Why the 9 to 5 Office Worker Will Become a Thing of the Past

“Employers don’t pay for unproductive time and employees get to work in a more natural pattern that adjusts to their personal lives.”

Doesn’t work that way. If you get paid for your most productive time, you would get paid twice as much. If you would only get paid for 4 hours instead of 8, you would only receive half your salary.

There is no substitution for meeting face to face. Remote work arrangements -never- work out as well as keeping your staff in the office. Even open landscape offices work out much better than offices with a separate office for each employee. Monitoring employees doesn’t work, unless you are keeping slaves in 24h-factories that is.

My ideal company would be open lanscape. Every worker would be obliged to go there to work 4 hours between 11am and 3pm to work on their project and share knowledge. Sharing knowledge is what makes it all happen. There would be no salaries; workers would all share the total income and stay motivated to perform at 100% the 4 hours they do work. There would be no slackers, people would be going 100% because it would be worth it.

An interview could go like this: “We have selected you because we think you are very good at what you do. Good enough to work here. We have a new project we think is worthwhile doing, and wonder if you are interested in joining a team to participate? We have many talented people working with this technology, and the infrastructure is already in place.”

Currently, people drone away for 8 hours sitting in cubes performing at 10-20% efficiency because they don’t profit from their work they do. Efficient? No. Sufficient? Yes.

If a worker is at least somewhat bright and interested in his field, he will start his own business. He will start his own business so he can pride himself at utilizing his 100% and also RECEIVE the true worth of his 100% productive time. Working your ass off for someone else basically gives you a silly crap bonus on the paycheck, not something you do for 30 years. Webcam at home or not.

John,

You’re not just a kid in your twenties, you’re a smart man. But I will say you have amazing insight for you age.

I work in cubicle land managing knowledge workers, and everything you said is true. Even the top performers really only turn in aboout 6 hours of highly productive work, most everyone else is at 3-4. There are many reasons for it, but part of it is certianly the fact the we humans are not made to sit in front of computers for hours on end.

I tell the people I manage that we don’t pay them for the hours they work… we pay them for the results they achieve, so I am very flexible with their hours.

Nice article. As a self employed IT consultant I spend a lot of time in offices, and a lot of time in front of a computer at home. My work day is spread out among the 24 hours depending upon when the problems occur and when I can access systems around other workers. (I am forced to do a lot of work at night, remotely, when everyone is off the network.)

For the clients I work with, remote or telecommuting is a big issue . The big problem with remote workers in a large corporate environment is the bias against the workers when it comes to responsibility and promotion.

Remote workers don’t get the water cooler time. They don’t get the chance to be seen “sweating” and they don’t give off the same vibe of “100% commitment” that the cube dwellers give out. Often they will not be given career making projects or assignments because of that perception.

Also a remote worker gets less of a chance to be seen as a manager by more than just their team. You don’t get as many chances to look “managerial” in front of others.

The water cooler, the break room, gym, the impromptu cake in the conference room for someone’s birthday . . . those are where promotions are made.

Finally, it has been shown that remote workers are often the first to go when there needs to be cuts and layoffs. It is easier to axe the person on the other end of the phone or email as opposed to the guy that you see a dozen times a day.

If you are career minded, remote working may be counter productive. A recommendation for any remote worker would be to be in the office at least a day or two a week to see and be seen.

GREAT post. I can’t say how many times I’ve underestimated a project because I was assuming 6-8 hours of productive time in a day… It’s just not realistic.

We’re actually working on a web app that will do a darn good job of measuring productivity across your day… For both individuals and teams. Would love to get your thoughts on it (http://www.rescuetime.com).

I don’t think the 9-5 deal is going to change, until most of the Baby Boomers have retired or died off, they’ve been forced into the 9-5 deal for the last 30-40 years, they can’t seem to let go of it. Most upper management types think that every employee needs to be in his or her desk by 9am every day, because that’s how they were taught. You also have to remember that most of these people have kids, mostly grown up kids now, but still kids. A 9-5 day is ideal for people with kids, they get the kids ready for school in the morning and get home in time to make dinner.

