Here's what the microshifting trend means for your workplace.
New research suggests that AI is intensifying work, rather than reducing work for many employees.
In an eight-month study of 200 employees at a U.S. tech company, workers took on broader projects and added more hours rather than reducing time at work, even with AI automation. The result was blurred boundaries between work and non-work, more multitasking, and higher rates of cognitive fatigue and burnout.
For leaders, crafting sustainable jobs is going to require a different approach.
Advocates like Joe O’Connor, CEO of Work Time Revolution and author of “Do More in Four,” argue that in a competition with the efficiency of machines, humans need to lean into strategies that improve their unique cognitive abilities.
“We know that effectiveness is much more driven by how we manage our energy, our motivation, our well-being,” O’Connor shared with Culture Edge. “When we think about productivity and human performance, the focus will be less on efficiency because we’re just not going to be able to compete with the machine on speed and volume.”
One potential way to increase human effectiveness is embracing “microshifting” — a work design more attuned to the natural rhythms of human cognition.
What is ‘microshifting’?
The term was introduced by Owl Labs to describe “short, non-linear blocks based on personal energy, responsibilities, or productivity patterns.”
Instead of working a traditional 9-to-5, employees can break their day up into chunks completed on their schedule. Maybe they like working for a couple hours late at night, or swap a 10 p.m. to 12 p.m. shift in exchange for their morning hours.
Microshifts can also be even smaller units of time.
“You might work sort of intensely for even a short of a period as maybe five minutes or 10 minutes or something like this where you're really focused on what you're trying to do and then maybe you shift to something else,” explains Kevin Rockmann, professor of management at the Costello College of Business at George Mason University. “You're constantly going back and forth between work and non-work things that you're trying to get done.”
Advocates say these changing work patterns fit more organically with how work gets done, particularly for remote workers.
Workers seem to be interested. Around 65% say they’d like to adopt microshifts, according to Owl Labs.
‘Old wine in new bottles’
While the trend has caught on in some circles, many jobs might see microshifts as nothing new. Just ask any lawyer who bills in six-minute increments.
What might be different is the attempt to help more people take breaks — a relevant consideration amid rising levels of burnout and disengagement for U.S. workers.
It’s also a part of the pivot from a post-pandemic focus on hybrid and remote work to a wider discussion about flexibility.
“If we're going to offer flexibility over where employees might work or how they might show up, the sort of logical next step is to give them flexibility over their schedule and how they choose to do their work throughout the day,” Rockmann says.
An example of microshifts in practice is the pomodoro writing technique, where someone focuses for 25 minutes with no distractions and then takes a break. Research has shown the practice improves human learning and cognitive performance.
The risks of microshifting
Microshifts won’t work in a company without established norms and guardrails.
“If you don't have any structure and you don't really have clear performance benchmarks and goals, then providing even more flexibility is just going to loosen those ties and loosen those bonds with the organization,” Rockmann warns.
“You need strong culture, you need good managers, you need clear incentives and clear jobs,” he adds. “That's true for almost any work policy that's going to grant more flexibility and seed more control to individuals.”
Rockmann also sees risks based on his work on workplace relationships.
“When you give individuals flexibility, it doesn't just affect them, it affects the people that are connected to them and who rely on them,” Rockmann explains. If someone is constantly unavailable to help solve problems, working relationships erode.
“We know it's already hard enough to reach out, especially when folks are remote,” Rockmann says.
His solution? Use technology.
“We have these amazing devices that can tell us when somebody needs something, right?” he says. “You can actually link your phone or link your watch to Teams and [know] if you get pinged.”
Having a shared period of time when you will be available and responsive is crucial for increasing flexibility. You can unplug when the workday is over, he says.
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