Staff at Silicon Valley firm, Pivotal, start their day at a very specific time, 9:06am.
Why 9:06am? Well, founder and chief executive Rob Mee says it has everything to do boosting his employees’ efficiency.
Speaking to the BBC he said: “We thought that if we made it 9am, developers psyching themselves up for the day would think, ‘well if it is 9am I’ll be late.’”
“So then we thought, ‘why don’t we make it 9.05am,’ but that is too precise, as programmers don’t like over-optimising, so we went with 9.06am. Then it became something fun.”
In order to make sure that everyone shows up for a 9:06am start the company also provide a free breakfast.
But that’s not where its time-specific policies end. The software startup is also quick to ensure their programmers finish work at 6pm.
“Programmers don’t programme well if they are too tired, so we don’t want them working late into the night,” Mee adds.
Mee is not the first business man to take a unique approach to the concept work-life balance.
Agent, a British marketing company, shortened the work day from eight hours to six after being inspired by a Scandinavian model centred around wellbeing.