Flexible Hours is Now the Norm for Engineers

Engineers were told for years they couldn’t work from home because the work required team collaboration that could only occur successfully in person.

This is how mechanical engineer Tim Griffin, P.E., recounts the job market before Covid. However, the pandemic forced engineering firms to collaborate remotely, and they managed to successfully run their businesses while doing so.

“Now that we have demonstrated we can collaborate remotely, the genie’s out of the bottle and no one can use that previous argument anymore,” he said.

Big benefit

That change is just one of the ways in which flexibility created a benefit in the workplace —and it’s a big one. 

Said Griffin, “We have proved we can collaborate in a more flexible environment and also greatly reduced the requirement for travel related to in-person client meetings.”

In fact, research out of the University of Pittsburgh on the mental health benefits of workplace flexibility found that in 2023, states with a higher percentage of flexible firms showed considerably lower rates of depression.

Because of the project-driven nature of the field, where work hours fluctuate depending on demands and deadlines, being able to complete tasks remotely helps mechanical engineers respond quickly without “having to come into the office for the night or the weekend to pull things off,” said Griffin, a PSMJ consultant and executive vice president at RMF Engineering.

That said, Griffin added, not only is flexibility “more about when you put in the time, not necessarily where,” it is both desired and expected much more in younger generations, something he writes about in his book Lattes, Puppies, and Unlimited Vacation: Attracting, Retaining, and Empowering Millennial Design Firm Professionals.

Core hours

Griffin’s firm operates using core hours—a designated period of the day when all employees must be at work. Outside of this time, which at RMF Engineering is between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., employees can set their own schedules. This provides both flexibility of schedules and reliable time for in-person project collaboration.

“Early birds often come in at six in the morning, and at 3 o’clock they’re gone,” said Griffin, based in Raleigh, N.C. “Then some people come crawling in, barely awake, at 10 in the morning, but at nine o’clock at night they’re still going. They all come to work during their most productive time, which is really what you want anyway.”

Ohio-based Priority Designs doesn’t have core hours, but employees are able to shift work schedules at any time to suit individual lifestyles. They just need to note time off on a shared office-wide schedule, according to Anne Marie Tollett, one of its biomedical engineers.

Tollett typically gets to work at 7:30 a.m. and leaves at 4 p.m. It’s a schedule that aligns with her 2-year-old son’s daycare hours.

“I’m an engineer, but I’m also a mom and expecting my second child,” Tollett said and added that her schedule is perfect for getting to prenatal and other doctor appointments as well. “It has made my life tremendously easier and lets me save vacation time for actual vacation.”

On another note, if she has a late-night meeting with an overseas client in a different time zone, she doesn’t have to be in the office the next morning at her usual time.

Flex time

Tollett pointed out that a couple of co-workers have used flex time to guest lecture at nearby Ohio State University; another co-worker blocked off a few hours on the calendar to teach an engineering course there.

Flexible scheduling allows employees to be on the other side of the proverbial desk, signing up for professional development courses or additional training.

Tollett is considering getting her Project Management Professional Certification after maternity leave. Because of her work schedule, she can block off time to take a test whenever needed, as long as it doesn’t interfere with unalterable commitments such as client meetings.

Flexibility can be a life-saver, given that when it comes to work hours, the lack of it can become a safety issue when employees are overworked or overstressed.

“I’ve worked in manufacturing environments, and it’s definitely dangerous when people are tired,” Tollett said. “If you’re working on CAD on the computer and make a mistake, you can discover it later and fix it. But if you’re working with equipment like a bandsaw or table saw, a mistake can be really expensive—for you and your health, and also for the company.”

For flexibility to be successful rather than a distraction, employers first need to “find people you can trust, and be willing to deal with people who show themselves as untrustworthy,” Griffin said. “The second thing is you need to be a results-oriented workplace, where you’re not measuring sacrifice—in terms of time, and when and where your butt’s sitting—but performance.”

Tollett says her adjustable schedule allows her to live a more meaningful life: “It helps me feel like I’m valued by my employer and not just a number.”

Robin L. Flanigan is an independent writer in Rochester, N.Y.