Can anyone explain how flexi works in HMRC?

[Grimg]

I'm starting a new job for HMRC in Debt Management.I'm going to be doing 32 hours over 4 days but would like
2 of the days to be longer days and 2 shorter to do school pickups.
I'll be Field based working independently doing visits from home. I've been sent a contract which says I'll be doing 7hrs 45 a day. How much flexibility is there with the number of hours I have to do in a day? Could I do say 5 hours on a Friday? I realise I need to cover business needs, I'm just trying to sort childcare.
I don't think there are any core hours and I can work between 7.45am and 8pm but we don't need to do an 8pm finish in our business area.

I don't want to ask my new manager as it gives a bad impression, I just need to be able to plan for childcare. I'm coming from an area of the CS with very little flexibility where its expected you will be there til 5pm every night.

Just bumping for morning crowd.

I think, on the day you start, you will have to fill in a form noting the hours you intend to work each day. You will likely have a 'welcome' chat with your new boss/line manager to agree this.

So long as the hours add up to your total weekly contracted hours and don't fall outside the flexitime rules/guidance it will be fine (flexi rules should be in your statutory terms and conditions, not your contract).

I work more hours Monday to Thursday so I can leave earlier on Friday (locally known as POETS day - Piss Off Early, Tomorrow's Saturday). My colleague works her hours so she can have an early finish on Wednesdays.

Thanks. I really do want to be able to do school pick up on a Friday. I'm hoping for more flexibility than I've had in my last job. How many hours do you tend to work on a Friday?

I'm in HMRC. You have to have flexi credit banked before you can take flexi leave.

If you're field based, how big an area will you cover, what say will you get about when you do your visits and how long will these take? Are you sure there are no core hours? What do you mean by an 'early finish'?

All those factors will impact on whether you can do what you want to do, so you're best just playing it by ear as to what is acceptable.

As a pp said, you have to build up flexi to take it. Otherwise it's more of a compressed hours situation. Not having core hours sounds very unusual. If its a regular pattern I'd guess it would have to be a formalised request, I wouldn't have been able to work less hours than core on a certain day every week

You can work flexibly as long as you do the hours you need in a week. So it won't be strict on the 7.45 a day and you can do less one day and more the next as you need to. There will be core hours you need to be working but as long as you stick to those you can work when you want but working after 7pm is frowned upon. You will need to build up time before you take it off as Flexi.

If you need to nip out for school run then work a few extra hours that should be fine as long as children are not interfering with work so have a spouse/ grandparent to look after them or are old enough to be doing their homework in the other room and not be bugging you with questions/ fighting and distracting you etc.

Mon-Thur - 8 hours. Fri - 5 hours. Totalling my contracted 37 hour working week. But this is flexible! If I need to finish earlier on, say, Tuesday, I'd work my Friday hours on Tuesday and work longer on Friday so I fulfilled my 37 hour working week contract. Either that or work a bit longer each day the week before to accrue the flexi time I needed to take.

When I started it was set to the generic 7.5 hours Mon-Thu and 7 hours Fri.

Another example is that I'm taking Monday (tomorrow) off (footie hangover!) so I worked additional hours last week to accrue the time to do this rather than take annual leave.

I would speak to your manager, it's perfectly reasonable to check your rough planned hours will be acceptable.

Just gone back after a career break and wasn't on flexi before so still getting my head around it. I had to agree my core hours with my manager as the business needs to know for planning, leave etc when people are due in. So it's really just keeping him updated of any changes. So if I'm due to work 9-5 and I'm not logged in by 10 he might message asking if I'm ok etc. If I'm finishing early I'll put flexi leave in but let him know also. I think you would just need to work out what hours you want to do including the shorter Fridays and run it past your manager. If you're covering your full hours by working longer the other days and not taking leave every week I can't see why that would be an issue. As long as they know what you're doing.

Thanks everyone. It's just hard to get my head round it all. I will of course be doing my 32 hours every week, it's just that some days (when I have guaranteed childcare) I'd like to do longer days and other days a shorter day so I can do school pickup. My husband can do all the school drop offs, it's just pickups on a Friday I struggle with as there's no afterschool club on a Friday. Our son is autistic so it's not just a case of find him childcare in another setting for a Fri. If it had been our older son it would have been a lot easier as he is NT.

I think I'll just plan childcare for all days then if I have the flexibility to do pick up and then go back to work after that then that would be great if I still have hours to make up.

My journeys will be no longer than an hour each way to wherever I'm visiting. Sometimes depending on who I'm visiting then I may need to do evening visits which is fine as my H will be home by 4.30. My manager has told me there are no core hours but not sure what that means in practice. As I'll be out on the road 80% of the time then I'll be in frequent contact with them anyway for safety reasons.

Core hours are usually so that you can be contactable by colleagues or clients, so if your job is mostly field based, you won't be contactable to them anyway, apart from whoever is overseeing your welfare, so it could actually be that there are no core hours.

You've also said that you'll sometimes need to do evening visits, so that will obviously mean you won't be expected to work in the daytime on those days, so it does sound like you could work your suggested hours and it work for HMRC as long as you have some input/control over what days/times you do your visits so they don't fall on the designated days you want to do school pick up.

But seeing as you have a weekly window of over 60 hours to get your 32 hours in, hopefully you'll be able to agree mutually workable hours with them.

Good luck with the new role!

I don’t really understand why you don’t want to ask?

”Hi, X, I am making childcare plans for when I start, my preference would be to work until X Tue-Thu and finish at Y on Friday. Before I make any bookings, do you think this is workable?”

Or similar.

And hopefully the answer will be “yes that’s fine/no you need to stay until at least Z time every day/we need to start on a certain set basis but we can review after 6 months”

Then you can plan.

No core hours means there's no specific hours you need to be in work. So you don't have to work regular hours and can take breaks at times that suit.

I'd be surprised if you had to work your full hours every week, flexi normally allows a balance of + or - at least a day, to allow flexileave days to be booked.

You really need to speak to your manager about this.

" it's just that some days (when I have guaranteed childcare) I'd like to do longer days and other days a shorter day so I can do school pickup. "

This will be fine. It's exactly how the flexi scheme works. The main thing is keeping your manager in the loop. So long as you work your contracted 32 hours each week and plan your work week around your anticipated 'in work' hours.

The whole point of the flexi scheme is that it's flexible. So the generic hours/times you've been told are just a starting point and can/will vary from week to week.

Think it’d be best to raise this early with your manager. It’s probable there will be a flexible work policy that applies: if you’re uncomfortable asking your manager you could ask for a copy of this via the HR service contact address.