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Many studies already say that one of the most powerful incentives you can offer your staff in today’s stressful, competitive workplaces is meaningful perks — with flexible working hours or hybrid and remote work models high on the list. Gen-Z, in particular, is enamoured with workplace philosophies that let them achieve better work-life balance. So it’s odd that one new flexible working trend, “microshifting,” has gotten mixed reviews, with experts suggesting it can result in an undefined and thus perhaps more stressful workday, or embolden managers to contact staff outside of traditional office hours. A new report, however, highlights some benefits of this trend, and advises managers on how to make it work for everyone.
Microshifting is one of those buzzy new business jargon terms, and it sounds a lot like a new label for a long-established worker methodology: work hardest when it’s best for you and your energy levels, rather than slogging away slowly but steadily for eight hours. News site Indy100, reporting on the phenomenon, simplifies this to managers encouraging “workers to tackle tasks in short bursts, whenever and wherever possible” instead of waiting for the perfect time. With modern work schedules punctuated by frequent Zoom calls, staff meetings, group Slack debates and so on, time spent in the 21st-century office passes in interrupted lumps — so microshifting seems like a great fit for maximizing productivity when you’re trying to tackle meaningful tasks.
Peter Duris, CEO and co-founder of small AI-centric career assistant service Kickresume spoke to Indy100 on the topic, defending the idea of microshifting as a “great way for employees to balance their personal responsibilities alongside work.”
For workers trying to persuade their managers about the benefits of this working style, Duris suggests the best way to gain approval is to “Let your manager and team know when you’ll be available so everyone can plan around your schedule. Using a shared calendar to log your working hours and breaks can help keep things running smoothly.” This may tackle impressions that you’re slacking off or are simply unavailable when a colleague “needs you,” when in fact what you’ve done is compress several hours of normally interrupted work into one continuous burst. To maximize your own microshift efficiency, Duris also recommends working out when you feel most energetic, and then “complete your high-priority tasks during your most productive hours.”
From a managerial point of view, if your workers seek to microshift and tackle job tasks outside normal working hours or on a radically different schedule, it’s still important to “schedule core working hours for the whole team,” according to Duris because you can then arrange to have meetings and collaborative working sessions in this window. Check-ins on a regular basis are also important because some people end up overworking, possibly raising the risk of burnout — an irony for a working model that is said to be better for work-life balance.
Microshifting also doesn’t need to be a remote working habit, or rely on out-of-office hours. It can also happen in the office during regular work periods. It’s just a question of allowing your staff to choose how and when they’re available for team-centric activities, and which hours are most compatible with intense work bursts for their individual needs.
So, what’s the big takeaway from this for your company?
The idea of microshifting is a dramatic contrast to the way numerous companies are now pushing for workers to return to the office, allegedly for (possibly misguided) improvements to teamwork and productivity. Microshifting implies a high level of trust from management to workers, enabling higher staff autonomy, which make people feel valued at their jobs and keen to engage and deliver more when tackling work tasks. Critics of RTO rules may point out that it implies low levels of managerial trust in the workforce.
But microshifting also runs counter to trends like “task masking,” something said to be a typical Gen-Z trick: essentially it means staff are working very hard to look like they’re working very hard, when in actuality they have little work to do at certain moments. Task masking is part of the evolving conversation about traditional workplace culture expectations—and it’s driven by anxiety that if a worker doesn’t appear to be slaving away, they may be targeted by management for downsizing or performance improvement processes. Again, this centers around trust: if your managers trust you to microshift, they won’t be critical when they see you in a low-work moment.
If your workers are keen to try out alternative working habits, it’s worth bearing much of this in mind, and having meaningful discussions about boundaries, trust levels and productivity expectations.
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Kit Eaton
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