Personally, on my normal day, I don’t do any productive work until about Noon. Thankfully my current boss is not an old drone, he just turned 40, which for some may seem old, but for a guy in his position, he’s pretty young. Further, he doesn’t really care how I get my job done, just as long as it gets done. This is a very rare situation!

Prior to starting this job, I interviewed with a start-up run by some “progressive” baby boomers .. well .. they thought they were progressive, anyway. I responded to the job from Craigslist, the ad boasted “Over 50% Telecommute”, after the second interview, they were telling me that, “YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO BE IN THE OFFICE AT 8AM EVERY DAY.” Well, I guess they just needed to find some other sucker. After that I interviewed at a non-profit company, in DC, they REQUIRED their employees to show up between 8:30am and 9:00am every day, again, a company run by Baby Boomers; that was one of the main reasons I didn’t take the job .. that and they didn’t pay for sh*t.

At my current job, sometimes I come in at 6am, sometimes I come in at 11am. Some days I work 6 hours, on others I’ve worked 11 or 12. I’d recommend to you, talk about hours when you interview; if they seem very stern on you coming in at 9am, you probably don’t want to work for them, as they will probably be very inflexible about many things. Try to find bosses who are younger guys between 30-40; you don’t want to work for anyone who is too young, as they will have no experience. I worked at another company which hired all of these 20-something-fresh-out-of-college guys, who really thought they were good managers; needless to say, that job didn’t last too long.

If you want to work flex hours or telecommute, be sure to bring that up in an interview. Do your research, find out if your state offers any telecommuting programs to benefit companies, bring the figures with you to the interview. Another good thing to bring up is comp time, which is if you work a 12 hour day, you get to take that 4 hours off at another point and not have it count against your vacation.

Good Luck!
Paul

Ohhhhh…so that’s why I read bloglines for 5 hours a day and only code for 3.

enjoyed the article.
so true … but need more alternate methods to really get employers going …
employers have a thing for SEEING employees work …
hehe …

Here’s an interesting article on Best Buy’s corporate work environment.
It supports a lot of what you’re saying here.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_50/b4013001.htm

Thanks for this article. I’m in a 9-5 job for the first time and I’ve been beating myself up about not getting enough done. I’ve aways been very productive on projects when I was in charge of my own working hours, so this a new experience for me and not one I’m eager to repeat in the future.
It’s good to know that I’m not alone in this.

Nice posting (although painfully obvious for anyone who’s ever worked in an office). I agree with you 100% as I too am a 20 something year old, however there is one flaw to your logic:

To get in a full 8 hours of work every day, while only getting paid for “productive” hours would mean 12+ hour workdays. This means that personal/office time is serverely intertwined.

While this isn’t a problem when you’re young, I can see it being a problem when you have a wife & kids who don’t live the same lifestyle you do. Kids go to school from 9-3 and the wife will start bitching that you don’t have time for her at night.

This I think is one of the reasons that we’re still following this ridiculous 9-5 schedule. It’s unhandy if you want to be productive, however if you want to spend time with your family it’s more efficient to be mediocre.

It sucks, but I don’t see a solution to this. I for one love working at home and living by my own schedule. Work hard, play hard. Unfortunately not everyone sees it this way.

I disagree at the point of having a camera watching me at work, even if I’m at my home office. That isn’t really a good solution.

I use to think that most people haven’t the discipline to organize theirselves to work at home efficiently, and companies will really loose performance in the next years, until we get prepared to handle this kind of work.

Technology companies such as Microsoft, Apple and IBM could develop creative ambient, giving workers freedom to choose and responsability to respect.

In the last 200 or 300 years, we were educated to believe that personal life should adjust to work. Now you tell that work should adjust to personal life. Not one neither another, balance both is a responsible response. But responsability ins’t a true value to the youth (look, I’m 27 y.o.). Parents must change the education their children get at home, so their children will change their work ambient next.

Sorry for my awful english, bot I’m really interested in that important discussion.

Not very realistic outside of your field. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to be able to tell a patient: “The office is closed until after lunch because the staff anticipates a mental peak around noon, so your chronic pain will just have to wait.”
Some things matter more than workers’ feelings. Sad but true: the workplace just ain’t for pussies.

