Can 'Core Hours' Help Set Limits? --- In a bid for better work-life balance, employers try specifying when employees have to be 'on'

"As a new era of remote and in-office work begins, some companies are trying to bring definition to daily schedules -- by making some hours off-limits for meetings.

The tactic, called "core hours," sets times -- say, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. or 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. -- when bosses require employees to be online and available for meetings, project collaboration and other exchanges. Any other time is a meeting-free zone.

By having certain hours, or days, when everyone is "on," the idea goes, employees have more freedom and flexibility to do solo work the rest of the time.

The approach -- practiced by some employers over the decades as an effort to keep working parents from being boxed out of early morning or late afternoon meetings -- was adopted by some bosses during the pandemic as a way to keep remote collaboration from bleeding into all hours of the day. Now, as businesses reopen offices or implement longer-term work-from-home strategies, some companies say they are making core hours standard practice." [1]

1. Can 'Core Hours' Help Set Limits? --- In a bid for better work-life balance, employers try specifying when employees have to be 'on'
Aiyana Ishmael. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]20 July 2021: A.12.