在英国，“朝九晚五的工作”这个说法指的是遵循正常办公时间的工作，其中数字“9”和“5”分别代表英国公司最普遍的上下班时间。但如今，很多企业通过将办公时间变得灵活化来让员工感到更轻松、自由。一家美国公司要求其全体员工必须从早上九点零六分开始准时上班，这是为什么呢？

What time do you start work? Do you prefer a leisurely start to the day, or are you an early bird who likes to get going at the crack of dawn?

At one computer programming company in the US you have no such choice. Work begins at the same oddly specific time every day: 9.06am.

In contrast to a more conventional 9am kick-off, employees in Pivotal Software's 20 offices around the globe have to be at work and ready to go precisely six minutes later.

At that time a cowbell is rung and employees gather for a brief stand-up meeting. After that it's nose to the grindstone, with no other meetings or distractions throughout the working day. They steam on through until 6pm sharp, at which point everybody downs tools.

So what's the reason behind this quirky timekeeping? Company CEO Rob Mee explains it's about making his team of computer programmers as efficient as possible.

"I realised that programmers, if left to their own devices, may roll in at 10am," he says.

"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.'"

He needed a little more leeway, but a starting time of 9.05am on the nose felt too rigidly precise – whereas 9.06am seemed "fun".

Mr Mee was also thinking of their stomachs. Lazier programmers who turned up around 10am would also often have missed breakfast. This meant they would be hungry by 11am and take an early lunch, leaving them with an interminably long working afternoon ahead. So he decided to provide breakfast as an extra incentive to get in to the office on time.

The company's approach to punctuality may seem nerdy, but Pivotal Software is in fact a highly successful company, valued at 20bn RMB. And Pivotal is not alone: Silicon Valley has long been associated with an alternative working culture. Google has ‘nap pods' and meditation classes, while Netflix offers a year's paid parental leave.