John,

“Instead, you could make the job require a certain amount tasks be completed”

The problem is, it’s inherently impossible to correctly estimate the time a given task requires if we are talking about knowledge work, because the work itself consists of finding solutions to problems we don’t fully understand before we solved them. Fred Brooks proved it for programming but it also applies to any kind of programming work. Quantification of knowledge work never really works – f.e. if you have a call center and tell people they have to take a fixed number of calls, they will try to find a way to end those calls earlier. If you tell them to solve a given number of calls, they will tend to give faux “works as designed, even if the design is broken” “solutions”. The only way to get that call center to work correctly to pay them by time, thus to remove the pressure and basically let them take as much time as they need to actually solve the calls. But if people are paid by time they need to be able to prove how much time they worked.

People who are more effective and thus use their times more efficiently are usually simply be able to negotiate higher per-time salaries.

I think Shenpen’s concern deserves a lot of attention – we’d all love the flexibility to work according to our own schedules, but we also NEED time off. When the work day ends at 5 (or 6 or 7, as that seems to be creeping farther back), at least you know the rest of the day is yours. But if you work just on assignments? What limits can be imposed on how much work you’re assigned? When do you get to stop being an “employee” and start being your own person? And if people are judged by productivity and can work as much as they want from home, the people who do the best are going to be the people who work more and more and more. The modern employment structure is bad enough for families and personal development and growth now. Do we need to make it worse? Flexibility is great, but on the worker’s terms, not just the employer’s.

I agree with a lot of what was written here. I suffered an illness a few years ago and find it difficult to concentrate for a full day now – so little breaks are a fantastic way of recharging.

I now work from home and break the day up with household chores etc. It means I spend a longer time “working”, but as I have done the evening stuff during the day, it really doesn’t matter – and I am considerably more productive.

This is a great ideal. However, business is unlikely to change to reflect human need and output. The problem is that, for many businesses, they work the hours they work because the businesses they deal with keep the same hours. I can’t see the UK publishing house I work for, for example, changing anything anytime soon! But it’s an insightful read nonetheless, and the only criticism i have is that I don’t think productivity really rises just after lunch. It’s a time when our bodies are pouring chemical energy into the digestion process, and we tend to be sleepier, perking up around 4pm when energy levels rise again. Bring on the siesta, I say

ab said: “Remote work arrangements -never- work out as well as keeping your staff in the office.”

Please tell that to my wife who has worked from her home office for over three years. She a senior-level IT recruiter for Cisco Systems.

Excellent article. I agree completely with you, 4 hours should be the way to go. That’s why you see so many people falling a sleep at work, they just can”t wok efficiently after 5 or 6 hours at work.

I disagree with the post, but it’s only because of the way our programming team works. It’s a small team, and we’re all responsible for larger things like DBA and architecture. Collaboration is key, and some of our best ideas come from two people standing in front of a white board with someone else overhearing and chiming in.

Our office has a work from home policy for those months that you’re pulling support, but having done those, I’ve never felt more disconnected from my team.

In order for the work-at-home-on-your-own-cycle process to work, there needs to be a lot of discipline and some separation. Try explaining to your 2 and a half year old who is potty training why they shouldn’t pee on your office floor while getting your assignment done.

Try explaining to your wife why you’re not listening to her because you have to answer this email on your blackberry. Then explain to her that no, you really do prioritize her over your work.

You have to ask yourself one thing when you work from home: Do you have an office in your house, or do you have a bed at your office? If you have a bed at your office, do not work from home. You will never stop working.

Chinese officer workers don’t mind being slaves. Actually they enjoy it.
But, the smart ones, working at a multi-national corp., that become office managers have the opportunity to embezzle millions of dollars and escape to Canada.
More power to them.

Even production or “factory workers” as you describe them go through peaks and valleys of high productivity.Most successful manufacturing environments moved to the 4day split shift work week years ago,some even use a 3day multi shift format.Don’t belittle the manufacturing sector,without them you wouldn’t have a keyboard and mouse to goof off with at work.Not to mention the moving vans all the mommies are careening around in.Have fun.

