If you’ve had any experience working from home, you’ve likely participated in the microshifting trend without realizing it. What is microshifting? It’s the official term for replacing the uninterrupted 8-hour work shift with short, non-linear bursts of productivity, leaving room to divide your work hours into more manageable chunks of operations. If that sounds like an excuse to take more breaks, then you might be close to the core of the strategy, however, the microshifting trend is still worth considering seriously.
Employers have long held reservations about employees working from home due to the very fact that many may not be working at all, taking naps and shifting their attention to household activities instead. The problem is that there is no surefire way to guarantee that employees work continuously at a stretch, whether in the office or outside of it. The best way to manage employees may just be to alter the measures of productivity that we currently rely on and give employees room to work on their own terms. It’s admittedly a difficult suggestion to pursue.
The microshifting trend is a new workplace trend that has employees replacing long working hours with short bursts of work and productivity. (Image: Freepik)
What Is the Microshifting Trend and Why Is It So Popular Among Employees?
After the micro-retirement trend, we now arrive at microshifting. Video conference tech provider Owl Labs recently conducted its State of Hybrid Work survey, and it found that 65% of workers were keenly interested in microshifting, or “structured flexibility with short, non-linear work blocks matched to your energy, duties or productivity.” The survey found that the trend was stronger among managers, who were three times as likely as their employees, to turn to this trend.
The data makes it clear that workers are interested in taking charge of their own work and getting tasks done at a more measured pace than rushing at breakneck speed trying to accomplish a lot at once. However, this doesn’t necessarily translate into a feasible system of work.
Microshifting and Work-from-Home Opportunities Remain Popular for Good Reason
The data also showed that caregivers were three times more likely to opt for the trend allowing for short bursts of work, and the numbers were similarly high among parents. Gen Zers and millennials were found to be particularly enthralled with the microshifting trend, with 7 in 10 sharing a preference for this mode of operations.
What’s more, employees admitted that they were willing to give up 9% of their annual pay in exchange for flexible hours or 8% of it for four-day work weeks. Now that we’ve explained the fascination with microshifting, it’s easy to assume that most employees just want to work less and spend more time on household chores, but that may be a shortsighted approach to the situation.
Flexibility has always been cherished by employees, both in cases of in-person or remote work, due to the freedom and independence it allows workers. Many have realized just how easy it is for organizations to operate remotely, and as a result, they remain unwilling to return to the old-school terms of employment.
Does Microshifting Impair Productivity?
An immediate question when you hear about microshifting with the work-from-home model might be questions of productivity, but as many employees have claimed, working from home allows them to be more productive. Managers who responded to the Owl Labs survey agreed with the claim, with 69% of them stating that hybrid or remote work has helped increase the efficiency of their teams.
In many cases, working in the office doesn’t vastly increase the amount of work done as employees continue to find distractions and take breaks to clear their heads. In the past, techniques like the Pomodoro method gained popularity because they allowed employees to power through chunks of focused work, with frequent breaks to allow them to step away from the task. The microshifting trend is no different.
While flexibility remains a negotiable term, working in microshifts is not necessarily a model of operations that many companies have adopted. Employees who want to attempt the microshifting trend may voluntarily break down their work into more manageable sections and focus on other tasks in between, but when it isn’t sanctioned by the employer, problems can arise.
What are the Problems Associated with Microshifting?
The trend of microshifting may be a fun one for employees to explore, but it can have many unintended consequences for HR. For one, tracking work and productivity becomes more complex when employees operate on their own timeline. This also makes it impossible to set realistic deadlines and track targets in a feasible capacity. Among the many HR implications of microshifting, coordinating operations becomes a Herculean task when employees move away from their desks at different periods, making it hard to gather the team for discussions or updates.
Still, while a business may not be comfortable with the idea of an employee folding their laundry or going for a walk during their work hours, the phenomenon of microshifting can offer some ideas on how to approach workers. Excessive surveillance and micromanagement are rarely welcome with a smile, when employees have openly expressed their preference for independence and flexibility.
Microshifting’s HR Implications
Structuring work to establish rigid guidelines and deadlines while also allowing employees the freedom to progress on their own terms towards these specified goals may allow for the business and the employee to both get the results they want. Pushing for shorter workweeks or alternative shift-based operations may also be a viable solution, breaking down the current system to pursue an alternate structure.
Sticking to traditions can be preferable due to the years of success found through existing models of work, however, as industries evolve, so do workers. There is an obvious need for further discussions on these topics to understand where flexibility could be found. Communicating and setting clear expectations not only helps managers understand what to expect from employees, but it also allows employees to understand where the boundaries of their microshifts lie. It allows them to better appreciate the trust that is being placed on them to operate within negotiated terms.
The microshifting trend does bring up many different problems to address and resolve, but communication between employers and employees can always resolve the large majority of issues that appear substantial at first glance.
The microshifting trend appears to be here to stay. What are your thoughts about its feasibility? Subscribe to The HR Digest for more insights on workplace trends, layoffs, and what to expect with the advent of AI.