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The benefits of flexibility at work

Carol Savage, MD of The Resource Connection, a consultancy specialising in flexible working makes the case for a new way of working

None of us will go to our grave regretting that we didn’t spend enough time in the office. Our epitaph is much more likely to be: we failed to improve the quality of our lives.

Perhaps now is the time to rethink the work-life balance issue, and really put it into practice.

Flexibility is the new buzzword in the 21st century workplace. And it’s not just for women with children. Flexibility is fast becoming the ‘in’ way of working for people of all ages, regardless of their life stage and gender.

What is flexibility?
There is a common misconception that flexibility is just about ‘part time’. But there are many other forms of flexibility too.

Full-time flexibility – this is where you perform a full-time role but you spread the hours across the week to suit your needs, dividing your time, if required, between the office and home.
Job-share – where you dovetail your work role with a partner or colleague.
Short-term or interim roles – working full-time but a month here and a month there, depending on the individual contract.

What’s in it for you?
Controlling your working hours allows you time to develop other areas of your life outside of the work place.

If you have kids, you may choose to work around their routine. Going full time flexibly could allow you hours say 9am to 3pm and then from 6 to 8pm, leaving you plenty of time in the afternoon to pick up the children and give them their supper before resuming work in the evening to make up a full day.

It may be that you can negotiate spending part of your week working from home. The time you would normally spend battling through the commuter crowds could be invested in something more beneficial to you, like going to the gym or catching up with a friend or even learning a new skill.

Next page: convert the sceptics