Amid the noise of employees’ ever-increasing demand for flexible work arrangements, a recent study suggests that leaders need not rush to accommodate every request. There’s actually a significant group of employees who value the structure of a traditional Monday to Friday 9-5 job.
Gallup has published findings from a survey of 18,943 working American adults, which found that 50% of workers would rather have traditional working hours than the choice to dip in and out of work when they’re most productive.
For white-collar workers specifically, the percentage drops slightly to 45%.
Surprised? You wouldn’t be alone.
Gallup also found that managers don’t know their workers as well as they think they do, with leaders included in the poll massively overestimating that three-quarters of their workforce are “blenders”—workers who prefer a job in which you can alternate between work and other life activities throughout the day.
“A common misperception leaders have about flexible work is that employees want to be mixing their work and personal lives during the day,” Jeremie Brecheisen, managing director of the Gallup CHRO Roundtable, recently wrote in an op-ed for the Harvard Business Review.
Of course, leaders can’t ignore the other half of workers who want work and life to blend seamlessly.
Nespresso’s U.K. CEO Anna Lundstrom, for example, previously told Fortune that allowing work to weave its way in and out of her day allows her to stay on top of her demanding job without being confined to a desk.
Instead of trying to cut work and life into a rigid 50/50 split, she strives for work-life fluidity. Likewise, Thasunda Brown Duckett, president and CEO of the Fortune 500 financial services company TIAA, thinks she’s a better mom for admitting that “work-life balance is a lie“.
Working parents specifically—no matter where they sit on the corporate hierachy—have significantly benefited from employers ditching strict start and finish times in the aftermath of the pandemic and embracing a “work when you’re productive” ethos.
“I need to work around childcare,” Jade Fitzgerald, an experienced design director at the design agency Beyond, told Fortune. “Fortunately, some of my work can be flexible, while my son’s routine is not.”
Like many working parents, her workday exceeds the hours that daycare is open, so she leaves the office early to do the school pickup and prepare dinner, before finishing work at 7:30 p.m. once her child is tucked into bed.
Ultimately, the mismatch between what workers want and what their bosses think they want mustn’t be overlooked.
