Well-being is at the center of the issues surrounding the future of work. And part of the answer would be in our relationship to time. Immersed in “a limiting vision of time”, companies should explore new ways of organizing themselves in order to adapt to the rhythms of work and life of their employees.
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This exploration of new possibilities involves dismantling the existing model of presenteeism, rethinking productivity and workspaces.
Here is a subject in the air of time: well-being at work! Companies around the world, in a post-pandemic context, are questioning their work model, which has been largely disrupted by the generalization of telework. Digital nomads have never been so popular, coworking spaces have multiplied in various forms and the quality of life at work is at the heart of the issues. We understand that table football in business has always been superfluous.
While organizations are looking for the right formula, an essential value deserves attention: time. The time to carry out one’s tasks (whether manual or intellectual), the time to think or the time to exchange with colleagues in more or less deep conversations. Would that time be what all workers need to feel good at work?
“Time-limiting vision”
The Covid-19 pandemic has made it possible to realize that workers are not equal in time. A supermarket employee must respect his actual working hours during the day. An independent coder can adjust his working time during the day. “Teleworking has opened the way: when you are at home, you do not work in the same way as in the office. Some save time. It shattered our conception, ”comments Isabelle Barth, professor of management, contacted following the publication of a column published in Le Monde on July 8.
The specialist questions the model established by “the vast majority of companies”: “Very few have sought to think differently and globally about the organization of work”, she writes about the 35 hours. “We are on a limiting vision of time”, adds the specialist reached by telephone. “We do not question the way in which we manage it”.
Take the time it takes
Today, we talk about flexibility for a freelancer or an employee who manages his time. An advantage, which has been able to blur the boundaries between professional and private life and create new work patterns.
But several digital nomads who went to work abroad reported having rethought this temporality in their way of working. For Benoit Raphael, who runs the French startup Flint from Southeast Asia, working abroad was a real wake-up call. “Today, I work less time but better,” explains the business manager on the phone. “I put my productivity back into perspective.”
Far from workation, employees should also be confronted with this exploration of new modes. And some entrenched routines in society are skipping, as the 4-day week trials prove. This implies companies to question the notion of productivity.
Former les managers
A fundamental point to evolve on the value of time in business is to better train managers: on their job, on the missions, the means they give to the managed, that they know how to transmit skills and that they know how to evaluate. “Is it normal for a manager to spend 80% of his time doing operations?” asks Isabelle Barth.
New workspace models
If there are signs of evolution in the consideration of the value of time, it is illustrated in the evolution of workplaces. The French company Kwerk offers the concept of wellworking in its own way. A vision of work in which well-being is paramount. And this well-being depends on the time of the employees on site.
Kwerk welcomes its customers in warm spaces, where the worker will find what they need to stay as long as possible. The ambition: to increase its productivity by being pampered. Private offices, coworking spaces, sports hall, creative activities… all in luxurious, designer and comfortable establishments.
If the subscription to these spaces is not given, they represent a compendium of professional and personal activity, allowing workers to fulfill themselves and flourish without moving from establishment. Real time saver and source of well-being?
Relax
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