Civil Service Flexi policy while WFH

[MrsSwears2Much]

In short, my new manager has told our small team that we are not allowed to build flexi while WFH.

As we have been told we are only allowed in office 2 days per week, we are now not able to work over 7.25 hours each day, which therefore does not allow us to finish at lunchtime on a Friday, which is the norm in our organisation.

Is she correct?

Not the policy in my department. Raise it with your union and HR.

My public sector, civil service aligned, employer has removed flexi entirely since the beginning of the pandemic. We are supposed to keep an eye on our hours and have the flexibility to manage our own time but don’t have a formal mechanism. I tend to finish earlier on a Friday but not at lunchtime.

That's a big change to your usual working practices - is it just your small team? I would ask HR. Are you all annoyed? Might be worth going as a team.

No flexi at all in my office; tends to promote clock watching. I'm a civil servant.

Check with your HR. Are you in a Union? If so then contact them. If you have flexi then it will be contractual not a favour that they can give and take away on a whim.

No that doesn’t sound right at all, especially just being applied to 1 team.

You'll need to refer back to your body's/department's flexi policy. But no that's not how it works in the department I'm in.

Speak to HR, is it just your team under that manager or the whole department? In theory the one way policy should be amended would be for critical operational reasons.

Not how it works in my department. Managers aren't allowed to dictate hours or flexi accrual, although there are set boundaries/limits. Definitely speak to your union rep!!!!

All flexi removed for us since the pandemic. I am also a civil servant.

Although I can understand it not being sustainable to have everyone finishing at lunchtime on the same day.

@LadyCleathStuart

Check with your HR. Are you in a Union? If so then contact them. If you have flexi then it will be contractual not a favour that they can give and take away on a whim.

Flexi is not often a contractual term. Companies can and do change these terms fairly freely.

I can see why organisations would suspend flexi during the pandemic and changed working conditions.

In an ALB, we all WFH (national team) although not a contractual homeworker but still accrue flexi. We're dealing with a massive workload, no way we'd get through it without people working extra hours; trouble is, nobody has time to take their flexi leave!

@BigMamaFratelli

Not how it works in my department. Managers aren't allowed to dictate hours or flexi accrual, although there are set boundaries/limits. Definitely speak to your union rep!!!!

Ditto here. During the pandemic when we were redeployed we couldn't build flexi, but now if we had to only work our hours the work simply wouldn't get done. For the first time ever we are actually doing paid overtime too! As PP a have said speak to your union. Or threaten to, your LM may back down.

@BigMamaFratelli

Although I can understand it not being sustainable to have everyone finishing at lunchtime on the same day.

What invariably happens is that those with caring responsibilities etc who can't do extra during the week end up working Friday afternoons and covering for their teams. Equality for ya.

Not the policy in my department either. Raise with HR and union. It’s different in the civil service to private sector - it’s usually the same policy for the whole department bar a few areas

Not the case in our department. I would raise this with HR/union. Ours is also contractual

My manager also tried this - told us that flexi was suspended whilst WFH. Someone in the branch contacted Personnel and a memo came out to everyone in the Department assuring us that flexi was not impacted by WFH. Our manager is a renowned control freak . Challenge this formally.

@NavigatingAdolescence

I understand that but Ive been a civil servant for almost 15 years and it has always been contractual in any of the departments I have worked for. Unions would go mental if it was getting taken away at will by line managers.

Thats why I'm saying speak to HR (also check contract).

I've worked with this type of line manager before, who thinks that HR policy doesn't apply to them and they can make their own rules.

[quote LadyCleathStuart]@NavigatingAdolescence

I understand that but Ive been a civil servant for almost 15 years and it has always been contractual in any of the departments I have worked for. Unions would go mental if it was getting taken away at will by line managers.

Thats why I'm saying speak to HR (also check contract).

I've worked with this type of line manager before, who thinks that HR policy doesn't apply to them and they can make their own rules.[/quote]
I’m in HR and ex-civil service so I hear you!

Not the way for us. We've all been wfh and accruing flexi hours as we go.
However- the switch in our dept to Oracle to record time has highlighted that almost everyone has way above the maximum amount of flexi that you are allowed to carry over per month. This has actually been the norm for years and management would just write off the extra time and put back to the maximum. The union have now got involved and management are no longer allowed to do this. So they just tell us that if we are already at the maximum we must only work our contracted hours ,(this in practice does not happen due to the current massive caseloads and we're all just carrying on as we are with credit balances getting larger and no-one being able to take flexi leave........)
I'm wondering if this is an attempt by your manager to do similar and limit everyone's credit balances and/or prevent the mass absence Friday afternoon. The union definitely need to get involved and I would speak to your local rep.

@Vanillaradio

Not the way for us. We've all been wfh and accruing flexi hours as we go. However- the switch in our dept to Oracle to record time has highlighted that almost everyone has way above the maximum amount of flexi that you are allowed to carry over per month. This has actually been the norm for years and management would just write off the extra time and put back to the maximum. The union have now got involved and management are no longer allowed to do this. So they just tell us that if we are already at the maximum we must only work our contracted hours ,(this in practice does not happen due to the current massive caseloads and we're all just carrying on as we are with credit balances getting larger and no-one being able to take flexi leave........) I'm wondering if this is an attempt by your manager to do similar and limit everyone's credit balances and/or prevent the mass absence Friday afternoon. The union definitely need to get involved and I would speak to your local rep.

That's good though isn't it, otherwise you're just doing loads of additional hours and it's getting written off- flexi isn't a cure for being short staffed.

@HalloweenScrooge

My public sector, civil service aligned, employer has removed flexi entirely since the beginning of the pandemic. We are supposed to keep an eye on our hours and have the flexibility to manage our own time but don’t have a formal mechanism. I tend to finish earlier on a Friday but not at lunchtime.

Why have they removed it?

I've had flexi throughout, both WFH and in the office (my dept is essential and the offices have been open all through the pandemic)