From the industrial age onwards, the 9-5 routine working day was enshrined as the standard way to work. It was expected; if you worked full time, you would be clocking in at nine, clocking out at five, and while it was okay to get in a little earlier and out a little later (let’s face it, it was expected in many professions), shaving off time from those hours was a no-go.

But now questions are emerging about the viability and value of that strict 40-hour working week. Research suggests that anything over 39 hours of work in a week is an excess and may well be cutting your life shorter. It’s even harder for new parents, with 71% of working Australian parents thinking employers should provide flexible working hours, while a further 53% think they should be allowed to work from home regularly.

It’s not like the time spent in the office can’t be paired back; according to one researcher, the typical employee is actually only productive for around four hours in the day. The rest is wasted time.

So, how should the working week look?

Businesses, both HR departments and executives, are coming to understand that the 9-5 working week is obsolete and in some cases detrimental to employee morale as well as business reputation. No one wants to work for a business that watches the clock, and for businesses looking to attract the younger generation of innovative talent, removing this oppressive structure has become critical. At the same time, a business needs to get work done, else the business won’t be there.

Enter flexible working

Flexible working can encompass a wide range of different solutions to help employees do away with the 9-5 grind. These include:

• Flexible schedules, where an employee might work four, or even three days, with 10 or 12-hour shifts in exchange for a three or four-day “weekend.”

• Remote working, to relax the need to come into an office and work in and around the home.

• “Job sharing,” in which two people will perform one job, reducing the stress for someone being the only one in the office that can get a specific type of work done.

• Flexible work schedules. Enabling an employee that prefers finishing work early to work from 7-3, rather than 9-5, for example.

• Unlimited vacation time packages. Perhaps the most extreme flexible working arrangement, with these, employees are given KPIs to meet, but so long as they’re getting the work done, the business isn’t strict with how much time they take off.

But what if you can’t find an organization willing to be flexible?

All of the above are examples of what organizations are looking at to make their workplaces more attractive to people who are (rightfully) miserable at the very thought of doing a 9-5 job in today’s working environment.

But what if you can’t find a workplace that is willing to be flexible? There are sectors where micro management and overwork is simply impossible to avoid; consider the story of the poor banking intern that died after working 72 hours straight.

It’s an extreme example, but unfortunately indicative of “high performance” sectors where you are expected to be wedded to the job – you can be sure industries such as technology, media, and architecture are no different.

So what can you do in those sectors? More and more people are going freelance because the rise inflexibility in the workplace has also meant that businesses are more and more willing to engage in the “gig economy” and bring on specialists for short periods of time, work with consultants on projects, and otherwise look outside of their operation for specific skills.

It can be hard to make headway as a freelancer, particularly if you’re new to the sector and therefore don’t have the contacts and history. But for those who have spent some time in the grind, the freelancing approach is the best way to break away from the 9-5 work cycle.

Are you ready to break free?

With technology, people are expected to be more productive, more connected, more dynamic, and more successful in their jobs. The 9-5 working day, 40-hour working week is no longer the best way to achieve this. Not only does it compromise the health and morale of employees, but it’s the least efficient way of getting them to be productive.

Thankfully businesses and individuals alike are finding more creative and innovative ways about being flexible in the way they work. So if you’re ready to make a change and innovate the way you work, have the peace of mind that there are options for you.