“Why the Five-Day Office Week Is Quietly Broken”
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Title: Flexible Working
Author: Gemma Dale
Category: Leadership & Team Building, Workplace & Company Culture, Startups & Entrepreneurship
Is Flexible Working just a long argument for working from home, or is it something bigger? Sam and Sophie open with that question, and Gemma Dale's answer reframes the whole conversation.
The episode walks through the book's core moves: tracing the nine-to-five back to the industrial era, naming presenteeism as the quiet tax on output, and asking the uncomfortable question — if you can't measure what someone produces, why are you paying them? From there, the pair cover the spectrum of arrangements (compressed hours, job sharing, phased retirement), the hybrid trap of arbitrary office mandates, and Dale's fix for managers who were trained to manage by sight: management by objectives, support check-ins, and trust as a system rather than a feeling.
If you lead a team, run a company, or have ever wondered why Tuesday is sacred, this one is for you. The takeaway: judge people by what they contribute, not by where they sit.
Flexible Working by Gemma Dale. For the full written summary, head to 7minutebooks.com/app — over 6,000 fiction and nonfiction titles you can read or listen to in any language, with infographics on many. Unlimited access from $2.99 a month, $9.99 a year, or $19.99 lifetime.
Chapters
00:00Reframing Flexibility As A Redesign01:02Presenteeism And The Output Question01:46The Spectrum Of Arrangements02:32The Hybrid Trap And Autonomy03:32Trust As A System, Not A Feeling05:33Flexibility Guilt And Leading By Example
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