Flexible working request

Hello,

I do something quite similar…

I work 37 hours over 4 days. I start work (from home) around 6am - 6:30am, and work until 8am, when my husband leaves for work, I then drop my children off at school and nursery, which takes me around 40 mins and then work until 4pm-5pm. Where I then clock out again to pick up the children, sometimes if I am down on my time I do tend to log in once the children are asleep, and do a couple of hours then! Doesn’t bother me as otherwise I’d just be watching tv!!

😁

I agree I’d think I’d say I’d be ok to do the odd meeting (not twice a week myself!) but otherwise keep to what I was doing.
Its an 8 hour difference not 7 but when I used to work in a company with a California office I found that the Americans started work at 8am anyway, so we’d have a 4 or 4.30pm meeting and then go home.

Insane? Par for the course in global firms. Especially if you want career progression, the best people for certain functions are chosen for talent first, location second.

OP you said 9-5 suits you, so I see no reason to change unless requested. But I've known others to start work late at 11 or even 12, allowing them to sleep in!
Of course the issue here is that you and your spouse become ships passing in the night if they work a standard 9-5. But you can easily tag team it.
You do the nursery drop-offs and have your 'me-time' in the mornings. Maybe pick-ups.
You have the 5-7 family time and it's all them after that while you resume work.

I don't understand why people think '9-5# is ideal with a non-sleeping baby surely starting later helps with this???

If your working day is 9-5, stick with that. If your boss asks for a call at 5/5.30 (which presumably is what they've done in the past because it's least inconvenient to you), you can say that that no longer works, and could you make it 8pm? It's unlikely to be a problem.

Are they flexible at the moment if you ask for some daytime off in lieu of staying late for a call? Or have you just not asked? Most employers are reasonable - if you're flexible about having the odd meeting out of hours, they can be flexible if you could use a late start another day.

My DH used to have a weekly call with the US early evening, in the days of working in an office, and as a result we ended up having dinner very late after he'd travelled home. When I realised that he was the only UK person on the call, I asked whether they couldn't hold it after we'd had dinner, and ring him at home instead. That was absolutely no problem - all it took was the suggestion!

If your contract is 9-5, do 9-5. Tell them you won't be working outside of your contracted hours and if they want you to, they need to pay overtime. Having you report to someone in California when you're in the UK is insane!

Maybe your new boss does different types of hours due to his / her role. They might have times when they are online when you are.

We work in a global role and I sometimes need to dial in to calls outside of 9-5. I prefer 9-5 so I just do this occasionally and then take the time back.
my manager has 5 year old twins so her agreement is that as long as she does her hours they don’t really care when she does them. She tends to work core hours 10-3 every day, with a couple of 9-5 days but then on the other days she may log in in the morning at 6:30 and work while husband sorts the kids then take a break and take them to school or she may finish at 3 pick them up and then do another couple of hours once they’re in bed. But not every day as that would be exhausting.
Could you flex so that you agree to a certain number of 9-5 days and a couple of days when you finish earlier do pickups and tea/bedtime then log on later?
Do you have to have fixed flex hours if that makes sense?

If 9-5 works then stick with 9-5

You are massively overthinking here. 9-5 is fine. Fits with standard nursery hours 🤷‍♀️ remember your company isn't your friend, make it work for YOU.

What are you wanting ideally?

From your post the only thing I’ve picked up is that you want a hard stop at 5pm. Sounds like your current working arrangement covers that so there’s no need to adjust.

if there’s something else you’re looking for, then that could complicate things or make offering a bit of evening time worth it.

If not, priority would be working out what your hard lines and flex is ahead of having a return to work meeting with your manager. That’s not just for flexible working requests, that’s about how you work your existing arrangements. Eg. I usually need a hard stop at 5pm every day. If there’s travel to further away event I can occasionally make alternative arrangements but I need at least 3 weeks notice. I’m ok with driving my own car for the travel, and just want to check that you have same view as previous manager - no work calls while driving? Suggest we schedule a regular 1:1 at 4pm UK time at ….. frequency so we stay in touch. I don’t expect responses outside of your normal working hours and assume that goes both ways.

I work starting at 6pm with older ones, teens and older primary, and it’s really not an easy time to get going. It would be brutal with littler ones. It still makes me tired, in some ways worse that working through from earlier, it’s a funny time to get going when you’ve been up having a normal day from early morning.

Good luck with that.

I'd get out this mindset of fixed hours, Just be prepared to accept the odd evening meeting. That's how most of us manage in a global company., Take the time back informally in the day if you must.

On the flip side my UK boss (once removed ) works far into his evening to catch his US meetings

@Janch13 I think you’re thinking too much into this at the moment. Go back, settle in with your new boss then go from there once you see how things are going to work.

I mean I’m guessing your new boss understands there is a significant time zone difference 🤷‍♀️

I work with clients in the US, mainland Europe and occasionally elsewhere. I am flexible for when I'm needed for meeting. In return my employer is flexible with me.

I think you can use the time difference to your advantage but I'm not sure what you are suggesting would work. What happens when your child is going through tough sleep times and you've got to log back on? It's hard!

If you have a partner, can you stagger work hours somehow to make the most of the time difference with your boss?

Don’t forget to factor in that some Americans willingly work to a barking mad schedule so, unless it really is to your advantage, I wouldn’t request different hours.

I work for a US based company and my previous boss was based in California. She used to work to East Coast hours so would start work at 5 am her time which gave her plenty of overlap with me in the UK.

I would suggest that you offer some adhoc flexibility so maybe work the odd evening if it will make your life easier but make sure you get the time back.

Do you have another parent in the house who could be there if your child wakes up or doesn’t go down at the usual time. My son sometimes wakes up after a night terror or when he’s sick etc. How will this affect your nights out etc.

I work 8.30-3.30 tues-Thursday and Thursday is a fixed work from home day although I only have to go in 1 day a week.

Where’s your downtime at the end of the day ? You’ll never switch off mentally if you work til 9.30 every evening. And that’s a killer over time.

Stick with 9-5 for now.

I’m not sure I’m getting this. California is 7 hours behind? So at 4pm our time it’s 9am there and you are 9-5 so if you have to give some sort of report to them sometimes this could easily be done before you finish. Are they not able to link in with you at that time? Are they looking for this to be later? If your contracted hours are 9-5 I’m sorry but it’s not really your problem if they aren’t available for meetings before you finish for the day. Is it written into your contract that you’re expected to be available later sometimes? If that’s the case then your flexible hours should be tailored to suit. It’s hard to say without knowing how often you need to meet with them. But say there are meetings with them twice week and they have to be at like 2pm their time. So on those days you will be need to work 9-10pm your time, you will finish at 4. But that’s not exactly ideal for a parent with a young family. Really they should be making themselves available during your working hours.
I’ve no idea how you word that in flexible working request!

@mynameiscalypso can I ask why? If a member of my team came to me with this and thought it would benefit them and therefore their well being I’d have zero issue with it!

If you work for a UK company then the manager on the US time zone maybe needs to be the one changing their working hours if they want to talk to you?

It's not your fault they've now given you a manager in the US.