Would you be okay working from 6 AM- 2 or 3 PM?
Currently work in the east coast, at the end of the year I am planning to request a internal transfer to our office in the west coast. It is unlikely I will have another job offer out there, so I have little leverage and they will be doing me a favor by approving my transfer request. I really want to move back to the west coast as that is home for me with family in the area. In order to sweeten the deal, I am planning to offer working east coast time so that I can be in sync with my team. That would mean start working at 6 ish AM and end work no later than 2 or 3 PM. Even now, I rarely bring work home or work weekends, so that would be the same.
I am thinking based on my relationship with the team, there is a 95% chance they will call this silly and just tell me it is okay to work regular 9-5 or 6 hours on west coast time and give me brownie points for offering to work on east coast time. However, there is also 5% chance they tell me I can move to the west coast as long as I work east coast time, because to be honest with the work I do, there really is a benefit to being in sync with the team in the east coast.
I would not be spending this much time on these hypothetical scenariosif I really did not like my team and the work I do, if I did not, I would spend more time looking for another job opportunity in the west coast and work regular hours. So my question is- what do you guys think about working 6-2/3? I will have a very pleasant 15-20 minute commute, and I think its okay as long as I am able to go to bed at 10 or 11 and get atleast 6 hours of sleep. I will have plenty of time after work to go the gym, meet friends etc. What do you think are the pros/cons of this work schedule vs a regular 9-5 or 6?
Thoughts?
Absolutely. I wake up early anyhow and would love all of the free time in the afternoon and evening.
Unfortunately, for me at least, unless everyone in the company was on the same schedule it would never hold. There would inevitably be meetings and calls that go past 5pm and fire drills or crunch time at 8pm. It's not like I could say "nah, I've been working a lot longer than y'all - I'll handle it early tomorrow morning"
Your situation may or may not be similar.
i'd kill for this schedule. it's the small stuff that makes it so worth it: less crowded stores to run errands after word, gym after work would be less crowded, i've never made a "3-6pm happy hour" in my life, and you can take a bit longer to wind down after a long day. it'll make a huge difference when daylight savings kicks in and you get those extra hours of daylight while the rest of us go in when it's dark and leave when it's dark out. i say go for it.
Just do it pussy - you will get used to it and it is incredibly easy to do.
This is interesting, curious to hear other opinions on unconventional work schedules.
Absolutely do it- there are no cons unless you are too soft to wake up at 445-5am every day. Seems a small price to pay to get your geographic preference and be accommodating to your team- plus, as you said it doesn't sound like they'll expect this, at least not every day of the week. That's not even that early- plenty of us on the East Coast do that anyways +/- 30 min.
I guess the only "con" I'd point out is that you need to be disciplined to get in bed by 930-10PM so you don't feel like crap all day- I find that to be difficult sometimes but remember that Prime Time is pretty much catered to Eastern/Central time markets. So sports, etc. will generally start/end earlier for you anyways, making the early bedtime a bit more manageable.
Speaking from experience you will love it and never want to return to traditional hours.
I would offer it up but say it’s a trial run so the transition is smooth, and then adjust accordingly. Just get some flexibility in there for future. 6am start could turn into 7am start and or just be able to answer phone calls/messages as needed.
Bump
Yes, I’d love to shave ~5 hours off my daily schedule
100% yes. I would absolutely be fine working 6am to 2-3pm. I can tell you that west coast folks who work market hours have a similar work schedule. So it's definitely doable. Think about how many trading teams, hedge funds, etc. there in the central, mountain, and pacific time zones. All of these groups/funds/etc. have to work market hours so there is precedent.
Prior to the start of Covid-Related WFH I was up at 4:45 to get to the gym anyway, so waking up at 4:45 and starting my work day at 6AM PST/PDT wouldn't be out of the ordinary. Now that gyms are starting to reopen in some fashion, I'm up at 5:45 and since I don't have to worry about the commute but expect that I'll be going back to the 4:45 routine at some point.
The big thing that I would consider is keeping that synch'd East Coast schedule is an absolute essential if you're the only guy on your team on the west coast. Having coworkers on the west coast, I absolutely dislike having to be on calls with them at 6/7/8pm EST because it makes my day go longer. Sure, on occasion, it's not a big deal, but some coworkers make it a habit of putting on these calls at the worst time. Now, if you have colleagues on the west coast that you're dealing with, your day may run longer because they won't show up for a good 3 hours while you're working, but if they need to meet with you and can accommodate your hours, it shouldn't be a problem either. Just keep that in mind that your schedule will be affected by that.
When are you most productive? I'm very productive mornings and evenings, but the 1pm - 4pm zone is my Achilles heel. Absolutely my least favorite part of the day where I feel the lowest motivation and highest sense of boredom.
I'd rather work around that time than be off as you work is work, you have to get it done so I gridn through it. But if I didn't have work, I would just hate those hours. Up to you how your biological clock ticks & your level of motivation.
One downside I'll say of waking up at 6am is going out on weekends. Rona has put a dent in that now, but it would be brutal to go to bed at 10am on weekdays and then on weekends to need to power through until 2am. Tried that and I'm just too tired after 10am to be any fun unless I slam a caffeine pill which I'm not fond of doing.
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