DS flexible working hours.

[littlefireseverywhere]

DS (19) started work as a recruitment consultant for a large agency. They’ve a great training programme. We live fairly remotely so he advised the trains he’d need to get in the morning & evening & agreed this as part of the hiring process as the first 6 months are in the office. He gets in at 8.45 am (as agreed at interview) but office start time is 8.30 am. He finishes at 5.30 pm but for various reasons can’t stay later unless a meeting etc. So he takes a 45 minute lunch rather than an hour.

Now a month in, his line manager has issues with this arrangement. And wants him to stay 15 minutes later each evening. it’s now going to the regional director to decide what should happen next.

DS feels he’s being unfairly targeted with this, their reasons are how it looks to the rest of the office as the sole issue. They think he’s great in all other respects.

Where does he stand legally?

I’m reading this, ten years into my career now on over £100k, at the train station waiting to start my 45 minute commute home after catching the 8am train to work.

I got here by having this level of dedication since I started on £19k. Flexibility has to work both ways - you can’t expect your employer to be flexible and then be extremely restrictive with your own availability.

The employer was willing to try the arrangement, for whatever reason it doesn’t work for them and so it’s not sustainable. Either your DS becomes more flexible (and they’re only asking for 15 more minutes, how hard can that be? How close to driving is he?) or he finds another job.