Does anyone really work at a desk five days a week from 9 to 5 anymore?

Employees less productive during regular business hours

Before the early 1990s, if you wanted to work from home, it was tough and your employer would not accept it. Briefcases weren’t big enough to contain a file drawer’s worth of information, and there was no easy way to look at a set of engineering drawings or a year’s worth of monthly budget printouts on the kitchen table. Now, the technology made it simple to download few years’ worth of numbers from home or even on the move, any time before or after the working hours.

Now, the ability to work anywhere at any time turns into an expectation to work everywhere, all the time.

Does anyone really work at a desk five days a week from 9 to 5 anymore?

A myriad of things have combined to make it so that we can work anywhere, anytime, whether we want to or not. The Internet, laptops, tablets, smartphones, apps and software are the main culprits. But some of this work anywhere, anytime stuff is great as checking emails while waiting at the airport and some of it stinks as checking emails while on the beach in Dubai.

Too much of a good thing is a bad thing!

And as more work lands on the home office desk each evening, personal tasks – from making doctor’s appointments and scheduling car maintenance, or a little rest and relaxation – weren’t necessarily ignored, but reassigned to the hours between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Now, because we can work any time, anywhere, we have a tendency to also take more personal time within the workday, between 9 to 5. In fact, because we’ve become so dependent on working outside 9 to 5, many employees are actually less productive during regular business hours. If you know you can finish the report at 10 p.m., why not do a little online shopping or meet a friend on Facebook? Not surprisingly, the shopper gets behind at work and has to catch up at night.