61 % Indian Office Goers Want Commute Included In Work Hours

Do you vote for flexible working hours at work?

Commuters stuck in heavy traffic jam

(Photo: PTI)

You work a 9 to 5 or 10 to 7 or 3 to 11...one thing you can’t take out is the time you take to reach work and back, especially if you live in a metropolitan where the delay because of traffic or train time is inevitable.

It’s basically at least 12 hours a day, or more.

According to a global workplace survey by IWG, 61% of office goers in India want the commute time to be included in their working hours. The survey also found that over 80 per cent companies in India are trying to incorporate flexible working hours to hire employees and retain them. 

Well, high time for that.

Finally...(Photo: GIPHY)

Flexible Working Hours, Yay or Nay?

Studies have also found that flexible working hour make it easier for women to return to work after maternity leave, workers past-pensioning age and even help people perform better and handle workload better. In fact, flexible working hours are the new normal and if companies don’t adjust to it, run the risk of lagging behind and missing out on all the many benefits it can bring.

Reducing the stress of commuting, particularly when these would involve lengthy commutes in traffic or on crowded public transport, is a benefit both to businesses – whose workers arrive fresh and punctual – but also to staff.

IWG Report

But don’t be quick to judge that the commute time is a total waste. A third of the workers said that they utilise the commute to complete some work related task (in my case thinking of new ideas to pitch), others said they read a book.

Of course there are those people as well who consider the ‘travel to work’ as the worst part of their working day. The survey was conducted across 80 countries and had about 15,000 respondents. A majority of them (maximum from South America) were hopeful that but 2035, people would not have to travel to work at all.

In 2019, with half of business people globally reporting that they work outside one of their main office locations half the week or more, it is safe to say that we are way beyond that. Flexible working is the new norm. 

IWG Founder and CEO Mark Dixon.

So what do you vote for? Flexible hours, commute as part of work or you’re good?