How to define and live your own work style

Executive overview

The nine-to-five, office-based model was built for industrial-age production — it no longer fits how knowledge work actually gets done. Workstyle is the freedom to choose when and where you work, and research shows that freedom (autonomy) directly improves well-being, which in turn drives productivity.

Lizzie Penny and Alex Hirst coined the term in 2014, then spent eight years proving the model through Huxby, a 500-person freelance community. Their framework — set, project, respect — gives individuals a practical path to individualize their work without waiting for organizational permission.

Autonomy is not a perk — it is the mechanism through which well-being improves productivity.

Why the nine-to-five no longer fits

• Work became location-independent in 2014 when mobile tethering made a personal hotspot a viable office
• Online collaboration tools reached a tipping point, making async, distributed work genuinely productive
• 21% of the global population will be over 60 by 2050 — older workers must stay in work longer, requiring a more flexible system
• The freelance workforce is the fastest-growing labour force in Europe and a large share of the US workforce
• Flexible and hybrid working tweak the edges of an outdated system; they do not replace it

What workstyle is — and is not

• Workstyle: the freedom to choose when and where you work, defined by the individual
• Flexible working requires a reason to ask; workstyle is universally applied, not granted case by case
• Flexible working creates in-group/out-group dynamics — those with "legitimate" reasons vs. those without
• Everyone has a circadian rhythm; everyone does deep and shallow work better at different times and places
• The word was coined to be neutral: "What's your workstyle?" carries no judgment about the answer

Three operating principles from eight years of testing

• Be digital first: treat Slack as the office, async channels as the water cooler — not physical presence with digital bolt-ons
• Work asynchronously: default to working at the time that suits you, not synchronously with colleagues; it is more inclusive and more productive
• Invest in a trust-based culture: trust must be role-modelled by leaders, recognised, and rewarded — it does not emerge on its own
• Autonomy creates accountability for output; the trade is clear — freedom in exchange for delivering what you commit to
• During the pandemic, most companies moved meetings to Zoom but kept working synchronously and measuring presence — they missed the shift

Set, project, respect: the individual framework

• Set: start with a blank sheet and identify non-negotiable life commitments (school runs, caring, health); then identify non-negotiable work commitments; find where genuine flexibility sits between them
• Think across a full week, not just a day — weekends, evenings, and unconventional hours are all valid
• Project: speak your workstyle into existence — tell colleagues, add it to your email signature or status, communicate it explicitly
• Respect: embed boundaries through routine; schedule personal commitments (gym, appointments) to force new behaviour patterns
• People are better at respecting others' workstyles than their own — external anchors help
• Even without organisational support, mapping your own workstyle creates agency and reveals flexibility you weren't drawing on

How workstyle works inside organisations

• Organisations that see the most benefit have a visible senior champion who makes workstyle available to everyone — not just those who ask
• Workstyle documents shared on a public intranet normalise the practice and remove stigma
• Connectedness deepens: knowing what colleagues work around creates human understanding that nine-to-five presence never did
• The competitive case: autonomy is the key to attracting and retaining talent in the decade ahead
• Organisations on a five-to-ten-year journey can adopt modular training and toolkits rather than a big-bang transition
• Huxby is recruiting ten pioneer organisations across sectors (charities, corporates, startups, public sector) to pilot and document workstyle in varied contexts

Where to start

• Read the book (also available as an audiobook on Audible, with contributors sharing their own workstyle stories)
• Use the word in conversation — people naturally adopt it and reflect it back
• Join the Slack community at workstylerevolution.com/join for tools and worksheets to set, project, and respect your workstyle
• Connect with Lizzie and Alex on LinkedIn or Instagram