I was on editorial duty at Liberal Democrat Voice yesterday and, as part of that, I try to promote each published article using our Bluesky account. My first comment began, “The work week starts here…”, I posted it and thought little more about it. Until, that is, I did think about it.
I’ve been employed by the same organisation for nearly forty years now, working in offices on, effectively, a 9-5, Monday to Friday basis. I am, you might say, somewhat institutionalised.
When I started, in the mid-eighties, if you wanted to talk to a professional, or purchase a service, you did it between 9 and 5, Monday to Friday. Shops were mostly shut on Sundays, on random midweek afternoons, depending on where you lived, and almost certainly weren’t open after 6. Your initial approach was in writing, using envelopes and stamps, or by telephone.
You could still hope to find a job for life, in an organisation which had a solid track record and expectation of longevity.
And that makes me a bit of a dinosaur. The emergence of the gig economy, the internet and the expectation that organisations will respond over longer hours and at weekends means that the idea of a “work week” is blurred beyond easy recognition.
With that have come benefits for some. My 9-5 has become 37 hours, where I could start at 7 a.m. or finish at 8 p.m., and flexible working hours mean that I can manage my attendance to suit my needs - within reason, obviously. But, as an “individual contributor”, as long as I keep my “customers” aware of my broad availability, nobody much minds.
On the downside, the end of “jobs for life” means that the loyalty of employees to employers, and the respect of employers for employees has frayed significantly. If employees feel like interchangeable widgets, employers shouldn’t be terribly surprised if said widgets seek a more rewarding machine to be a part of. And, in any event, as housing costs rise, the need to pursue better salaries means a more opportunistic workforce.
I tend to think that a degree of workforce stability is good for any organisation. You need a core of people who know their jobs, offer an institutional memory and are willing to share the experience and knowledge. But you also need to avoid continuous tinkering with structures and employee terms and conditions, something that I have observed increasingly both within my own organisation and others. Change, especially poorly explained change, is destabilising at best, and damaging to morale and productivity at worst.
Forty years has seen radical change in the world of work, and the pace of technological change only seems to accelerate. It may be time for this dinosaur to evolve or die…
