What is microshifting and how could it transform workplace

Have you ever fantasised about restructuring the workday around the rest of your life?

- Helen Coffey, The Independent

Maybe you'd log in at 6am and do a couple of hours, then take the kids to school and hit a yoga class, before logging back on at 10 am and working until lunch.Maybe you'd take a two-hour lunch break to run errands, do a few hours of Zoom meetings in the afternoon, and spend the evening with family before catching up on emails after dinner.

If so, you're not alone. Two-thirds of UK workers are hankering for this kind of flexible working, according to a poll of 2,000 people commissioned by the collaboration technology firm Owl Labs. It's being called “microshifting” — for what workplace trend worth its salt doesn’t have a buzzy new bit of terminology attached to it—and the practice is all about working in short, flexible blocks, tailored to balance workplace needs with the employee's individual duties and productivity. As long as the hours get done — or, far more importantly, the work gets done — an employee is trusted to splice the day up as they see fit, moulded around their energy patterns and lifestyle.