John,
Not to worry,I was speaking in a collective sense.What I find interesting are the psychological benefits of not being involved in a traditional 9-5 work scene.People,that I have observed, have become more productive and seem to possess a higher sense of self esteem when they have more free time to pursue personal activities.The workplace and the individual benefits from this. Maybe our society as a whole could become a little saner if the masses didn’t consider themselves “wage slaves”. Just my input,I liked your article very much.

the thing is, most of the work that is done today produces TOTALLY UNNECESSARY GOODS. In the process, the rich get richer, the poor poorer, the environment gets f-ed up, and people work tons of hours instead of spending time with friends, family, and in the community.
If everyone worked 1 or 2 hours a day, we could feed, clothe, house, and provide basic neccesities to the entire population of the world. Imagine having to work only 1 hour, and doing whatever you want in the rest of the time! The world would be so much better! The only reason that working hours have stayed the same (they have actually risen) as productivity has increased is to make the rich richer.

Farmers in the middle ages worked an average of 3 hours per day in the fields.
Hunter/gather societies worked an average of 2 hours per day
we work an average of 8-9 hours per day in the US, much higher in Japan and China.

Why has productivity gone up so much and yet we still work all the time? Wasn’t the promise of technology to liberate us and give us free time?

I say f*ck this system of wage labor. It needs some serious revision.

I agree. It’s a good idea to vary the things we do to avoid getting bored. We know that continuous work for 8 hrs. is not all work but consist of other things.

OK let’s try to find a broader viewpoint that contains both sides of the discussion. I agree to that the ideal way of working is to become self-employed or freelancer. In these cases whenever somebody gives a task to you, you usually give a quote on how much hours it will take and charge for the time. In this case there is no danger of extra work without extra pay. In this case nobody cares how much you actually work, because you charge your quoted time, usually, even if the actual time is somewhat different.

However in an employment contract with a fixed pay it just cannot work, you have to be able to prove how busy your are, or else you will be buried under work.

So the real deal is that I agree that the 9-5 type of work was actually developed for the clerks, factory workers, or bean counters of the old times where being there practialy equals doing the job and therefore does not really fit a knowledge-based economy. But the point is, the concept of employment itself is what does not fit a knowledge-based economy. In the long run, knowledge workers should be self-employed. But as long as you are employed for a fixed pay, working for home will automatically mean working too much for no extra pay.

edoj says “If the boss doesn’t trust EVERYONE, is it fair to let just me work from home? When you can’t trust everyone, rules must be made and enforced. Otherwise, we’d all be driving 100 MPH down the highway.”

A couple of things if the employer can’t trust an employee why bother to keep them employed? If you can’t trust your significant other do you stay together? I mean the unwise thing to do is stay the smart thing is to go.
The employer is paying the employee and for what? Micromanaging should be left in elementary school not in the workplace.

The Employer hand picked the employee, most cities don’t get to choose who is driving on the highways, I for one agree with the speeding laws because it sets a precedence and because we don’t really have a way to know who is behind the wheel licensed or not. .

That person could be say a minor without a license, a fugitive, someone who has had a bit to much to drink or whatever. The roads need to be micromanaged by cops because they don’t get to hand pick who in reality can get behind the wheel.

In regards to remote work, It depends on the employee. I have many designers who are three times as productive when working from home. And I have some who say that it took them all day to draw something in illustrator that takes no more than 2 hours (e.g. tracing a product for flash). It really depends on the individual. You’ll also find out who your star employees are and who you should look at removing to increase quality.

The company I work for already allows me to work remotely due to my touring schedule with my band, and with an EV-DO card from Verizon, I’m basically plugged in 24-7 with my MacBook. We use web apps such as basecamp for project management and have our file server setup behind a VPN. The only difference of being on site is speed to the server on large file transfers.

The tools and the pipeline are critical. Once you have these in place, people can work from anywhere.

9 to 5 IS A THING OF THE PAST.
ENJOY!

I work at least 11 hours a day. I am drained. How I wish my company can adapt your way of work but if everyone works from home, how can we come together and discuss things?

Telecommuting seems more feasible for folks who are programmers or those who manage them.
As an IT infrastructure services professional,i feel someone should be on-site in case any network device goes down to avoid absolute business downtime and to support users who are working on-site.

Just my 2 cents.

Cheers,
Anand

i hate work, i wish i were rich!

