The Case for a 9 to 1 Work Schedule: Embracing Hyper-Focused Productivity and Work-Life Balance

A Gen Z worker says that there should be more jobs that only go from 9 to 1 because nobody works after lunch anyway. Okay, wait a minute. Does she have a point as well? Some from older generations will surely call this yet another example of Gen Z laziness. Tik Toker Jenna is kind of making some sense. Her hot take is that employers should consider a 9 to 1 schedule. Monday to Friday jobs, but part time, not necessarily across the board. Of course it wouldn’t work for everyone. Of course. Don’t start yelling at me in the comments, but Jenna currently works this schedule as a part time account manager alongside some other side gigs in a small business that she’s building. Prior to this job, she always worked the standard 9 to 5, commute and all, but her current boss realizes that most of the work can get done in a hyper focused four hours, and there’s just no reason to stretch that out to eight plus hours just because that’s how it’s always done. Now, of course, some of us do have jobs with very little downtime. I personally am worked every day to the bone like a Victorian child in a mine. No, I’m not. But there’s a reason we all make so many jokes about taking half hour bathroom breaks to scroll social media. It’s because a lot of us just don’t have eight hours of work to do every day. It just Gets stretched out by commutes and lunch breaks and how we all get exhausted late in the afternoon. And Jenna thinks this just doesn’t really make any sense and her idea might actually be more aligned with the times. A recent Bankrate survey showed that 36% of Americans are now doing some kind of side hustle, including entrepreneurial pursuits. For someone like Jenna, having the option of a 9 to 1 job gives her stability while also providing flexibility for her to pursue her business on the side. And these options would maybe help a lot of parents as well. For instance, those who have a kid in kindergarten who wanna work for part of the day. a part time job isn’t gonna come with things like health benefits, which is a deal breaker for many people, but it could still work for a lot of others. And regardless, it’s hard to argue with her point that a lot of us could be squishing our jobs into shorter, more highly focused periods of time and experiencing a lot more work life balance in the process.