Did you know that there are various ways to increase your productivity and opportunities without switching jobs? A majority of the professionals who work traditional 9-5 jobs frequently feel slighted by the opportunities they may be missing from work at home opportunities. Often, people daydream at their desks about better positions, opportunities or most commonly, what it would be like to make their own schedule and work for themselves. While not everyone takes the initiative to break away from their traditional job, everyone has the ability to make their current job more flexible and beneficial to them! What exactly does this mean?
What is a Flexible Job?
Sure, a flexible job may be considered one that accommodates your schedule or one that may offer the opportunity to work from remote locations such as from home or anywhere with Internet connection. But it does not quite grasp our definition of flexibility. In fact, our vision of flexibility is one that offers freedom of position, so to speak, within the structure. Many jobs offer flexibility within individual positions, giving employees the opportunity to switch roles and share responsibilities, reducing the repetitiveness of daily positions. This type of structure can do wonders for employee morale and your individual sanity! These types of positions may often be referred to as floating positions or rotating job titles.
Many offices offer their employees the option of attending certain meetings and company events, this can also add a sense of flexibility to the office aura. While these events may not happen often, have you ever wondered why they always seem to happen when you have something else going on that is unrelated to the job? Having the option not to attend and more importantly, not to face any consequence for not attending, can create an ideal sense of flexibility within the office as well.
Thinking Outside the Box for Job Flexibility
Many people believe that obtaining a part-time position offers a sense of flexibility in itself for several reasons. These positions offer shorter work days and can often present freelance opportunities, which by the definition of some people is the actual deifiniton of a flexible job. Since freelancers have the ability to pick and choose the projects they work on and positions they fill, it presents a wealth of options for them. These options can decrease the pressure associated with jobs as well as the mundane repetition, which most people feel from their current positions.
Benefits of Job Flexibility for Employers
While many individuals only see the value of job flexibility from the employee standpoint, there is also a wealth of benefits offered to employers as well. Let’s face it, happy employees are more productive, more motivated and in turn, more willing to get the job done to perfection – subconsciously of course! For employers that offer work from home positions, the benefits of such flexibility increases tremendously, such as the ability to increase production without the need for larger office space. This in turn can save money on office supplies, technology and employee benefits, as freelancers are usually billed as Independent Contractors who are responsible for their own benefits and taxes. This in itself delivers some flexibility to the employee as well, since they are now able to write-off certain business expenses for tax purposes.