Is exercise ‘productive’? If your mind gets tired, exercise and especially relaxation can’t possibly help. With these I’ll bet you are still at the office…in your mind. Truly escape with a real activity, say for example, work. Build something, tear something down, pick up the leaves for that old neighbor. Do something that you can see the physical results. Use your muscles in a way that could make them sore. It makes sense to do something physical (something hard and I don’t mean sports) that does not allow the intellectual part of your mind to interfere. If you slam the 8 hour work day…then you are slamming the very people that make it possible for you to slam your door or slam the toilet seat up or down. Use your brain…what are your solution for these people? Not concerned about their day?

I am amazed that companies are still resisting teleworking as an option for their employees. I am less productive in an office than I am at my home. I am free to concentrate on my work(web programming), and take breaks whenever I want. My personal life has taken a new dimension, as I’m able to go to the doctor when I need to, without worrying about asking for time off. I work my best late in the evening, and I work with people in different time zones, so I am more accessible to them, than if I had to drive in the office, and sit in traffic trying to get home. The effectiveness of teleworking should be measured by productivity, not by monitoring if a person is at a desk for 8 hours. If the employee isn’t productive, then get rid of him, or make him stop teleworking.

you all did not answer my question

I am so for it. It is senseless sitting at a desk for 8 hours where you could be productive for 4 hours at the desk and change the environment to be productive at something else (maybe a part time business).

You have my vote for 9 to 5 office worker is rapidly going to be something of the past. Thanks to communication technology.

I’ve been in the IT industry for 20 years. I’ve owned my own businesses and I’ve worked from home a lot. I do like it and I can certainly be very productive accomplishing a well-defined task when working from home. However, having been a manager of IT projects and other knowledge workers many times over the years and having experienced many work from home scenarios I am against office-less, work-whenever-you-want jobs.

There seems to be an assumption made in this blog topic that employers only want some amount of productivity and that if this amount can be reached by individuals working from home on a work as you like basis then that should be good enough. Well, it’s not. We’re looking for more. If that’s all that mattered then U.S. IT workers simply would not exist. We’d simply use lower paid foreign contractors.

We know that we’re not getting 40 productive hours per week out of every individual. It’s unfortunate that we must operate a facility and hire managers of managers of managers of workers that each work 40 or so hours per week in order to run the company, but we’re not doing it because we’re control freaks. We’re doing it because it’s what works in the long run.

Here are some of the other things we’re looking for besides productivity from workers that are well enough above the minimum wage pay scale.

1) Communicating a vision and cultivating a corporate culture. Face-to-face communication is by far the most effective way to communicate, as has been mentioned several times on this blog topic. Search for communication studies and stats on your own and you’ll find stats such as this: 7% verbal (words – blogging, email, letters, etc.), 38% vocal (speaking – volume, pitch, rhythm, etc.), and 55% body movements (mostly facial expressions). I’m not just talking about communication in meetings here. I’m talking about from the top down every employee acting under the vision and culture of the company so as to nurture that vision and culture in everyone.

2) Loyalty (or at least longer employment and lower turnover). Labor costs are usually the most significant cost category for a company. Employee ramp up and transition times are periods when we often pay more for the individual than then individual contributes. Employee turnover must be minimized in order to contain overall labor costs. One of the ways that we do this is to foster community which like communication is best done face-to-face. Loyalty is certainly tougher to come by in the present world but I think it would be hard to deny that an employee will have a greater tendency to do what’s best for the company and to stick around longer if he/she has friends at the company and feels a sense of community and belonging.

3) Did we make a good hiring decision in the first place? Distinguishing a good hire from a bad one in the job interview process alone is tough. Having 30 to 90 days to closely work with new hires is what it takes to ensure that a good hiring decision has been made.

4) Cross training. Also seen in this blog topic, learning and teaching occur most effectively face-to-face over a long work week of overlapping work time. A productive worker who works from home, only communicates as needed, and yet gives us the 20 hours or so of truly productive time we are looking for each week is OK but it does nothing for bringing other less productive workers up to speed. If a superstar leaves the company without documenting his contributions or bringing others up to speed then the hit to operations can be catastrophic.

