Flexibility

Hossegor, july 2016.

It is commonplace: in many workplaces, the flexibility of work schedules has gradually transformed the working conditions. In this manner, the work force can be adjusted to the changing rhythm of the market on almost a daily basis. And such a move has been eased, if not increased tenfold, by the rise of information and communication technologies. In some occupations, it is no more required to be present five or six days a week in the same building. Of course, everyone must be “at work”, and even more intensively than ever, for the sake of individual autonomy and responsibility. But, in many cases, a more suitable place than the office can also do the trick, being on a sofa at home, in a garden or on the beach…
The flexibility is not only a matter of productivity and profits based on the efficient use of the work force in any industrial production or in service compagnies. It can also occurs in smaller venues far from the “just in time” logic. If you’d like to go bowling, you may find the same kind of management: many employees when customers are numerous, and less when players are scarce. But you’d better watch the schedule as well. The opening hour is threefold: 16h45 (sunny), 15h (neither sun nor rain), or 14h15 (rain), and it is not distributed from one day to another in the week. By contrast, it is adjusted according to the current weather!