Workers Embrace ‘Microshifting’ to Balance Job Demands with Personal Life

A growing number of employees are adopting 'microshifting' - working in short, focused bursts throughout the day rather than traditional 9-to-5 schedules. This flexible approach allows workers to handle personal responsibilities while maintaining productivity, though experts warn it can sometimes hurt team collaboration.

Before her household comes alive and her teenage children request breakfast or rides to school, Jen Meegan checks her work emails and reviews concepts she developed the previous evening.

She puts in about an hour of work, then following the morning school drop-off, she handles errands like grocery shopping or filling up her gas tank before returning to concentrate on her role as head writer and cofounder of Sheer Havoc, a creative services company.

This pattern defines her daily routine: completing work tasks in focused segments lasting several hours, pausing for an hour or two to address family and personal matters, then repeating this cycle until she wraps up her professional duties late in the evening.

Meegan represents a growing number of workers practicing ‘microshifting,’ a flexible work approach that involves completing job tasks in brief, concentrated periods rather than during one continuous eight-hour workday. This paid work integrates with and flows around personal responsibilities and priorities. Success gets measured mainly by results produced, with reduced focus on total hours spent at a computer.

‘Sometimes the break’s when most of the work will get done in your head, because you’re not sitting in front of a laptop just staring at a screen going, ‘I can’t come up with anything,” Meegan said.

This work method is becoming more widespread among employees and receiving acceptance within certain organizations as a strategy to enhance work-life integration. The remote and hybrid work setups that emerged during the coronavirus pandemic left many people craving time for caregiving or self-care when office return requirements were implemented.

‘As more managers and more organizations get better adept at giving a little bit of autonomy, this is becoming not only a little more popular, but it also gives employees the motivation and almost the license to ask for this,’ Kevin Rockmann, a professor of management at George Mason University’s Costello College of Business.

Here’s what various workers, supervisors and specialists share regarding the advantages and disadvantages of microshifting.

Although some freelance contractors report they’ve practiced microshifting for years, the concept is gaining traction among individuals in positions that typically demand fixed, continuous work hours. Certain companies provide this type of flexibility or recognize they have staff members operating this way even when the approach isn’t officially endorsed.

Advocates maintain that working in intervals enhances productivity by providing mental rest periods. Taking walks or participating in a child’s school event can refresh people who become exhausted from desk work or extended computer use, supporters explain.

‘From a creativity standpoint, it’s good to take breaks,’ Rockmann said. ‘When you stop thinking about a task is when your best ideas come to you.’

During Shellie Garrett’s time leading an eight-person team as director of investigations and appeals at Oklahoma Community Cares Partners, an organization established to verify rental assistance claims during the pandemic, she permitted her team members to establish their own work schedules, except for weekly team meetings.

‘Everybody needed to maintain availability for emergency questions or issues. But I let people determine what worked best for them productivity-wise,’ Garrett said. ‘If productivity was lapsing, we had to figure out different solutions. But overall, I feel like giving that autonomy led to better production and happier employees.’

During their work periods, her team members maintained spreadsheets, compared documents or conducted investigative tasks. During their personal time, one staff member was breastfeeding an infant and teaching a preschooler at home, while another held a second position as a real estate agent.

Amanda Elyse, who serves as a full-time professor of legal writing at Seattle University School of Law and a part-time policy and programs lead at the Northwest Animal Rights Network, explained that microshifting enables her to share meals with her partner, who works evening shifts, and to spend time with her dogs during daytime hours.

‘There’s just so many little things in the day that, when you’re in control of your schedule, you can take that time to do,’ Elyse said.

Although microshifting frequently benefits personal relationships, it can harm professional connections, Rockmann noted.

Successful teams depend on collaborative commitment, but ‘the whole idea of microshifting is taking care of yourself,’ he said. ‘It’s not that taking care of yourself is bad. It places the emphasis on the individual, not the relationships.’

Pranav Dalal, the founder and CEO of California-based remote staffing firm Office Beacon, oversees employees in India, the Philippines, Mexico and South Africa. They provide services to American companies in areas including customer service, finance and logistics. Dalal recognizes that some employees practice microshifting to address personal matters.

‘It’s happening without a policy and without me saying it, and those are in positions where they’re more managerial positions,’ he said. ‘I don’t really question it because I know that people are getting their work done at those levels.’

As a single parent, Dalal expresses understanding. However, situations arise when people push boundaries too far. When one team member consistently arrived late to in-person work events due to handling personal matters, it created difficulties, leading Dalal to terminate that employee.

‘If someone really abuses that, it becomes destructive to the team because then resentment builds,’ Dalal added. ‘As an employer, it definitely is a big shift for companies. And the shift is, essentially, can you deliver the same quality service, reliably, when there’s microshifting happening?’

Isabelle ‘Izzy’ Young’s position as a political organizer in Texas demands extensive time commitment, but she can generally choose her work hours as long as she completes her responsibilities.

The flexibility to create her own schedule helps Young manage her autism and a chronic condition called postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, which can trigger rapid heartbeat or dizziness when standing. If she requires additional sleep, she might schedule meetings for later hours. If she needs to calm her nervous system, she can take one or two midday hours to contact a friend or read before working into the evening.

‘I am very lucky to have a principal that is a compassionate person,’ Young said. ‘He’s acutely aware that life happens, and you can be incredibly productive and chronically ill.’

One drawback is her feeling of constantly working. ‘The job never ends, so you’re never really off the clock.’

Garrett, the Oklahoma team supervisor, operated in two-hour segments, which helped her handle the fluctuations of chronic conditions including an autoimmune disease and premenstrual dysphoric disorder, she explained. She could experience a creative surge and then rest or visit the gym.

‘Microshifting was honestly a godsend,’ Garrett said. ‘I don’t know if I could have done this job without being able to do that.’

When requesting workplace flexibility to control your schedule, explain how employers will gain advantages, Garrett recommended.

‘You have to go into the interview and sell it,’ she said. ‘You have go in and say, ‘I’m willing to do whatever schedule and put my best foot forward, but if you want me to be most productive or most creative, this is how I work best, if this is something you’re willing to work with.”