aibu to not work over my hours/take flexi?

[bedraggledmumoftwo]

I am a civil servant, we have flexitime arrangements in place and work 36 hours a week. I am constrained by nursery pick ups/drop offs and twice hourly train times so generally am in the office for say 15 minutes more than my hours, but still feel like a part timer when I leave (before 5). I never take a lunch break, just eat packed lunch at my desk and mark the minimum lunch break on my flexisheet. I generally put down about 8 hours on the day I work from home although having lost 3 hours of commuting I am actually working from around 730-530, as I don't want them to think I am taking the piss, even though I do actually work longer at home. Those extra minutes add up to two hours a week, ie a day's worth of flexi accrued after a month. Yet I am sure everyone thinks I bunk off home early at 445!

Thing is I asked my boss to take some flexi and he seemed surprised I had any. I sent him my sheet and he approved it, but I did feel like he thought I was cheating the system. Part of the problem is that he is a senior civil servant(separate ts&cs), and they don't have flexi, they have to work whatever hours necessary to do the job, and he is usually in before and after me.

To be clear, I do stay late when I can wrt childcare, and have a laptop so I log on at home in the evening when necessary to finish something, and don't put this on my flexisheet. But I do feel like I am skiving when I leave the office.

Aibu to take flexi when it is accrued, or should I work longer just because others seem to?

I should add I am usually one of the first in but my boss is usually slightly earlier

Hi, I think you are overthinking it, if your manager has approved it, it should be fine. I used to work in the civil service but we had a clocking in system.

I don't think you need to leave any later if you a;ready working at home.

YANBU. Your boss will be on a much higher grade, and it will be in his contract that he works longer hours if needed .
You already work over your hours. The trouble is, when you don't take lunch, get in a bit early etc, people don't notice particularly.
I would take my flexi, and start having my lunch break. You are not skiving when you work your contracted hours.

Thanks. I used to go to the gym in my lunch break, but now I hate the thought of my kids being in nursery for 11 hours as it is by the time I commute and do my 7.2 hours! So I don't want to take any more than the minimum unless I have errands to run

If I were you I would log those extra hours.

YANBU at all, you sound like a very conscientious employee. I've had similar probs with my boss, who is fine about me working extra hours when it's busy, but gets funny with me when I want to take time odd in lieu at quieter times .

Your boss's job is to screw you for as many extras as he can get without spending any extra money. Please don't fall in to the trap of thinking that people will notice (or care) when you do a bit extra. Log all your hours on the timesheet and don't be at all apologetic when you take the accrued days off.
I've been there - rock up at 10am bugger off at 7pm and you're a hard-working hero, rock up at 8am and bugger off at 5pm and you're a slacker. I used to send emails at the 'odd' times so there could be no doubt I was at work.

I'm a manager in the civil service. Your work output will speak for itself. log your hours, take lunch and put down your real hours. Wages are shit, pensions eroded, so take your flexi.

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, definitely a hero if you start late and finish late, but a slacker if you are in early and out early! Pre kids I would happily have adjusted and slept in, but mine are both up before six and the commute and nursery times mean I have to go at 445 on the dot except on the rare occasions someone else is collecting. And that gets me arriving nursery just after 6 and home with the kids at half six- just scraping in for bathtime!

It seems ridiculous that there aren't enough hours in the day by the time I work my 7.2 plus travel there and back, when I am up with the lark every morning!

I think you should be more overt about the additional hours you're working but 'choose' not to take them. So log the additional hours at home and wfh. You don't have to then take them back as flexi.

I often do the in early (5.30) and out fairly early for academia (5pm) but because the rest of the department is still tucked up in bed at 5.30 am they don't see me until they crawl in at 10 and then see me off at 5pm and, well, you get the picture. It is annoying, especially when I get comments about whether or not I actually work full time from people who I very much doubt do their proper hours, but it is output that matters at the end of day not the amount of hours you are visible in the office. So, log the extra hours you work and take your flexi-time.

When you work at home, if you're logging in to your office IT system, it will show that you are working these hours, so you might keep that in mind if you are ever asked to justify your wfh hours - just a thought, but it might help

Start logging the proper times when wfh.
I'd raise eyebrows at someone who I'd signed sheets for 36h/w for ages asking for flexi.
As said above, you don't need to claim it, but having it there is useful (and I've got about 400 hrs on my clock )

Wow, addicted that is a lot! We are only allowed to accrue three days worth, so 21 hrs!

Flexisheet spans a month and only been back from mat leave since new year so this is the first time he has seen one.

I'm the opposite. I'm a civil service grade 6 managing a team of grade 7s, HEO, EOs etc. I am paid for 90pc of the week which I work in four days. Everyone in my team works longer than me for less money. We don't really have flexi as such; it's a litigation team so people just muck in until everything's done except me.! I am always happy to chat with people about work pressures and hours etc but I genuinely don't think people pay that much attention to the hours others day. At the end of the day you aren't going to get a pay rise in the next two decades, or any rewards in heaven. If you are doing what you need to and your absence on flexi doesn't impact on others then just take it. But do have a conversation with your boss explaining your concerns.

I admit that I'd think it a bit odd that someone is demanding an extra 15 minutes per day of time off in lieu. That's the time it takes to log in/log out really, not like you're working an extra hour or more per day. I have worked in the public service before, and I found it annoying that people spent so much time tracking every extra minute of work rather than just getting on with the job.

It goes back a while, and isn't official.
Mainly accrued in occasional big blocks - so if I go to a conference, I may work half a day in the office, travel til 11pm, and then do 3-4 10 hour days, before travelling home, arriving 10pm. You can easily rack up 20 hrs. And if its long haul.....
But I use it more to justify to myself when things are quiet and I do less than my 38 contracted hours a week.