WFH - availability at all times , yes or no.

[hattie43]

One of our team members works from home two days out of five and his normal hours are 9am - 5pm.

Would you expect him to be at his desk and available at all times or do you think WFH allows some flexibility. He has decided to take his young son swimming and the lesson is at 10am for an hour but travel to and fro means he is away from his desk about an hour and forty mins . He is not in a customer service role and doesn't have to be available to the public . He doesn't miss deadlines for anything. He makes the time up after 5pm so isn't reducing his work hours just amending the times .

A couple of people in the office are grumbling but I think it's perfectly reasonable and that the whole idea of WFH is to afford a work life balance .
How do other WFHomers deal with their working day . Do you literally not move from your desk or do you regig your hours a bit even to do a laundry load .

It completely depends on the policy in place . Some places have fixed hours, some don’t.

If colleagues need him to be working 9 to 5 then he should be doing that I would think unless it's prearranged. Seems cheeky unless his role really only involves him.

I think as long as he puts In his hours and his calendar is up to date it's fine - one of the bonuses of my wfh days is the flexibility (and DH too). It does, of course, only work with people who take their jobs seriously and just want a bit of flex with their family life. If he works hard and does the hours I think it's a great idea for him to take his son swimming tbh

Seems absolutely fine to me if he makes up the time and isn't required to be present in the time he's away.

Totally depends on work policy. My work expects x hours in a day but no issue with when.

I often take time out during the day for personal stuff like exercise, do housework, go to the shops or watch tv. But I do all my work and complete my hours.

Is this once a week or every day? Once a week I wouldn't have an issue with. Every single day then yes I would

Seems fine as long as he has agreement with line manager.

Vast difference between sticking on a load of laundry and disappearing for extended period of time during working day. He’s being unreasonable.

This is something to be agreed between the employee and the manager. If the work is being done flexibly, if nobody else is being affected and if everyone has the same right to work flexibly if the job allows it, it's nobody else's business.

As it happens, I use my day in the office to attend a standing appointment which takes a similar amount of time. I discussed with my manager and she is happy for me to make up the 40mins (I use my hour lunch break too) when I get home.

The only exception I can think of would be if this person line manages people and they need him to be available all working hours.

This completely depends upon your company policy. Can the people in the office take a 2 hour lunch to go get their hair cut if they stay an hour late or finish work at home? If not then it's unfair the person working from home can.

I work in a very flexible role where as long as I have no active sessions how and when I work is irrelevant to my employer. I have a presentation due Monday that's not finished so will work the weekend but equally will take a long lunch other less busy times to go for a swim. Plus on a Wednesday I leave the office early to take my son to his swim lesson. The thing is anyone in my office can do the same so there's no hard feeling about this.

I would expect him to be using his lunch break for this or a least an hour of it. Wfh is great for flexibility but would I dare take my kids for a swimming lesson for an hr 40 probably not

Not acceptable especially if others in the team need to get hold of him, or other people need to call/need a response. It drastically cuts down the time he's available to the team

Unless it's specifically stated that the role is flexi (hours to be done at any time) I'd expect them working 9-5 minus lunch. Or if it's been agreed with manager - eg last week I took an hour mid-day to take my daughter to the dentist. This was discussed with manager who is always fine with that sort of thing as he knows I work over my hours anyway, but more a curtesy so he knew I'd be away from my desk. And it's odd occurrences, not common.

Depends on the workplace and I’m assuming he has ok’d this with a team lead or manager so other team members can grumble all they want but it has nothing to do with them

I walk the dog most days for about an hour; it’s no different to taking a lunch break. I think this guy has got the right idea tbh - as long as his diary is up to date and he is making the time up.

It's fine IF it's allowed within policy/agreed with line manager. I WFH and have a great flexible employer, but I wouldn't do something like this without asking my line manager.

Totally depends on the role.
My work is seasonal. During the ‘on’ season, external people will be contacting me. I need to be at my desk during office hours so if I’m contacted by someone external with an issue, I can deal with it. In the ‘off’ season I’m entirely dealing with admin and can have flexi hours. Colleagues won’t need urgent answers as it’s off season so nothing is urgent, so it’s fine. Impossible to decide on your colleague without knowing what his job involves.

I mean our wfh agreement specifically states that we have to source childcare as if we were in the office however we can do school drop offs and pick ups which saves wraparound fees so that's helpful but we can't have kids with us all day unless they are poorly.

We're given flexibility and as long as we do our contracted hours and the work gets done then they haven't got an issue with it

At the end of the day my employer (nhs) has made so many offices now clinical areas the offices are hot desking spaces so we physically can't all be in the office at the same time anyway as there isn't enough seats post COVID

They've made the changes so they have to be a little bit flexible

Depends on policy. It should ideally be the same for all colleagues or agreed with manager for some specific reason.

However, in reality, I am very much 9-5 myself, and have some colleagues who are more 'flexible' and I do not care what they do, I am happy with my approach and I know they work hard just differently.

It does depend on the policy your work has. Mine wouldn't mind it, but then they don't mind if I'm in late or leave early, as long as I do my work.

Its FINE. He's doing the work and yay that its one less thing the child's mum needs to organise.

If we all cut each other some bloody slack and treat each other like grown ups life would be a whole world easier.

I don’t see the issue if it doesn’t affect anyone and he’s still doing the hours at some point and they don’t actually need him during that time. Wasn’t very bright of him to tell everyone, in that case, as it sounds like he’s becoming the victim of office politics. Are they jealous because they want to do similar? What stops them?

I wfh, go to the office around 8 days a year.

I went to the shops yesterday morning for 2 hours. I also go and get my hair cut, go to the kids school events and log off at 4:39 every Monday for a hobby.

On the flip side, I log in around 9 but am often attending meetings with the US in the evening. I also work late/weekends/early when there are short deadlines.

I see no problem at all with it as I still always genuinely do more than the 35 hrs a week I'm paid for! My official hours are 9:30 to 5:30.

Op, does his manager know, has it been agreed?
Does he make up his time?

As for what I do WFH some days I am still working at 2 am between night feeds and other days I just sack everything off and spend 4 hours at soft play. But I am an artist and can set my own hours so I suppose that’s different.

I think he's absolutely taking the mick!
WFH means work not arrange your social life and activities in work time
Honestly! If his work hours are 9-530 he works 9-530
If your company offers flexi-time this is different and acceptable but wfh and flexitime are not the same thing