One thing many workers are keen to leave behind heading into 2026? The 9-to-5 schedule. In its place, many are interested in adopting a practice called “microshifting.”
In Owl Labs’ 2025 State of Hybrid Work report, 65% of workers reported being interested in microshifting, defined as working in “short, non-linear blocks based on personal energy, responsibilities, or productivity patterns.”
“Microshifting appeals to employees not just as a scheduling preference, but as a way to reclaim control over their increasingly fragmented work lives,” Owl Labs CEOÂ Frank Weishaupt tells CNBC Make It. “Employees are improvising solutions to reconcile the demands of their jobs with the realities of their lives.”
During the pandemic remote work boom, many workers had greater control over their time during their workdays. The interest in microshifting could represent interest in keeping that flexibility, particularly among those with some degree of remote or self-directed work, as it may be more difficult for office workers in traditional 9-to-5 jobs.
But microshifting isn’t an entirely new practice. Doug Gregory of Grand Rapids, Michigan, says he’s been doing it as a remote worker for decades, before it had that name, and even more so since the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We kind of got used to the idea of being present or available for loved ones,” he says of broader sentiment in the workforce stemming from the pandemic remote work era. “We got used to taking better care of our health.”
While Gregory acknowledges that “not everybody has control over their calendar,” he finds “the day is more fluid” when he’s microshifting.
“If I need to take an hour off during the day to go do something with the grandkid or to go see a doctor or whatever, it’s okay, I make up for it in the evening, I make up for it early in the morning,” he says. “It really comes back to what am I responsible for getting done, how do I do it, and how do I organize my life to do it.”
Gregory previously held sales roles but today is self-employed working in audiovisual integration.
“I earn a living based on outcomes,” he says. “Nobody sends me a check for how many hours I work in a week.”
Microshifting could be particularly useful for parents and caregivers; Owl Labs’ report found caregivers were roughly three times as likely to try microshifting as non-caregivers.
Theresa Robertson of Elkridge, Maryland, is one of them. Robertson says she juggled her work, including a former role as a project manager, with caregiving for her late husband, who had chronic health issues, for 25 years.
“To me, it was just making sure I didn’t lose my job,” she says. “I had to take care of my husband, and I had to work, so I had to figure it out.”
That meant scheduling meetings around his doctors’ appointments and starting some days early or ending others late to take him to those appointments, manage his medications and handle other caregiving responsibilities.
“We had a routine; after I got him settled, made sure he was dressed and he had his medicine and he had his food, then I could relax and focus on work,” she says. “I had more control over my day where I could stop and decide, okay I need to check his blood pressure and then go back to work.”
Some of her jobs during this period, like in project management, were more outcome-based so she was trusted to manage her time as long as she handled her work, she notes.
“As long as I got the job done on time and on budget, they weren’t really looking at did I punch a clock to see was I in the building at 7 a.m.” she says. “I’ve had so many Zoom meetings in hospital rooms because wherever I go I take my laptop and when I can work, I can work.”
Today, Robertson runs a virtual assistant agency, which she says helps her continue to microshift. She sets her hours such that she’s mostly free on Friday afternoons, for example, to tend to personal matters.
“I microshift all the time,” she says. “That’s the only way I’m able to have a life and produce an income.”
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