10 per cent of us work best in the morning so why should they dictate working patterns, writes ANNA CAREY of The Irish Times on Saturday, January 2, 2010
"IMAGINE A world without alarm clocks. A world where you could choose to work when you were at your most productive. A world where the results of your labours were what counted, not how long you spent at your desk. Sounds idyllic? If Danish activist and entrepreneur Camilla Kring is right, it may be the future for all of us.
She’s the founder of B-Society, an organisation with more than 8,000 members in 50 countries, which aims to create a more flexible world. “We all have different forms of family, different ways of working, different biological rhythms,” says Kring.
“But society only supports the ‘A-Persons’, who work best from nine-to-five. I really think we need a revolution in the way we organise society so we can support diversity in the way we work and live.” This new society would include schools, childcare facilities and universities running on later schedules...
..In 2005 she founded Super Navigators, which works with businesses to create less rigid, more employee-centric work environments through a programme called “life navigation”.
“Our industrial work culture says that, if I can see you, then you are working and, if I don’t, then you are not working,” she sighs. “The idea that we all have to work during the same time period in the same place has been [transferred] from the factory to the office. It made sense with industrial factory work but not when we’re talking about innovation, ideas, creativity.”
Kring’s ideas have already spread to Ireland. In 2008 the Citywest branch of international pharmaceutical company Abbott introduced a life navigation programme. Employees attended five half-day sessions designed by Kring to encourage them to prioritise their work-life balance, to respect and create individualised working schedules and methods. The results are impressive. There’s been a marked increase in employees working from home or to a flexible schedule, employee turnover has reduced by more than half, and internal surveys show that staff morale has greatly increased.
..."
It's 9am? Time to go back to bed - The Irish Times - Sat, Jan 02, 2010
The 10 commandments of B-society -
1.The daily rhythm of each individual is genetically conditioned by heredity. Society needs to be structured to support a diversity of daily rhythms.
2.We are calling for an uprising against the tyranny of early rising, and for a better world where a diversity of daily rhythms is acknowledged and respected, giving us the opportunity for a better quality of life, more productive working time and major socioeconomic gains once we no longer take up the same space on the same roads at the same time.
3.We are working for equality between early birds and night owls.
4.We are working for a more flexible labour market. Each individual's daily rhythm should, as far as possible, govern that person's working life.
5.We are working for the introduction of collective agreements for early birds and night owls at negotiations for labour market agreements.
6.We are working for the establishment of day nurseries, kindergartens, primary and secondary schools as well as universities that open between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m, at least.
7.We are working for more research into daily rhythms.
8.We grant ”B-certification” on www.b-productive.dk/eng to businesses, who allow employees to work according to their own daily rhythm, work rhythm and life rhythm.
9.We are working globally for a better world that supports a diversity of individual daily rhythms, working rhythms and life rhythms.
10.Imagine how differently society would have turned out if the creators of the world had been night owls!
At: The 10 commandments of B-society | B-Society -
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