Is the 8-5 “Business Casual” Employee Becoming Obsolete?

“Team members need to feel trusted and valued. Micromanaging communicates the opposite. Founders who are prone to manage every detail of their businesses ultimately serve only to sabotage themselves as well as lose the support of team members. Learn to delegate key tasks and give credit.”   –Martin Zwilling

 

The Era of the Flex Employee

I was hired in at my current full-time job during the final week of December in 2014. I interviewed for the position with two members of management and dressed the part, wearing a suit and tie. The interview went great. They were impressed with my education along with my experience using Excel to create and run reports to make business more efficient.

Once all aspects of the job were laid out during the meeting, I finally got around to asking some more basic questions in regards to the day to day operations and atmosphere of the office.  When I inquired about the actual schedule related to my office hours, I assumed it was going to fall in line with the typical 8-5 work day that I was already accustomed to working at pretty much every professional job I’d ever had. But alas, I got a very different answer…..

“Yes, you are required to be here working a minimum of 40 hours a week. However, we allow our department to work on a Flex Schedule,” she told me.

Hold the phone. A flex schedule? I had heard the term “Flex Schedule” used before, but it’s always seemed very vague and could really mean any number of different things depending on how a company wants to define it. So I asked for clarification as to what their flex schedule entailed. As it turns out, it ended up being the most flexible schedule I had ever heard of short of being able to work from home.

“Well, the building is open from 5am to 8pm. So you are free to work any hours of the day you want within that time frame. The only real guideline is that we do ask that you try to make it in sometime before 9:30am.”

Whoa! They weren’t lying! That’s a Flex Schedule alright! The 9:30am latest start time was even subject to flexibility. Sure they asked that everyone be there by that time, but if something popped up to hinder that they simply advised to make sure you alert somebody that you are going to be a little later. No big deal. I was also told that the actual days of the week that I wanted to work was open ended, as well. I could choose to work 4 ten hour days or 5 eight hour days. If working on the weekends is something that was ever needed, the office was open on Saturday and Sunday, too.

I was fairly dumbfounded. Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was fantastic! At the same time, I couldn’t help but think that people must surely exploit this. Not to mention, I was curious as to how that played into employee motivation. I didn’t reply in the most graceful way, but when they told me all of that I suddenly found myself blurting out……

“You’re kidding me? You actually trust people with that amount of freedom?”

“Oh yes,” she said. “We actually find that our employees are more productive this way.”

More productive? Wow. I never would have guessed. Now they were quick to point out that a certain level of performance is still demanded from all employees, and that if they saw that anybody’s job performance was suffering or inconsistent that they might then be forced to restrict your flex freedom.  In the over 3 years I have been at the company, I have yet to ever see that happen to anybody, though.

I most certainly didn’t argue! I am, by nature, an early riser so I had planned to come into work as early as I could every day regardless. I’d rather get there early and leave early as opposed to working late. But I loved the idea that I had the ability to shift things around if I needed to for any reason without being hassled about it or having to jump through micromanaging hoops.

Over the last couple of years, I have noticed that a lot of other companies are actually taking this approach, as well. Now that I am entrenched in this schedule, it makes much more sense. Morale in the office is always great. This was the first job I had ever had where I didn’t wake up in the morning and dread coming to work. It was refreshing. I have never felt like I had to rush around for fear that I was going to be late. If there are errands or other things that needed to get done during the week, I had the ability to adjust my work schedule around so I could get them done. The effects and worry about being disciplined for micromanaging type issues were basically non-existent. As long as you got your work done, nobody bothered you. You were free to come and go as you please. This leaves the employees to be able to dedicate 100% of their focus strictly on their actual job performance.

I actually now think this to be genius. It works. People are more at ease and relaxed. My department is regularly recognized for outstanding production and work ethics.

A big thing I’ve noticed, though. Is that most people still end up keeping a pretty set schedule during the week. They just keep it on their own terms based on what works for their life situation.  The mothers and fathers with young kids come into work super early in the morning (many in the 5-6am range). This way they can get in a full day and still be off work by early afternoon when their children get out of school. Other employees who are single and keep higher profile social lives don’t mind staying a little later in the day if it means they don’t have to come in as early the following morning.

I love it. Employee morale is becoming a much bigger focus for the corporate world. The days of working for the same company for 30 years and then retiring are long gone. With today’s generation of workers, it’s not as big a deal to jump from job to job every few years. It’s expensive for companies to have to continuously hire new workers all the time, so they are searching for better ways to keep higher employee retention. Flex schedules are becoming an increasingly more common trend in accomplishing that feat. Compensation, benefits, career paths, and other things obviously still play a big factor. But at the very least, if they can boost positivity and eliminate the employee’s nervousness that somebody is constantly looking over their shoulder and watching their every move, that’s viewed as a key factor in keeping people happier and focused solely on doing their job.

What is Smart Casual?

Similar changes are happening with employers when it comes to the once sacred “Business Casual” dress code. Somewhere in the neighborhood of three quarters of my wardrobe probably falls under “Business Casual.” Nearly every job I’ve had since I graduated college has used that model, so naturally I’ve accumulated a lot of clothing to accommodate it.

My current company technically utilized the “business casual” model when I was first hired in. Funny thing is, I often times found myself to be considerably better dressed than a good majority of my co-workers. Which I didn’t mind, but clearly told me that the dress code was only loosely paid attention to. I never at any point actually heard of anybody being disciplined in any manner if they didn’t follow it. Which was usually multiple people, every day. Fridays were always full blown casual days.

The business was recently sold to a new owner, and with that announcement they essentially quit kidding themselves and sent out a memo that we were shifting away from “Business Casual” into something that is referred to as “Smart Casual.” Nobody really understood what that was, but with some provided pictures we quickly came to realize that “Smart Casual” really just meant we could where whatever we wanted as long as we looked presentable. Jeans are in play all the time now. Technically, t-shirts and tennis shoes are frowned upon…..but again, people still wear them and nobody seems to care.

You’ll find that the shift in the attire that is considered “work appropriate” falls into the same category as the flex schedule in terms of employee morale. With few exceptions, most people don’t want to wake up everyday and get all dressed up just to go sit at a job. The only time it is ever fun to get dressed up is for formal events and special occasions. Dressing up for work has always seemed more like an unwanted responsibility, and just another thing to distract us from simply performing a hired task.

That’s not to say that one can just roll out of bed and waltz in to work after just throwing on the first clothes they find lying on the floor. But as long as they look presentable and just put some clothes on you’d wear if you were going out to meet some friends, what’s the harm?  My line of work largely just consists of an office environment that has little to no contact with the public when it comes to our actual job duties. There is literally no point in dressing “Business Casual.” Doing so only really raises the question, “Who, exactly, are we trying to impress?” We only see each other every day. As long as we are crushing it with our job performance, what difference does it make what we are wearing while we sit at our desks?  I, for one, don’t tend to pay much attention to what anybody wears on a day to day basis. Allow the employees to dress a little more comfortably and again, the morale and productivity benefits.

The current business model is all about profit margins. We’ve seen way too many companies fail that looked the part on the surface, but were actually rotting from the inside out. Now, businesses don’t care so much about what they look like on the surface just as long as they are making a buck and keeping the talent happy in the process.

I own about 50 ties, but couldn’t even tell you the last time I actually put one on.  Unless you work on Wall Street, the suit and tie days at the office have largely vanished. Technology has allowed almost any job to be carried out from anywhere that simply has a network connection. People and companies are adapting fast to a new casual norm in the name of better productivity, increased morale, and higher company earnings.

The Smart Casual Flex Employee is taking over America. One percenters beware.