5) Working from home tends to decrease team communication and therefore increases the risk that miscommunication, bad assumptions, bad ideas, etc. will cause work hours to be spent on tasks that do not truly accomplish company goals.

6) As a manager, you simply must observe your staff working from time to time in order to see who’s spending more of their time at the office working towards company goals including teaching others, observe what’s being done and facilitate course corrections as needed, listen to chats about work topics to perhaps help, teach, or nix something that should not be worked, identify prospects for promotions, etc.

Having written against office-less, work-whenever-you-want environments, I should say that I am however for the occasional work from home day for well defined tasks done by employees that have proven that they can deliver. I like the idea of everyone expecting to be in the office on a set schedule, and having the obligation to be available to do so, while selectively granting days to work from home when it makes sense.

If you think of yourself as an individual worker who trades time for money then perhaps much of my argument in this post does not make sense to you. You are probably already formulating your counter arguments. But if you think like a business owner or a manager with the long term viability of the company as a fundamental goal then you might just open up to the idea that it is best to have employees that work in close proximity.

I’m surprised to know we are most productive in the beginning of the day. It makes sense, we don’t get distracted at the beginning of day and easier to stay focused.

Quite interesting facts mentioned, thanks for sharing.

James

An interesting post.

I have just left a job after 30 years of 8 hour working days – initially it was 9-5 but then shift work. Whatever the hours, I rarely got 8 hours work in each day and much of that was not very productive, anyway. I do now work from home and can see the differences. In fact, I am struggling to cope with the work I now have to do!

In an office environment, too much time is wasted through pointless meetings and office politics. I used to work for a CEO who, when he found out a manager was in a meeting, would demand ‘Yes, but is he achieving anything in this meeting?’

At home, I work an hour and have a 15 minute break. The initial reason is I have a back challenge and need to flex my back after an hour. It also gives me a mental rest as well as I can do a little housework or gardening in that break, so I come back refreshed and so more effective. But it is too easy to be distracted.

I’m not sure I can see a time yet that 9-5 working hours will be removed as it does work for some industries and, in any case, as has already been said, there is too much inertia against it. However, you do start the thinking about at least flexibility in hours worked and what jobs could be covered from home.

Anyway, time for my break…..

maybe you should do real work. instead of posting this up. obviously you are ranting because you don’t like your job. i am fine working my 8 hours in, but just like the VERY first post, you work what you earned and you obviously deserve nothing for your complaining.

While I feel that the article was dead-on about the rise of alternative work arrangements and the failings of the traditional 9-to-5 world of the cube, the most fascinating thing was reading some of the responses.

Most have been positive but a few have been from people who are still clinging to the notion that work with traditional hours/in an office is the best way, and that form of work will never go away. Sometimes we cling to outdated trends/ideas because if there were something better out there, we might not be “good enough” embrace it. So we attack it and pretend to enjoy what we have.

I work as a self-employed web developer, completely remotely with my own hours. I wouldn’t have it any other way – and I’m far more productive than I would be were I trapped in an office every day. I certainly don’t need “babysitting” by my employer, and I’m sure many of you out there who are also trapped in the 9-to-5 world don’t need it either!

If you can do your work remotely *just as effectively* as at the physical office, then so can someone in Chindia at 1/10th your salary.

if i am handling new projects. And that also will be compleated within the day.because of production people will not provide the productds in time. i am working daily 12hours a day. And also our management also not give the correct plane.

Absolutely you are right. I will agree with you. You are sharing very good information. Most of the people are working 8 to 9 hours continuously. So they lose the ability to concentrate effectively on the work, then they will get sleep. Your article is too good. Keep going on…

CORRECTION!!!

Thank God I’m a SoldierGirl4Real! I joined the military when I was 17. I am currently still serving because I love the Military Concept of Work. There are no 8 hours in the office. The branch I serve, allows me to be flexible in my schedule. I am an Information Technology specialist(Telecommunications)where I install wiring for voice and data connectivity along with additional tasks. I have a traveling kit such as a laptop, toolkit, tool belt that I manage with. I have a desktop which I have to dust off every friday because my time is spent on doing multiple things that are within my scope of work. my shedule changes based on my agenda for that day. My employer is family and friends oriented. If you can see me now, you would not believe what you see. I am 46 years old feel and look like my daugher who is 23 years old. What the military taught me was God and Country! Not Money and Time! Balance is the key to flexibility when well-organized!

