Boredworkers.com

The few jobs that I’ve held to date all practice flexi hours. In principle, it means that I can start work anytime so long as I fulfil my hours and deliver on projects. In practice, you usually have to be in the office for the ‘critical’ hours. This is usually a time slice during peak office hours, somewhere between 10.00am to 4.00pm. While that is the ideal, it is rarely enforced. So basically, I’ve had a free reign over my working hours for the whole of my working life. While it is empowering to be in charge of your own time, it also has its drawbacks.

“With great powers come great responsibility.“, the everlasting words of Uncle Ben to Peter Parker before kicking the bucket. And how true it is when it comes to flexi hours. While it is not quite the same as owning and managing a business, the aspects of managing your own time is similar. To be able to carry it off successfully requires a sense of responsibility and commitment, neither of which I am particularly famous for. Proper time management is key, without which you’ll soon find yourself drifting in limbo. The temptation to goof off is very real. Inspite of my best efforts, I’ve found myself falling victim to its siren like call time and time again.

It is cool being able to come into the office later than everyone else. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. You get to avoid the nasty crawls during rush hour traffic. More importantly, playing hide and seek with your colleagues, bosses and customers is probably the best game ever invented. However, be careful that you don’t get caught up in the moment and carry it too far. Coming in late means that you’ll have to work later into the night. While it does provide you with a solid block of working hours with little interuptions in between, there’s also the danger of falling into a vicious cycle. The later you get into the office, the later you’ll leave work. The later you call it a day, the later you’ll get home and to bed. The longer you hold off sleep, the later you’ll wake the next morning. And the cycle starts over again. Soon, you may find yourself working into the wee hours of the night, or worse, the graveyard shift.

By the time you’ve realised how deep a hole you’re in, it may already be too late. Chances are that you’ve run out of time, out of budget, and totally out of luck. That’s when the adrenaline rush kicks in, and you shift into overtime. That only agravates the vicious cycle laid out above. A combination of the two tends to play havoc on your biological clock and your life in general. While your friends will envy your privilege, you’ll see it as a curse. That’s when all the hours you’ve squandered, playing pacman or whatever it was that caught your fancy, will come back to haunt you. Several months worth of work and suffering squeezed into a sliver of time. Day becomes night and vice versa. Your office hours and personal time soon melds into a shapeless blob that screams GET A LIFE!. Payback is a bitch and she’s come to collect with interest.

It is during such times of crisis that people find out what they are made of. Many buckle under the pressure while others find enlightenment. Those who break soon turn to a regular hours for solace. They submit themselves to regimented schedules. They trade in their flexi hours for the comfort of predictability. Sure, there will be times when they miss the age of freedom, but for them, such moments are but fleeting glimpses of a past long gone. Some will eventually pull together and venture out into the open waters again but most will remain in the relative safety of the shallows.

As for me, you could say that I’ve learned my lessons well. I can’t remember the number of times I’ve laid awake at night. My physical shell too tired to go on but my mind still abuzz with the problems that will be waiting for me the next day. I’ve become accustomed to the nuances of flexible office hours. I’ve learned to leave work at the office. While there are still moments of weakness when I succumb to the vicious cycle, it is under control. I’ve learned how to reset the hours when the need arises. Would I trade it all in for a nine to five? Perhaps, maybe.

How about you? Are you on the outside looking in? Or are you desperate to get out? Regardless of which, the best way about it is probably to try things out and see what happens. Just bear in mind that contentment isn’t getting what you want, but rather being happy with what you have.