FLEXIBLE HOURS - My biggest wish!!
One of the first plans when I was preparing what I wasnāt sure yet would be as a concept and idea, was to think about who was going to lead it?Ā
Not as in which person would I ask outside to lead the concept - No!Ā
As in with what mentality and ideology to how the business, concept, idea was going to be led by.Ā
In the beginning, I focus on the classic elements based on my own experience as a Scandinavian coming to London and living with the long, not always very productive, strict rules to be in the offices and my all time favorite hate phraseĀ āput in the hoursā.Ā
Firstly, letās break it down - Not everyone finishes or start or process an assignment the same way. In an exam room, thereās some who finishes quickly, precisely, with the right ways of going, while others are writing while the examiner is collecting the papers and havenāt full-filled all the forms of handing-in.Ā
Itās up to the single individual to find out how they discipline them themselves - Not the workplace or the examiner's assignment to tell you too - Itās your responsibility!Ā
Sorry if you aren't in for hard truth - Give up already reading!Ā
So when I founded Style Fuel, I wanted to build it on an idea of everyone having flexible hours, being able to work from home, pick up kids and spend quality time with them in the afternoon, inspire to be the modern new move coming through.Ā
Problem is, how do you take an employee whoās got experience in a high control environment and tell them here you go - flexibility, you are responsible for yourself and your work... At first, itās pleasant, woohoo, Iāve got all this time, no one to check if Iām out of my Pyjamas, no one to check if Iām doing slacking - But thatās not the truth.Ā
Too much freedom without knowing how to discipline and work constructively under freer frameworks can be a prison for some people, as they simply havenāt through their educational, their work career or even their social confrontment learned how to do so!Ā
Itās not your fault you donāt know yet how to work in a framework without strict telling what to do - However, itās your responsibility to teach yourself - not your employer, not your teachers at school, not your husband or wife - Itās yours!Ā Ā
Same as working from home, is a lot harder, because you technically can just put a load of washing on, eat half your fridge, bake that homemade bread only your house-wife/man friends got time to do, update your Pinterest, paint your nails, just do that grocery shopping - or whatever it could be!Ā
However, thatās rarely the reality! Reality is you often work a lot more because you want to compensate for being firstly able to work from home, and secondly because if you did one or several of the things above you feel like you owe the company to produce more for them!Ā
Thirdly, as you rarely have colleagues at home you canāt compare and consult with them doing the work day to see how and what your productiveness are in comparison - even though if you arenāt one of the types who would compare yourself, we do as humans and we are compared in a scheme of a workplace by the employer.Ā
Therefore, when I started coming with the idea of how I wanted my business to look, I realized that providing the team I would initially build to have flexible hours might be more challenging for them, that I would want them to feel simply, because the groundwork for flexible hours havenāt been founded through the educational time, the previous employers history, or the social surroundings. So itāll have to be gradually introduced and nurtured to make people feel both in balance and productive for the employer but far more for their own! Freedom under responsibility isnāt freedom if you donāt know how to handle the responsibility of yourself!Ā