I’m only really productive for about 1/2 hour a day; so I hope I can get a future job that offers this. I really need it.

Hey everyone. I hated working a 9 to 5 job. It completely sucked. Everyday waking up and slopping off to work. By the time I got out all I wanted was a drink. It made my life dull and boring. I wasn’t happy with it is what the problem was. Then I learned a few things and changed that. Get what you need to quit your 9 to 5 today. Start being happy for once. Imagine waking up and not having to even commute. It is possible and I how you decide to get started soon.

Adam,

About the revolution thing. I want it to happen. I don’t think it will. There is a part of me that wants to do something big. Something huge. I guess I want meaning in my life. I am ignorant and do not know much about revolutions.

Our lives consist of the following: waking up, eating, sex and sleep. (Give or take some parts) There is nothing else we need. We need food, mates and shelter. Money is not part of the life cycle. It is about value.

I value my life, Adam. I am scared but I want to do this. I want to be free. I want to be an animal again. I want to run into the desert naked. I want to take my clothes off and be naked in the desert. Like an animal.

Your laughing. It’s funny. But it’s only funny because you have been taught through socialization that people wear clothes, go to work, get married, get divorced, retire and play bingo the rest of their lives.

If you think that is how I should live, then I ask you to kill me, Adam.

I want to be free. If I am going to die, then god damn it, Adam, I am going to live how I want. I have nothing to lose. I am losing time. One man on one planet with one desire.

We always talk but we never do. We’re so afraid of change. Why is that? Why do we do that? And we always kill those who are for change.

I know what I want. I want to run free in the desert. Naked. Like the way it was meant to be. I guess I am crazy.

That is my revolution, Adam.

I was nodding in accord until you made this ignorant statement:

“The ability of a factory worker to think analytically is irrelevant, he’s either cranking widgets or he isn’t.”

I do wish you had to work in a factory where you had to be concerned for not only your safety but the safety of your colleagues. Until you have actually done such work, you should not presume anything and reveal your lack of life experience and say such things.

However, this statement rang as obvious:

“I may only be a kid in his 20′s,…”

After I read that, I understood your confusion, kid.

Hey HollywoodDream if you work 12 hours a day and sometimes up to 15. consider getting a new job. no one should have to work that long. I hope you find something better soon

I used to love working in an office in front of a computer screen, now all I want is to do physical activities – run, cycling, sports eat well and sleep

Isn’t there a job out there who balances all of these activities, I remember our parents used to tell us not to watch too much TV or Play video games, not healthy sitting in front of a screen for too long.

Sitting in front of a computer screen for money is no fun.

now that I think about it, any job that you do for someone else in return for money is no fun.
Money should never be the reason you do any job in the first place.

I myself have moved from corporate world into work from home environment. It definitely gives more flexibility, though it is a challenge to get work done on occasions. Like you suggest it is becoming new reality for lots of people, sure we will evolve to be able to get more and more creative and productive.

Not only will 9-5 be gone, but so will most of the jobs. Automation is replacing the need to hire people. Remote working is just one step closer to not needing to hire someone. This is great for the company, they can pay you less while they automate their online web business, then then can let you go for good.

Be careful what you wish for!

The less complicated you make it for the employer, they will no longer have to justify paying you a full wage or keeping you full time. The ultimate goal for the future employer will be to find an excuse to hire little or no employees. It’s already begun.

I don’t believe in the 9-5 office job anymore. While it may have worked in the past, it certainly is not a good way to deal with life right now. I think people are just making use of this work schedule because they have gotten too comfortable with it.

I don’t want to give all my productive hours to my job. I’d like to have a few for myself.

I first heard about this remote working idea when I read Tim Ferris’ book “the four hour work week”, and to me, it makes complete sense. I also agree that employee’s should be paid for the results they achieve and not the hours they put in. However, this does not mean that people should be on those ridiculous commission only contracts where they only get paid if they make a sale, but if we take a sales job as an example, maybe you could pay someone for the number of calls that they make, as opposed to the number of sales they make  or the number of hours they put in. 

