Why the 9 to 5 Doesn't Work! The History of Work

Did you know that the Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 workday was established by Henry Ford in the 1920’s?

Seems to me that a lot has changed since the days we stood over factory lines, yet we still subscribe to the same working rituals.

Many of us, prior to the Pandemic, never even stopped to consider why it is that we work the way that we do or that there was even another option to be considered.

There has been a silver lining that has shone through the pandemic, one that has awoken us to the outdated work rhythms and structures that no longer work for us. We have been exposed to our conditioned thinking, our acceptance of “this is how it’s always been done,” and forced to recognise that there are other ways, and they can work.

In today’s episode, I’m taking you on a short history lesson of “work”, how the 9 to 5 came to be and why it no longer works for us on so many levels.

We’ll discuss the two main things that I believe have arisen out of this “awakening” and we dive deeper into the aspect of individualisation and designing our work lives to work for US and our families.

We explore chronotypes, the rise of the gig economy, the elusive pursuit of work life balance, asynchronous working, plus the sea change/tree change that many have embraced with “work from anywhere” policies.

This episode invites you to take this opportunity to take a step back and look at the bigger picture and identify where your current work ritual and routine may not be supporting you and your productivity and reimagine a new way forward.

Melissa Marsden

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