NEW YORK–As a new era of remote and in-office work begins, some companies are trying to bring definition to daily schedules by making some hours off-limits for meetings, according to a new report.
The tactic, called “core hours,” sets times—say, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. or 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.—when bosses require employees to be online and available for Zoom meetings, project collaboration and other exchanges,” the Wall Street Journal stated.
“Any other time is a meeting-free zone,” the Journal said. “By having certain hours, or days, when everyone is ‘on,’ the idea goes, employees have more freedom and flexibility to do solo work the rest of the time.”
According to the Journal, the practice has been adopted by some companies as a way to keep remote collaboration from bleeding into all hours of the day.”
“Now, as businesses reopen offices or implement longer-term work-from-home strategies, some companies say they are making core hours standard practice,” the Journal reported.
‘Counter to Reality’
The analysis noted the philosophy runs “counter to the reality of many white-collar professionals. Smartphones, messaging apps, Zoom calls and other workplace technologies have made it possible for workers to be reachable and available nearly every hour of the day—and fueled many bosses’ expectations that they should be.”
The Journal noted National Bureau of Economic Research study of more than three million workers’ anonymized email and calendar data in 2020 showed the average workday lengthened by 48 minutes and the number of meetings increased by 13% after the pandemic’s onset.
The Journal report added that work schedules could become even more complicated in the coming months, as some workers come back into the office, others stay out and many work a mix of remote and in-office days.
“Some managers say core hours are a remedy for preserving employees’ productivity and sanity in hybrid work situations—and keep meetings from proliferating out of control,” the Journal reported.