Flexible hours, a coveted perk in the modern workplace, may not always yield the expected benefits. Surprisingly, it could even dampen motivation. Let's delve into the paradoxical relationship between flexible work schedules and employee motivation.
A recent study by Kaitlin Woolley, associate professor of marketing at Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, and Laura Giurge, a research associate of organizational behavior at London Business School, found that toiling outside of regular 9-to-5 hours “undermines people’s intrinsic motivation for their professional and academic pursuits.”
This spells trouble for companies considering that (a) people do their best work and are happier when they’re fueled by an inner drive
- (b) surveys show that employees, especially working parents, want to work for companies that allow as much flexibility as possible
Protect time off to be with friends and family
Studies have shown that people are happiest when they can share time off with people they’re closest to
- Sometimes it’s better to have more constraints, not fewer
- Managers should consider giving everyone the same day off if that’s a reasonable option
Social cues about when to work are hard to ignore
Longstanding conventions about when we should or shouldn’t be working are not easily cast aside.
- Working nonstandard hours often means that you’re working alone, and research from the University of Chicago has shown that people are more intrinsically motivated to work when they have the sense that other people are working even if those people are not in the same room.
How can we make non-standard work hours more tolerable?
Researchers surveyed participants to determine how people felt about working on the Monday of a long weekend versus a normal Monday, to see how motivated people felt working a holiday versus a regular day, and to figure out what was generally on people’s mind while working holidays.
- On holidays, it turned out that people were “almost automatically,” thinking about all the places they could be instead, which helped researchers see the connection to the psychology of regret.
