For every working woman I have spoken to about the highs and lows of the last two years, one of the most liberating has been putting together their work day in more doable chunks.

These segments might work around exercise, sleep schedules or the end of the school day. And research across industries shows that increasingly, the ability to continue working with this sort of freedom is even more important than the tousle to retain remote or hybrid working arrangements. 

The problem is that we were only really able to do test this new way of working on a global scale because the shit hit the fan. Every workplace, everywhere, was forced to adapt. It wasn’t so much a leap into the unknown, as a hard shove over a cliff. But it turned out that when you focus on outcome, not hours, the world doesn’t end. In fact, productivity remained the same, if not better. 

And so the argument for flexibility has become more nuanced. Two years ago, when I asked my new employer whether there “was any scope for flexibility?” (translation: “can I stay home on occasion with a sick kid and not take a sick day myself?”), I was told I’d “need to negotiate with People & Culture.” So basically, it was a no. Or at least, a hurdle. And at the time, it didn’t even occur to me that I should consider what worked for me and pitch for something doable. Instead of trying to shove the circle shape into the triangular hole. 

The truth is that very few of us dared imagine a world of work that actually worked. I mean, activists like @mother_pukka certainly did. But then she’d post images of soggy cheerios smooshed into the keyboard as she worked from home with toddlers at her feet, and that didn’t feel like progress to me, so much as trying to get work done with a drunk maniac under the table. But this new found freedom we have - this is exciting. After all, if you get your work done in three hours in a quiet room at home - the same work that would take 8 hours at work with all the water-cooler chat and other distractions - then you decide what you do with the rest of the time. A new rhythm explored by our editor Gemma Dawkins here. 

And yet this is one of the first pandemic perks that is disappearing as we have a crack at getting back to normal…again. Multiple studies have shown that the kind of flexibility employees want is is the secondary kind: being able to choose staggered start and finish times to avoid peak hour, working in blocks that allow for children to be collected, and to keep work-from-home perks like attending medical appointments during the day. 

But how do you tell a manager who is still obsessed with hours, not output, that their desire to have everyone back to work for the regular hours is outdated?

Many career coaches will say you don’t. Instead, look for companies that are more interested in understanding the results you’re driving than tracking your activity. In most roles, it’s clear if you’re getting your work done to a high level. Why should it matter if it takes you all day or just the morning?  

These are questions we’ve never really been able to ask before, without sounding like the kid at the back of the class who is looking to coast. But as we negotiate new jobs with just a little more power than before, while companies grapple with hybrid work models, recruiters are finding the the conversation around a company’s culture and work-life-balance is starting to come down to people having as much control over time as they do location.

One point of tension is coordinating everyone. Most companies have adapted, say, weekly WIPS so that they’re more efficient. We all learned that morale-boosting in-office meetings full of banter are actually hell-on-earth when they convert to ZOOM. But if everyone is working at different times of the day, it’s trickier. “The reality is that there is still enough cross over between people that it really isn’t a problem. This is one of those things that people who were never really on-board with flexible working are going to cling to,” says one friend who embraced this style of working with her team. "You need to know when your cross-over times are, and then ensure smaller meetings are happening to keep people connected. It takes more effort than shouting across a few cubicles, but when you see how much happier people are, it’s a no-brainer.” 

And yet, not all workplaces will be willing to adapt. Which means for those of us who want out of the daily choke hold, searching for the right company is perhaps going to matter even more than the role.