Flex: Reinventing Work for a Smarter, Happier Life

Seasoned trends forecaster and consultant Annie Auerbach takes a fresh look at women’s professional lives today by rethinking the 9 to 5 in this “no-nonsense guide to thinking and behaving more flexibly in order to have a happier, better, less frenetic life” (Marie Claire)—now widely available for American readers and updated with an author note addressing work in the post-Covid age.

The recent coronavirus outbreak has proven what Annie Auerbach has long championed: working 9-5 in an office doesn’t work for most us. 

It’s time to change the rules.

We can be efficient and productive when we’re allowed the freedom of flexibility—to meet deadlines working during the hours and in the places we choose. But before the coronavirus pandemic, only 47 percent of American workers had access to flexible working options. Annie Auerbach advises major corporations, including Nike, Google, Unilever, and Pepsico. She understands work culture and the needs of employees. The world is changing for working women, but until the recent pandemic, companies turned a blind eye. Now, it’s time to make this change routine.

Auerbach reiterates the importance of leaving the office cubicle behind and explores the realities many women experience working from home and the changes to their daily lives, including the trickle-down effects, from emotional labor to balancing childcare and education with work, to even biohacking the female body’s unique rhythms. 

What happens when women embrace the concept of flex? We become more creative, more strategic with our time and energy, and more engaged with our personal lives. As Auerbach makes clear, we reject “our toxic culture of presenteeism, time-pressure, and ultimately burnout. It helps us escape the army of octopus lady jugglers, crazed with the exhaustion of “having it all.” It allows us to live longer lives more sustainably. It gives us self-worth.”

Annie Auerbach is a speaker, consultant, brand strategist, and the co-founder of trends agency Starling, which specializes in helping brands understand cultural change in order to stay relevant. Starling's clients include Pepsico, Nike, Google and Unilever, and Auerbach was named a 2019 Timewise Power Founder on #timewisepower50 alongside a range of flex working trailblazers who are changing the future of work. She has worked flexibly for twenty years in many different guises—part-time, remote working, freelancing, through a portfolio career and returning to work after having her two daughters. She lives in London with her family.