To think that workplaces should be less accommodating of personal lives?

I think it’s completely a matter for employers.

My employer is very flexible and accommodating because they have to. There’s a shortage of good people in my role, it’s an employees’ market, and if they’re inflexible, employees will toddle off down the road to another employer in the sector who is more flexible.

DH’s employer are inflexible and then wrong their hands about why they struggle to get people to apply for vacancies.

I work for a law firm which is relatively accommodating of personal lives. I chose it partly for that reason.

Some firms require you to work 80 hours per week and have zero respect for weekends, holidays, sickness etc. They pay much better than my firm.

It’s give and take. If I take an hour off to go to my son’s nativity, I make it up at some point. There are times when I work until 2am to get stuff out but mostly I do bedtimes with my children etc and work from home more than would be allowed at other firms. You also have lower target hours just after coming back from maternity leave.

I don’t feel guilty about the firm accommodating my personal life. It’s a business decision the firm has made to retain senior women with children or those who want work life balance without having to pay too highly.

To some extent but I'm not a robot

You again? No, they shouldn't.

That's how I feel,

I keep the two separate, that includes the people, work colleagues are just that, they know next to nothing about my life.

People like to try and take the piss if you are too accommodating.

I am not a big fan of the “bring your whole self to work” trend. It seems to be a way of encouraging the people who already over share to do it more and force us to listen to it!

Best all be robots then.

Lets remove all humanity from the office and see whether your staff retention of good staff stays high or whether you suddenly see a high (expensive) turnover of staff.

🙄

Happy staff = more productive and more loyal staff who have little reason to look for a new job.

It pays to give leyway to good staff. Recruitment and training is time consuming and costly.

Of course all this has to be done on a case by case in terms of performance. If someone's performance is dropping, then you explore why and what measures would aid it. If someone's performance is at an unacceptable level, you deal with that too.

It depends on how much you value staff and how replacable they are.

I've never seen a workplace yet where the leeway given to people to, say, pick up kids or help care for an elderly relative has caused issues. I think we have discovered now that actually giving people a bit of flexibility works far more often than it doesn't.

Is the op Kemi Badenoch by any chance?! 😂

My husband has cancer, my employer is very supportive with me taking time off to take him to appointments. I keep track of my hours and work evenings/longer days and use some leave to cover them. I obviously don’t go to all appointments but they are incredibly flexible.

I’d wouldn’t want to work for a company who wouldn’t offer that support.

That mindset works when employers expected staff to be available from X time until y to complete a set list of activities.

But when employers expect employees to be more flexible, IE travel and stay away from home, to work longer hours to support a deadline, come into work early on a certain week to support an activity, etc then that flexibility needs to be respected and reciprocated.

There is also a significant push for more efficient, higher productivity working, which means work is more stressful for many people.

Both these mean workplaces taking into account that employees have lives and working around that accordingly. And understanding that a supported workforce works better for an employer

YABU

(no other information is given, so YABU)

I hope you're not an employer.

People are made up of the sum of all their experiences and situation. It is very difficult to mainain 100% focus and engagement at work when undergoing highly stressful situations at home. For valued employees it makes sense, financially, for a business to support an employee who is getting divorced / having cancer treatment / struggling with menopause. The cost of replacing someone can be huge - advertising, interviewing, paying recruiters, training and onboarding, supporting through the early months. That's without considering the time and effort it takes to fire someone... PIPs, HR involvement, dismissal meetings.

So even if it wasn't the humane thing to do it is certainly often the best business decision to provide consideration and support whilst an employee resolves their home issues.

Yes ideally the flexibility doesn't just cover those who need it, but extends to everyone. My team had flexibility whether it was for a random brunch with friends or an ill pet/child /relative. As long as the flexibility is there for everyone then it doesn't cause resentment. Some prefer rigid hours, others need or like the flex.

not my work place @HangryDenimBird

Exactly I was a manager for a long time and the reason I kept a good team and was even able to recruit good quality candidates at a time when many organisations in my sector were having a recruitment crisis was because I was a very flexible and supportive manager.

I think employers should be accommodating of the personal lives that the humans they employ have.

They shouldn't try to achieve that by placing the burden of it onto one group of workers, as so often happens in workplaces. So people with caring responsibilities should be accommodated, but not by overloading those without. That kind of thing.

It takes good management but a lot of places don't have it.

Depends. I think employers should be making all possible adjustments to allow people with disabilities, caring responsibilities, bereavements etc to work. Most people are going to go through those sorts of issues at some point and most people are trying their best and will still be a valuable employee. It is for the employer to ensure though that other colleagues aren’t being overstretched to compensate.

If by personal lives you mean the people who endlessly bring petty drama into work, conduct their social lives during work time and aren’t even trying to help themselves then yeah, that shouldn’t be brought into work. Those people are few and far between though.

Completely correct....in the last century. We've moved on a bit since OP.

I'd hazard a guess that employees who feel they have a good home / work life balance and can work flexibly around both are happier, more loyal, work harder, take less sick daysetc. So I disagree

Couldn’t be more wrong OP- unless everyone is fortunate enough to have a stay at home other half that’s life. Life doesn’t operate around working hours so flexibility is needed, in both directions.

To a degree it's good that they recognise that people are actually people just like them. I'd want to keep good staff so be happy to work with them to a degree as long as they aren't taking the piss. Why wouldn't you?

Sometimes it's impossible for someone to keep their personal issues separate from work however much they wish they could.

A good business would be supportive. Happier and healthier (including mentally healthier) employees improves workplace morale - and productivity.

Compassionate leave for bereavements or when there's a seriously ill family member (or actually a much loved pet), flexible working where possible for employees with disabilities or health issues, and for people with caring responsibilities (child, or elderly or disabled relative).

Also hasn't there been recent campaigns (backed by both the previous and current government) aimed at educating employers on how to be supportive of employees experiencing DV? Things like temporary leave, to allow the victim time to arrange safely leave the abuser without having to lose their job. Very important initiative imo.

Except humans aren't robots and if you force them to completely compartmentalise like that, it will likely lead to long term problems with performance and happiness.

Yes, you're paid to work but employers also have a duty of care to their employees for a reason. A good boss at least pretends to give a shit and will accommodate where necessary.

People are humans not robots

It's a rare person who can never get home and work factors mingling

An employer is quite at rights to make whatever accommodation they want for the right employee