Why we don't start at nine o'clock

At nine in the morning, most people are sitting at their screens. Some are awake. Others are reading the same sentence in an email for the third time. Everyone is at work. Not everyone is working.

We think that is a strange trade. You pay someone to be present, while what you actually want is results. It is like paying a baker per hour he stands in the shop, and then being surprised the bread doesn't get any better.

That is why at DRP BuildLab we work with a simple idea: the work counts, not the clock.

Presence is not performance. Finished work is.

Where the idea comes from

Knowledge work is strange work. A good idea doesn't fit in a nine-to-five box, and a bad day can't be fixed by sitting there longer. People also really differ in when they are sharp: one is up at six in the morning, the other only gets going after dinner. That is not laziness. That is simply how people are wired.

Most companies know that, and still put everyone on the same schedule. Out of habit, out of convenience, and because a schedule is easier to check than a result. We choose the harder option: checking the result.

What it looks like in practice

Take Jonas, a made-up developer with a very real problem: at half past eight in the morning he is about as sharp as a chair. At ten at night he solves in twenty minutes a bug he stared at for half a day.

His colleague Sanne (also made up, also recognisable) is the opposite. She is awake at six, three tasks in by eight and done by two. Then she goes to play padel, where, in her own words, she gets the best ideas of the week. Mostly against a wall.

A time clock forces the two to work together in the middle: both half-hearted, both from nine o'clock. We let them work when they are good, and we ask one thing: that it is finished, that it is right, and that the client knows where they stand.

Sounds soft? It is actually stricter than a time clock. A time clock asks you to be there. We ask that it is done. For the client, one thing changes as a result: they get a fixed response time and a delivery date that is met, instead of office hours.

How we make agreements

Freedom starts with clarity. For every piece of work we answer three questions in advance:

What is done? We describe the result in one sentence, so nobody can say later that they understood it differently.
When? A date, not 'soon'.
Who decides? One owner, who knows when they may ask for help.

After that it is up to the owner. When they work is their business. What they deliver is not.

What it can deliver

Sharper work. You do the hard work when you are ready for it, not when the calendar says so.
Less drudgery. No sitting out hours on a day when nothing comes out of your hands. We all know the day of three coffees and one line of code.
Fairer agreements. You measure the work, not the chair.
More responsibility. People who are given freedom usually handle it more carefully.
A wider choice of people. Talent doesn't only live within thirty kilometres and a 9-to-5 rhythm.

Where it goes wrong, and how to prevent it

Freedom without agreements is called chaos. A liberal work schedule only works if the edges are sharp. These are the rules of thumb:

One owner per task. Everyone knows who signs for what.
A short fixed check-in. So nobody sits guessing alone.
An agreed response time for clients. Even if you work late yourself. A response time is not a reply at two in the morning.
A tidy handover. What is done, what is open, what the next person needs.
Trust is a credit. Whoever doesn't keep agreements gets less freedom, until it works again.

There are also moments when fixed hours do work better: the first weeks of a new colleague, a crisis at a client, a day full of appointments. Then we simply work at the same time, and let nobody guess.

Questions we always get

But how do you know they are really working? By what they deliver. A warm chair proves nothing.
How do you measure performance then? By delivered work, quality and the client's reaction. Not by the number of hours in a system.
And meetings? As few as possible, and always with an agenda. Whoever invites without an agenda buys the coffee.
What if someone abuses it? Then you see it quickly, because the agreements are visible. Then we talk, and the freedom adjusts.
Does it suit everyone? No. For some tasks and some people fixed hours work better. That is why it is an agreement and not a dogma.

How to start yourself

Start small. One team or one type of task, not the whole company at once.
Agree a core overlap. For example two hours a day when everyone is reachable.
Write down what 'done' means, per task.
Make the handover visible. A shared board or document where everyone can see what is running.
Evaluate after four weeks. What went well, where did something get stuck?
Adjust. A rule that doesn't work may change.

And yes, we also answer emails at nine in the morning. If we are awake by then.

Jonas and Sanne don't exist. Their working rhythm does.

Fancy doing it this way?

Do you want to work with us, or are you considering trying this in your own company? Talk to us, we are happy to explain how we approach it.

info@drpbuildlab.com | drpbuildlab.com