Work-life breakthrough or the thin end of the wedge?

Have you ever fantasised about restructuring the workday around the rest of your life? 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 10am 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.

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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.

The Owl Labs research found that Gen-Zers and millennials were the most enthused about the idea, with 72 per cent expressing interest compared to 45 per cent of Gen-Xers and 19 per cent of baby boomers. Deputy, a management platform for hourly work, recognised that this emerging trend was being similarly driven by young people in the US in its 2025 report, “The Big Shift: How Gen Z is Rewriting the Rules of Hourly Work”.

Microshifting is already making its way into staff recruitment conversations, says Sam Collier, head of marketing at the talent acquisition and intelligence consultancy Talent Insight Group. “We’re seeing a rise in our clients talking to candidates about flexibility within each day, as well as hybrid working patterns,” she says. “Whether that’s start times and end times or the ability to do the school run, it’s an approach that says no to micromanaging and puts the emphasis on output over being sat at a desk from nine to five.”

But though this kind of working style is increasingly appealing to job seekers, particularly in a post-pandemic world that has seen a rise in remote and hybrid working, many businesses have been slow to adapt.