Flexible Working summary

Imagine it’s 300 years ago. What’s your workday like? It’s probably centered on farming. Depending on the season, a day of labor could mean anything from tilling the fields till sunset to staying busy indoors waiting for spring.

What about 150 years ago? Like many people, you’ve been driven to live in the city by the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution. Instead of tending to crops and farmland, your working life is 40 or more hours a week in a factory.

What’s the worst part of your job? Maybe it’s the soul-crushing commute that seems to get longer every day. Or perhaps it’s your badly lit, overcrowded office. Maybe it’s just that you’re always getting supposedly urgent emails, even in the evenings and during the weekend.

The reasons for work-related dissatisfaction and burnout are many. Some are broad, structural problems like organization and culture, while others come from more specific or personal issues. 

When Becci Martin founded Boo Coaching and Consulting she wanted to help businesses develop strong leadership and reach their goals. But she also wanted her own business to be one in which people looked forward to coming into work each day.

That’s a pretty tall order. Still, she pulled it off. With a little trial and error, Becci set up a flexible work arrangement that met both goals.

For more than 140 years, Zurich Insurance Group has offered quality insurances from its headquarters nestled in the Swiss Alps. In that time, the company has grown from a small organization to an international beast with more than 55,000 employees. Obviously, a lot can change in 14 decades. 

And yet, one of the biggest changes came recently. Zurich started experimenting with flexible work. At first, it was offered only to select employees. But the trials were so successful that the company expanded the program over and over. Today, more than 72 percent of Zurich’s workforce is flexible.

Happier employees, more productive workdays, and fewer mornings stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Flexible work seems to offer so many benefits, you’re probably eager to adopt it right away. So why not start tomorrow?

If only it were that easy. Unfortunately, you can’t just snap your fingers and make flexible work happen overnight. In most cases, adopting a flexible approach means upending systems that have been in place for decades and retraining dozens, or even hundreds, of people on new policies and expectations. 

OK, it’s time to talk about something that no one likes but everyone needs. No, not exercise! We’re talking about something much more humdrum: paperwork, rules, and regulations.

These bedrocks of work life are not especially exciting, but they play a crucial part in all well-functioning organizations. Running a company without written policies and procedures is like building a house without blueprints. Eventually, the entire thing could become unstable and collapse.

Let’s say you're a typical office worker. Maybe a programmer, marketer, or graphic designer. One day, an email arrives in your inbox. In big capital letters, the subject line announces, “Flexible work begins tomorrow!”

Do you feel shocked, confused, apprehensive? Hopefully not. If your employer did things right, you’ll feel nothing but excitement and optimism. You’ll know exactly what flexible work means for you and your role. You’ll know where to go, what to expect, and who to contact if you have problems.