'I'm a boss and I've banned the nine-to-five - staff can work whenever they want'

Cardiff Aled Nelmes has turned the traditional nine-to-five upside down, favouring a wholly for his marketing agency team in a bid to "harmonise work and life".

Questioning the daily grind that many take for granted, Aled has boldly shifted away from the standard working model towards a more effective and employee-friendly approach. He offers his staff paid breaks, the freedom to choose their work location, and a range of team bonding activities.

Following a prosperous transition to a four-day week two years back, Aled took the leap to scrap specific days and hours altogether. His company, Lumen SEO, now champions a fully flexible 32-hour week that accommodates personal hobbies, commitments, traffic woes, holiday needs, and even fluctuating hormones

Initially experimenting with a reduced four-day, 36-hour week – comprised of four nine-hour days – after witnessing substantial growth over that period, Aled remarked that they "had our best growth years".

Underscoring the success of the four-day initiative in enhancing flexibility, self-determination, and mutual trust, Aled shared his enthusiasm for pushing boundaries: "The four-day week was so successful for its increase in flexibility, autonomy, and trust that I wanted to see how we could get more flexibility out of it. I decided to take it to a new extreme where people can plan their weeks how they like them.", reports .

Aled's "inherent curiosity into human performance" fueled his exploration into optimal working practices.

The 9-5 grind became the standard after Henry Ford's revolutionary move to an eight-hour day and five-day week in his factories back in the 1920s, initially cutting down working hours. Aled observed: "The nine-to-five became popular in the industrial age yet now in the digital age and the AI age we still have the same working pattern."

Digging deeper, Aled identified flaws in how work is structured today: "I think we're trying to shoehorn women into leadership roles and we're getting it a bit wrong. We're trying to get women to work more like men rather than looking at their unique biological and neurological capabilities and playing to those strengths."

He pointed out that we fail to acknowledge women's energy cycles: "There are times in a women's cycle when they have more energy but we aren't giving them the autonomy of placing their hardest work in that phase."

Investigating further, Aled understood that men too are mismatched with current work schedules: "Men are way more focused and driven in the early hours of the morning so when you wake up guys get a shot of testosterone and that testosterone drops throughout the day.

"Because you've got emails and all that we're not really doing any focused creative work until about 11 – and that's if you don't have meetings you don't need to have."

Aled is a firm believer in the power of proper breaks for enhancing concentration and reducing mistakes, which is why his company offers employees paid time-offs. He attributes these minor yet impactful changes to maintaining an impressive 100% staff retention rate.

"I want to create a that suits me as hopefully a father one day and I'd love to have a life where I work from seven till three and then go pick up the kids and kick a football or rugby ball around."

Admitting there have been some teething problems three weeks into the trial, Aled nonetheless acknowledges the upsides. "The only challenge we've had is with training sessions. They are really important to our work and a lot of preparation goes into them so although we do record them it can be deflating when no-one turns up because they're out doing something else."

Discussing the advantages, Aled witnessed several. One notable example is how one of his account assistants chose to work over the Easter bank holiday and took days off afterwards instead.

"She had a great time – it was silent and there was no traffic. It means that on Sunday she gets totally focused, total peace and quiet, very little messaging needed or communication needed. She can just focus down."

He shared how one employee knocks off early on a Monday to hit the football field in time for practice, while another slots in a therapy appointment with plans to catch up on work later that week.

Several staff members rejig their schedules for an extended weekend, and one worker even managed to reunite with their partner immediately after they returned from a month-long job in France, despite it landing on a Monday.

"My favourite thing a team member has done is one of the girls does three hours of yoga on a Monday morning. I love that because whilst everyone else is like waking up and racing to work she's doing three hours of bending around and deep breathing."

Aled, originally from Abergavenny and raised in Pembrokeshire, self-deprecatingly branded himself a bit of a hypocrite as he doesn't stick to a strict 32-hour routine but believes there’s a natural variance between being an owner and an employee. He said: "Although I don't do the 32-hour week I do work flexibly and I spent pretty much the entire winter out of the UK which is nice."

He observed that some employees are more daring with their flexible hours, while others show a preference for keeping the original Monday to Thursday structure.

Looking beyond the trial, Aled expressed his desire to carry on with the flexible system, albeit with a few gentle guidelines to ensure things run smoothly, particularly when it comes to setting up meetings at times when most team members are working.

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