FLEXIBLE WORKPLACE: STERLING BANK LEAVES NIGERIAN COMPANIES BEHIND
According to news reports, Sterling Bank has introduced flexible working hours for its employees.
” The bank said that the Flexi-time arrangement allowed members of staff the opportunity to determine their own working hours by choosing a convenient time to come to work within the options provided by the bank.”
I am a big advocate of flexible work conditions and I have mentioned it many times in the past.
It just doesn’t make sense for me to hit the road 4am because I want to resume work 7am. You get to work and you’re stressed out, and spend the first 2 hours lethargically, sometimes dozing, all these telling on productivity.
When my company implemented this flexi hours couple of years back, I was one of the first to jump to late morning resumption and late evening closure.
I leave home 7.30am – 8am after rush hour traffic and still get to work by 9am. I then work till 6pm (those who resume earlier close 4pm or 4.30pm or 5pm depending on time of resumption).
Early morning stress is not my own thing. It affects my productivity.
If I’m big enough to live close to office (say VI or real Lekki – not Lekki Phase 52 like Sangotedo, Lakowe etc) and can get to office without stress in 15 minutes, I can decide to change 7am to 4pm.
All these don’t affect job at all. Many of my colleagues I interface with do 7.30am – 4.30pm. All these variations never affect workflow.
As a matter of fact, I can respond to official email or sign off a transaction via my phone anywhere, even from the comfort of my bedroom on Saturday morning.
I believe it’s high time Nigerian companies adopted all these flexible working features. Flexible working conditions (with self-respecting employees) is one of the secrets of top American companies like Google, Apple etc. Here, we believe everything should be rigid and strict.
In MBA classes, companies with these flexible features are called COMPANY Y, while those with the traditional workplace systems are called COMPANY X.
Welcome, Sterling Bank, to 21st Century.
Great post Jarus. Great post. Lol at Lekki Phase 52.