
Alexander is a writer, traveler, and serial digital entrepreneur. He’s the founder of the Frontend Lists, the Gen X personal growth newsletter Further, and offers small business advice at Unemployable.


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Director and Chief Evangelist

Alexander Hipp


Anil is a content-obsessed marketer who loves driving organic traffic for outstanding companies. He is also the creator of Hack the Content, co-host of The Runner, and owner of several digital commerce sites.

Managing Partner

Anil Vugels


Monika is a writer, musician, and content strategist with a passion for language. When she isn’t helping clients, you can find her writing songs, hiking in a northern forest, or furiously journaling.

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Ann Monika


Robert is a creative writer who loves learning new skills, and helping others. He’s the author of several novels, and in his free time, you can find fim swimming, reading, or baking.

Content Specialist

Robert Britt


It’s no secret that the covid pandemic has had a huge impact on the way that businesses are run - but there’s also been a switch in the way that people, and HR leaders, approach work. Employees have had time and space to reassess their lives and a lot of them have found they much prefer the work-life balance that remote models have created. Some of this attitude is at the core of the ‘Great Resignation’ trend that we’re seeing creeping closer to our shores. 

As we start to see the pandemic in our rear-view mirrors, and return to a version of normalcy looks imminent, it’s time to assess what HR has learned from the last two years - and how we integrate that into leadership moving forward.

“As a business, I don’t think we will ever go back to that traditional model of nine-to-five, five days a week,” Robert Stone, chief people officer at global marketing agency Wunderman Thompson, told HRD. “People have assessed what’s important to them in life, and that’s work-life balance and wellbeing.”

The marketing and advertising industry has a turnover percentage in the mid to high thirties. Wunderman Thompson is tracking significantly lower than the industry standard over the timespan of the pandemic – something Stone is certifiably proud of. 

### Through this situation
“Through this situation, I think employees saw the true colour of businesses, of how they treated their people,” he added. “Employers that may not have handled it the right away are still feeling the repercussions. We had to re-educate our managers to think, it’s all new - how do we work through this? In the beginning, a lot of people tried to remotely replicate culture from what was in an office environment. However, we eventually had to look at things in a different way and redefine what culture is to a workplace.”

The traditional nine-to-five work schedule is becoming increasingly obsolete as more companies adopt flexible, remote work policies. This shift away from the traditional workday has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced many companies to adopt remote work as a necessity.

One approach that companies are taking to replace the nine-to-five schedule is the implementation of flexible work arrangements. This can include options such as remote work, flexible hours, and job sharing. These arrangements allow employees to work from anywhere and at times that best suit their needs, which can lead to increased productivity and job satisfaction.

Without even reducing the 40-hour work week. Time is money, right?

The nine-to-five Is Dead. Here’s What to Replace It With


About eight or ten years ago, I was excited about smart fabric and connected textiles —  especially about what the next generation could be once the materials evolved. Now, Microsoft’s got me excited again, and, well, skeptical.

Smart fabric refers to textiles that embed technology such as sensors and conductive thread into the structure and function of the material.

In the case of Microsoft, the patent is for fabric in a jeans’ pocket. The fabric is embedded with layers of connected sensors that can recognize an object or gesture.  

And, it’s more than just sewing in a few sensors. The patent also details the development of data processing circuitry. It can receive, process, and transmit data from the smart fabric.

Then, there’s a computing system containing a machine learning module. It receives and processes incoming data and builds prediction models. These can recognize an object placed next to the piece of smart fabric or a touch gesture applied to it. 

The computer system can recognize objects commonly held in a pocket and their absence. For example, your pocket sends a reminder to your phone when it fails to detect coins for parking meters or your hand sanitizer. 

As for gesture recognition, rubbing the phone against your pocket could quickly trigger a command on your phone via NFC. It could also have applications in gaming and various consumer products.

### Not Microsoft’s first rodeo

Microsoft’s been interested in smart fabric and smart clothing since the mid-2010s, filing various patents, such as electronically functional yarn for smart shirts and gloves. 

The current patent is most likely an extension of a 2020 project called Capacitivo, where a smart fabric tablecloth identifies foods, such as specific items of fruit placed on the table, or even liquid inside glasses. It’s a somewhat strange use case. 

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About eight or ten years ago, I was excited about smart fabric and connected textiles —  especially about what the next generation could be once the materials evolved.

Lifestyle

The nine-to-five Is Dead. Here’s What to Replace It With

Msoft's smart fabric that can detect objects and gestures