Misunderstanding Flexibility

“Flexibility to us means reasonable boundaries between work and life and recognition that most businesses operate on the same schedule; (I believe) flexibility to employers means a lack of boundaries between work and life”. – a quote from a generation z

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The word flexibility keeps coming up, in the office, in conversations and on social media. That people want it, that it is a make or break on accepting job offers or even applying to jobs. Many times, I am seeing this as a term to replace the work hybrid workplaces or the ability to break up working hours into personal preferences, with large gaps in the ‘regular workday’ left for ‘living life.’

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What I am learning is that the term flexibility does not mean that people are not interested in working 8-hour days, 5 days a week. What I believe to be true is that flexibility is a really healthy office culture and leaders who can lead at different levels and with humanity. I am learning this from the future workforce generation, from Gen Z.

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By digging into these conversations, I’m learning what flexibility means when they use that word to describe what is important to them in their workplace. It is most important that during the interview process, if the word flexibility is used, that there is a bit of a pause and a discussion around the meaning of that. It is important to understand the ‘what’ behind that word rather than making assumptions.

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A couple of examples of what flexibility looks like to them:

1. Ability to slide a workday to accommodate Doctor appointments
2. Variety of work tasks throughout the day
3. Understanding that they may need to be taught a task, possibly additional direction, and time to perform the task.

What I believe to be hearing is that the next generation of leaders wants to be led by great leadership. They want the ability to have the confidence that when they need a few hours off to attend an appointment that also is only available during the same hours as their workday, they won’t be ‘punished’. They want to learn; they want to try new things and they want to have variety in their day.

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These are hard-working, motivated, goal-setting people, who are using a bit of a different language to say they want to be part of a team that is thriving with the healthy work culture.