EPISODE 030 - Career: Are flexible working hours a blessing or a curse?

Michael Seidl: Welcome to a new episode of the Get Shit Done in IT podcast. My name is Michael Seidel and our topic or question of the day is are flexible working hours a blessing or a curse? So to have a maybe a more common description of what we are talking is flexible working hours means remote office means home office means new work, whatever catchphrase you have for this, you can take and feel free to replace it during this podcast. So we're talking about new work. let's have it with this phrase. what is a component of this is also remote or home office. talked, I think a few episodes ago, one of the first ones we talked about being productive in home office. And today we talk about if it's a curse or a blessing. And first of all, I want to talk about the advantages or the challenges of new work. So definitely the advantages is for not everyone, but a lot of people having family, having kids to take better care of their kids, maybe in some circumstances when they are sick, they can be at home or maybe in a regular basis, they can stay at home and do new work whenever they have time. and take care of the kids when they need time. And of course, for other people, maybe for younger generation to maybe stay longer in bed and start working later or start working earlier and go to some private time earlier today. So that's the advantages of having a new work or flexible working hours. The other side is you have to be very Discipline and very focused on when you do your work. What is the outcome and make sure that you put the pressure on yourself that at least you want to deliver the same or better output compared to being in the office the old-fashioned way. So that's definitely the other side. So take care that you really make sure that the output is the same or better than

Michael Seidl: compared to being in the office the old-fashioned way. How to the structure to work in flexible working hours or new work is definitely to plan your time when you really do your work. Of course, it is... Maybe, maybe it's you feeling okay to have the kids on the other hand and the laptop on the other, on the, on the, on the other hand, and trying to combine everything together. My opinion that maybe can be, cause maybe they're sick, they need, they need care, whatever, or you have other, other things to do. But the main time should really be focused time. This like the same, you stay at the office and that's a very. very important structure that you make sure you have your time or your surroundings or your fittings to have at least the same or a better output than compared to being in the office or the old fashioned way. And I'm not talking about really time. I know that a lot of old fashioned CIOs CEOs or maybe newer, it is hard to make the shift. a lot of CEOs or team leaders think or see if you stay in the office from eight to five, you have been productive from eight to five. It's just about staying in the office. It's not the outcome, the old fashioned way, but the new way should be, or maybe it's a mix, but it is hard to control the time a remote worker is working, really working. It's more like the outcome after a period of time, after a day, after a week, after a month. So you define an output. What should be the output? Or you agree together on an output after a day, a week or a month. And then it doesn't matter if he's working during midnight or in the early morning until at the end of the week, the outcome is achieved.

Michael Seidl: And so that's why I'm not talking about make sure you work the same time. Make sure you plan your time to have the same output as you agreed or at least the same output you would have when you be at the office the same time. So I'm not really... fixed or focused on the time, it's more like the outcome in my opinion. But that's hard to switch also for me sometimes. But keep that in mind that it's not only the time, it's more the outcome that counts. And beside of that, what is also very important or maybe challenging is the communication to your team, to your team leader, to your colleagues, to your customer, whatever. So in my example, I'm a consultant since, I don't know, 25 years. So never worked in a real internal IT. I always worked for customers. when, before Corona, it was usual to drive to the customer, work at the customer, drive home from the customer. And the customer think, okay, he is here, he is productive and everything is good. And of course I did communication, say hi in the morning, say hi. by the evening and give him an overview of what we accomplished today. this, or at least this amount of communication and on top, in my opinion, you should do in the new work or remote work. So during Corona or when Corona hits, everyone stayed at home and it is still there. my thing is, think around 60 % or 70 % is remote work, what I do for customers. And I'm really focused on having a good communication on say good morning in the morning or say hi in the morning. When we start, have a meeting to discuss the topics and say goodbye when it ends my work. Maybe I will tell them I have to take the kids. So I will communicate that to the customer.

Michael Seidl: I think that is very important. Otherwise, when I'm not communicating and just picking up my kids and the customer is trying to reach me on Teams chat and I'm answering maybe an hour late and say, I was at the kids. I was at the coffee machine. I was there. I think the trust is decreasing. And if you reach a certain level, on the lower level of trust, I think it's hard to gain the trust again. So my first rule is really have a good communication to the customer. Make clear when you start, make clear when you end, make clear what the outcome is or will be and communicate everything to the customer. So like you will do it when you be at the office. And if you're not having, if you're not a consultant to a customer, do the same to your team leader, to your manager, whatever. communication is really the key when it's coming to new work. And also for the team. So we are a small team in our company or my company. So we don't see us. So we have no typical office to meet, but we arrange at least I think all three or four weeks to meet in a shared office. So we rented a shared office in the middle of our locations. So we met at the middle. And so we at least see us. every three to four weeks once to work together, to talk together. It's not about doing any private stuff. So we work, we have our appointments, but we sit next to each other, opposite of each other. We can communicate, we can talk, we can go to lunch, we can drink a beer in the evening. And that's very, very important in my opinion. that's something I want to keep. And that's also something we maybe need to adjust when we see that the team spirit is decreasing, then we need to do something else or something more. Additionally, on top we have a team cafe every Friday morning where we talk about maybe a little bit business, but mostly private stuff, what we do in the weekend, we did, past plans, whatever. So like you would have it in a company on the coffee table, we do on one day in the week, mostly it is on Friday for one hour.

Michael Seidl: And this is really reserved for mostly private stuff. And that's how we trying to keep the team spirit up. If we see that this is not working or we need something else, then we need to adjust. But right now this is fine. We are a small team and this is okay. So at the end, with those things said, everyone has to decide for his own if it is a curse. or a blessing. If you like the free space, if you like to maybe enjoy some family time during the day, if you want to work from home because it's more comfortable, something like this. The new work can be definitely a blessing. And if you have the discipline and to put the pressure on yourself and that is fine for you. then it might be a blessing. If this is not something for you, if you don't have the space, if you don't want to have the pressure on yourself, maybe also if your company is not, or is still old fashioned and they make it very complicated, those things might be a curse. So it depends on you. If you want to put the pressure on you, if you get then the advantages and the good things from that. then the new work might be a blessing for you. If not, it will be a curse. So decide for yourself, maybe decide for your environment related. If the new work is a curse or blessing, let me know your thoughts. So let me know what maybe you have tricks to have a good new work environment to keep the team spirit up and so on. Let me know your ideas. And if you have any questions for one of the next episodes of this podcast, send me a LinkedIn message or voice message. so we're now at the end. I wish you a nice Monday, productive week. See you next time and bye bye.