On a sultry Karachi morning, the clock reads 8:15. A line of Suzuki vans, motorcycles and rickshaws snakes through pothole-ridden roads, horns blaring in frustration. Among the passengers is Saima, a 28-year-old developer who has already spent 45 minutes just reaching Shahrah-e-Faisal. Her office insists she arrive at 9 sharp — "late deduction" looms if she does not. By the time she finally reaches her desk, drenched in sweat and stress, she has little energy left for meaningful work.

This scene plays out across Karachi every day. The idea that a city with crumbling roads, no reliable public transport and ever-present traffic jams can sustain a rigid "9 to 6" work culture is not just outdated, but it is unfair as well. Corporate Pakistan needs to rethink its blind adherence to strict schedules that were imported from Western industrial models but never adapted to our own realities.

The illusion of 9 hours' productivity

In theory, a 9-hour office day should yield solid productivity. In practice, however, it often results in the opposite. Walk into many offices at 9am: desks filled, but workers are scrolling through their phones, gathering for tea or stretching out breakfast into brunch. By 1pm, there's another wave of distraction: extended lunch breaks, group gossip and long cigarette trips. Much of the "work" day dissolves into filler.

Employees are not lazy; they are responding to an environment that prioritises........

© The Express Tribune