Work/life balance is generally assumed to include leaving the office at a reasonable hour most days, having whole weekends off and using up all your annual leave. Meanwhile, flexible working is usually taken to mean coming in early once in a while so that you can pick the kids up from school, or working from home a couple of days a week so that you can avoid the tortuous commute.
But for a growing number of people, this doesn't go far enough. Instead, they want to work compressed hours and take four-day weekends every single week. Or they want to take a month out between one job and the next. And at the most extreme end, they want to work for six months and then take six months off. These people -- according to Human Resources, a UK industry publication -- are from all age ranges and all levels of jobs and are part of a new phenomenon: binge working.
Workers fall into two groups. The first, outlined in the magazine by Chris Bones, group-organization effectiveness and development director of Cadbury Schweppes, is not looking for the security of a regular paycheck.
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"Rather, they want the security of knowing they can return to work after an extended unpaid absence," he explains.
They are not looking for status roles either, he says. "Rather, they see a virtue in project roles."
In other words, these people work like crazy for weeks, maybe months, on end -- possibly on a single project -- and then take a chunk of time out of the workplace for themselves. Some will travel, while the more conscientious might use the time for personal development -- do a course or learn a language, perhaps.
Mary Stone is among the former.
"I'm 22 and while I need to work to earn money, I have no intention of spending most of my waking hours there," she says.
"So I get temporary secretarial roles through recruitment agencies where there is plenty of opportunity to work really long hours. Then I take off two or three weeks to go on cheap holidays before I agree to take on another role. Most of my friends are very envious of my lifestyle," she says.
Temping in the secretarial sector has long been marketed as suiting this kind of person.
"What's new is that so many more people are taking up the opportunity," says Tricia Phillips, operations director for the recruitment consultancy, Adecco.
"Once upon a time, you'd leave a job on a Friday and start a new one on a Monday, but fewer people do that now," she says.
Research shows that one in two people would like to change their working hours and it's this high proportion which is fuelling the binge-working boom.
"Many of these people have decided not just to wish for it, but to actually make the change in their lives," Phillips explains.
Employers themselves are recognizing that a growing number of people desire deeply concentrated periods of work, followed by extended time off.
Indeed, the second category of workers are those who work for these forward-thinking employers.
"Increasingly, employers are introducing `annualized hours,' whereby employees are expected to work a certain number of hours a year, but it doesn't really matter when," says consultant clinical psychologist Ronald Bracey.
Tracey Sturt, a 39-year-old business center manager for Adecco, has been a binge-worker for the past two years.
"I have two children -- four and eight years-old -- and I currently work long hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays so that I can spend more time with them on Mondays and Fridays," she says.
"You need high energy levels and extreme dedication to your job. But if you have those things, it can be a wonderful way of working," she says.
It's not only employees who gain from binge-working, according to Bracey.
"More and more employers are realizing the downsides of presenteeism -- that is, where workers are expected to stay at work, even if they have nothing to do, he says. "Instead, they are realizing that flexible ways of working make employees far more productive.
"Moreover, the employee feels respected and provides respect for the employer in return," Bracey says.
Bracey also makes the point that some people can knock out in a few days a job that would take someone else a week. Others work better when they are under pressure.
"The simple fact is that some people are much faster workers than others, while others thrive on deadlines to produce that extra piece of brilliance or creativity," he says.
"Why shouldn't those who have finished go off and play golf for the rest of the week, once they've completed the task in hand? This is the conclusion some employers are coming to. They don't lose out -- on the contrary, a happy worker tends to be a much more profitable worker," he says.
It sounds impossibly utopian, but it is becoming an increasingly common attitude in the workplace -- due in large part to the rise in project work.
"Many jobs are becoming more like working on a film," Bracey says.
"You have a window in which to do that project, which has a clear beginning, middle and end. Taking time off in between therefore doesn't have to be disruptive," Bracey says.
Lawrence Smith, a psychologist specializing in working patterns, says 12-hour shifts are becoming popular in many workplaces -- often for a few days in a row.
"The idea is to get all the working hours out of the way in a short space of time, freeing people up for leisure time the rest of the week. In a 24-hour society, in which many companies need a presence at work round the clock, it can suit both employer and employee," he says.
There can be downsides to binge-working, however. "There is the potential for fatigue at work, especially in sedentary jobs, and where people don't take regular breaks," Smith says.
Cary Cooper, an organizational psychologist at the Lancaster University Management School in England, agrees.
"You can get into addictive working," he says.
"You work so many hours that you don't do your job well, and both your work and your health are adversely affected."
Ben Williams, an Edinburgh-based chartered corporate psychologist, adds that many find they can't escape the workplace, even during their time off.
"Technology means that people who make themselves available by e-mail or mobile phone are constantly accessible," he says.
The result? The version of balance that binge-workers crave simply isn't achieved.
Finding the motivation required to get back into the swing of hard work after a long break can also be tough, says business psychologist Marie Mosely.
"This can be particularly hard if someone in your absence has changed the way that you've traditionally done something -- say, dealt with a client," she warns.
The truth is, of course, that if you work with clients directly, you're probably not in an ideal position to work compressed hours in the first place.
Paul Jacobs, managing director of the recruitment consultancy Office Angels, says that: "The reality is that if you deal with customers, you need to be available. Usually, that means working normal hours."
Nonetheless, there are industries and jobs that particularly suit binge-working. "Take traditional manufacturing," Tricia Phillips says.
"We provide hundreds of workers to the industry at certain times of the year and not others. So it would be quite feasible to work compressed hours for eight months of the year and take the other four off," she says.
The relationship between time and money in the workplace is clearly changing, and binge-working, like all forms of new working patterns, contributes to life/work balance.
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