People would be free to work at their own pace and be a lot happier. 

Remote work arrangements are a great idea, depending on the business.  Call centers, for instance, can easily be done from home with little to no change in company structure.  Some other businesses will find it impossible to go to this arrangement, though I can’t quite come up with any specific ideas other than those physical labor jobs you mentioned already.  

I think that some people would take advantage of this system to do less work, but that would be a minority.  There are already those people in the current system.  Is it easier to work from home?  Maybe for some.  For others they may prefer the office setting.

Some people may not have the discipline to get up and create a routine to “go to work” while working from home.  There is also something to be said for having an office to go to.  It makes you feel like you belong somewhere.

I love this post! When I am reading, linking, writing and emailing, I find myself struggling to stay focused if I don’t break my activities up during the day. Sometimes, I will do article writing for http://www.qmattresses.com/ and feel like I am just getting to the point where I can’t focus one more minute so I will change to a different job or task. Even that helps me keep productive but the best way, when it is possible, is to cook dinner or go grocery shopping or even just read to my kids for a bit. Then I am ready and raring to go again.

We are experiencing a major shift in the way people interact, live and work because we are being constantly exposed to ever new philosophical ideas through the global internet. Suddenly we can bring Tibet into our living room, or chat to people across the globe. We are discovering new beliefs and being challenged by the rut of our own concepts. More people are staying at home to create a new income online so in time our work patterns will break far away from the traditional 9 to 5 and this can only be beneficial to the ecology of our planet!

You sit in a chair while some grunt cranks those widgets in the extreme heat or extreme cold, yes your job must be hard for 8 hours.

This writer’s article reflects her age demographic’s reality and perspective, and it is important to consider and respect.

As Baby Boomers such as I enter middle age and, within the next 30+ years, start retiring as the largest age demographic in our population, the smaller-population demographics younger than us, including that of this article’s writer, will be intercommunicating with and assisting us by means of the roles and job positions that they will be choosing and carrying out in our society.

This writer’s demographic accurately communicates her generation’s perspective and experience growing up and working/interacting in a reality that has been immersed in increasing assistive technologies, e-communications, and the need and desire more to have to balance increasingly multitasked job information responsibilities with caring for selves, partners, children, longer-working and becoming-chronically-ill parents and, sometimes, even grandparents, in ever more extended family or other loved ones living situations.  The days are fading away when one’s personal life and obligations stop at their employer’s workplace door, and when their work responsibilities shut off when they open the door to their homes or apartments.  Work and life, in today’s reality and among the Millennial Generation in particular, are now global, multitasked, and in many ways 24/7.  Insightful article, and thanks for this.

here’s a funny comedy abt office workers

isolodchenko.blogspot.com/p/three-steps-to-nowhere.htm

To work from home is not a privilege anymore, it is a must.
Worldwide business is changing. The more technology is developing the easier it
becomes to work from home  and for
yourself. No more nine to five. No more yes sir no sir. You are you own boss,go
to the gym before breakfast, shower get into your comfortable clothes. Start
your days work in your study overlooking your beautiful garden. Does this sound
like daydreaming.  NOT ANY MORE! .
Worldwide this is happening with ordinary people like you and me. You don’t
need to be a Internet genius to be successful. Do you have a computer and
Internet connection YES! Then e-marketing and e-business is for you. Just think
about it, no more hours in traffic, no more people shouting at each other
showing signshooting. This must sound unbelievable. Remember all the countries
in the world are one click away. Don’t let distance and fear stand in your way
BE FREE!

Check out the links below this will put you well on
your way of earning the carefree lifestyle that you deserve.
http://profitclicking.asia/

It’s 2013 and my company just built 2 beautiful new buildings, cut our work at home days from 2 to 1 and they call themselves a leading IT shop. What a joke! They’re also putting us in suits!!! Wtf!

We should avoid hourly pay stop trying to count how many hours we should be working a day. Its not about the amount of hours, its what you put into them. I know this cant be implemented for all careers but it actually makes us more productive.

Also, I’ve always firmly believed in what Google has been doing for its employees…..NAPS. Every workplace should let employee take naps or just educate people on their benefits. They do wonders for long term productivity.