a nine-day fortnight. This might involve working longer hours on the actual worked days but gives the benefit of days off during the week. The other option is the 4-day working week where companies offer employees the chance to work four days but get paid for five.
Remote or hybrid working: This can take various forms, from fully remote working to agreeing that employees work in the office on set days or attend in-office meetings.
How to approach flexible working in an organisation
Start by asking employees. Ask employees what would help them manage their work and other commitments, then consider what’s practical for their roles and the organisation. It’s also worth checking whether your existing policies work in practice.
Set boundaries around availability. Flexible working loses its benefits if you don’t set boundaries around it and just assume employees are available anyway. Agree on when people are expected to be available, encourage proper breaks and leave, and normalise not having to respond to emails on evenings or weekends.
Don’t forget to check workloads as well as working arrangements. Working from home or flexible start times won’t solve the problem if someone still has too much to do within the available hours.
As an employee, you can raise the idea of flexible working with your organisation’s leaders. Be prepared with a plan of how your flexible arrangement will work and how you will continue to meet any targets or agreed work output. You may need to compromise, so be prepared to do that.