4 ms·

I'm not sure this meets the definition of flexibility by most people. In the casual sense at least. I imagine most people think of flexibility at work to mean t

I'm not sure this meets the definition of flexibility by most people. In the casual sense at least. I imagine most people think of flexibility at work to mean they can come in late when they need, take a long break for errands, finish early etc. I think the key difference is that the latter type of flexibility tends to be largely unplanned, and at best communicated at the last minute, or even not at all ("sorry, I woke up late..."). I can certainly see the advantages of the latter form of flexibility to each individual, and the freedom it provides. but for a company or a team that needs to work together and rely on each other, this unplanned flexibility can cause lots of problems... whereas your boss's flexibility is complete easy to work with.

icebraining 9y ago
While there's no free lunch, I disagree that it creates lots of problems, and in fact it provides more benefits beyond that freedom (and the respective good will). By removing the predictability of each other's presence, everyone is shaken off their complacency and is compelled to actually coordinate their shared activities, like meetings. This, in turn, is very useful for employees who require long stretches of uninterrupted time to be the most productive, since it allows them to better plan their days. If you're in the office and you refuse to join an impromptu meeting, and which might threaten a deadline, you look bad. But if you're not physically present, and that's common and accepted, then it's the meeting organizer that looks bad. I worked in an office where there was not only such flexibility (people arrived late, picked up kids early, etc), but also some colleges had a lot of offsite meetings with clients, and it was fine. We just talked to each other (offline or online) in advance to set things up. No problems.
- humanrebar 9y ago
  > ...everyone is shaken off their complacency and is compelled to actually coordinate their shared activities... Some of this is trivial to delegate to a combination of tools (official calendaring tools) and people (admins). It's strange, really, that we don't expect technical contributors to delegate non-technical things more often.
- gingerlime 9y ago
  Just to give some context first: I work in a small remote-first company, and some people are in different time zones (or even travel between time zones). I totally agree that this can overcome if you "just talk to each other" (or in the remote/online sense, update your calendar or post a message on slack). The problem however I see is when communication is broken, which happens too often in my experience. The "Sorry, I woke up late", or "Sorry, I forgot to update the calendar" after-the-fact communication irks me personally and hurts collaboration. Perhaps I'm wrong, but my perception is that a lot of people associate flexibility with lack of accountability ("I'm flexible, I'll just take a break right now, and I don't need to tell anyone, because, well, we're all flexible"). To summarise, I would say that clearly-communicated flexibility works great. But it's an essential prerequisite for it working.
  - closeparen 9y ago
    This sounds like you still expect colleagues to be available for immediate, unscheduled interruption unless otherwise noted. I think the idea is to reverse that. We should be accountable to getting the work done, not to being available for unscheduled communication.
  - icebraining 9y ago
    closeparan is exactly right. If you're saying you can't work because the other person is on an unannounced break, that means you'd be interrupting their work otherwise. Coordination means finding a time appropriate for both, not having to pre-announce one's availability so that others can barge in whenever they feel like.

icebraining 9y ago

While there's no free lunch, I disagree that it creates lots of problems, and in fact it provides more benefits beyond that freedom (and the respective good will). By removing the predictability of each other's presence, everyone is shaken off their complacency and is compelled to actually coordinate their shared activities, like meetings. This, in turn, is very useful for employees who require long stretches of uninterrupted time to be the most productive, since it allows them to better plan their days. If you're in the office and you refuse to join an impromptu meeting, and which might threaten a deadline, you look bad. But if you're not physically present, and that's common and accepted, then it's the meeting organizer that looks bad. I worked in an office where there was not only such flexibility (people arrived late, picked up kids early, etc), but also some colleges had a lot of offsite meetings with clients, and it was fine. We just talked to each other (offline or online) in advance to set things up. No problems.

humanrebar 9y ago
> ...everyone is shaken off their complacency and is compelled to actually coordinate their shared activities... Some of this is trivial to delegate to a combination of tools (official calendaring tools) and people (admins). It's strange, really, that we don't expect technical contributors to delegate non-technical things more often.
gingerlime 9y ago
Just to give some context first: I work in a small remote-first company, and some people are in different time zones (or even travel between time zones). I totally agree that this can overcome if you "just talk to each other" (or in the remote/online sense, update your calendar or post a message on slack). The problem however I see is when communication is broken, which happens too often in my experience. The "Sorry, I woke up late", or "Sorry, I forgot to update the calendar" after-the-fact communication irks me personally and hurts collaboration. Perhaps I'm wrong, but my perception is that a lot of people associate flexibility with lack of accountability ("I'm flexible, I'll just take a break right now, and I don't need to tell anyone, because, well, we're all flexible"). To summarise, I would say that clearly-communicated flexibility works great. But it's an essential prerequisite for it working.
- closeparen 9y ago
  This sounds like you still expect colleagues to be available for immediate, unscheduled interruption unless otherwise noted. I think the idea is to reverse that. We should be accountable to getting the work done, not to being available for unscheduled communication.
- icebraining 9y ago
  closeparan is exactly right. If you're saying you can't work because the other person is on an unannounced break, that means you'd be interrupting their work otherwise. Coordination means finding a time appropriate for both, not having to pre-announce one's availability so that others can barge in whenever they feel like.