Being made to work an extra 20 minutes unpaid a day

[GettingTiredNow]

I work in the admin base of the local NHS health authority, there are about 100 of us in our offices and nowhere near that number of car parking spaces. We double park which is ok but as more people have joined the organisation recently even that is not enough on some days. The powers that be have rented 10 additional spaces at the railway station down the road about a 10 minute walk away.

These 10 parking spaces have been allocated randomly to staff on a rota, each directorate is doing its own thing so you can end up with either a week there every 6 months or 3 months there as a one off. And I'm 1 of the lucky 10 who have been blessed with a pass

Us lucky 10 have been told that the time it takes us to travel back and forth to the car park needs to come out of our time and not the organisations. If we are late we need to email our boss with an expanation of how the time will be made back up.

I need to take my DC to school in the morning and the afternoon which fits within my working hours but a trip back and forth to the car park means I'm going to be early to school in the morning and late to pick up in the afternoon to ensure I'm at work for my contracted time.

AIBU to expect that as I am effectively helping the organisation out by walking down to the car park this shouldn't come out of my time?

How can they afford all this leave? Full pay?

At my last job, there was no right to paid sick leave at all. It was paid at their discretion. So ill meant can't walk, vomiting or in hospital.

I get that it's frustrating, I get that it's annoying and if the 10 of you chosen have to do it forever over all the other staff then that is unfair but unless I have misread/misunderstood then you are doing it for a period of time before someone els in your directorate becomes one of the 10?

Parking is unlikely in most firms to be a given just a nice perk if provided. Our office used to have free parking , now it's been withdrawn and we have to park elsewhere which means longer to get to/from work and I now pay £24 for parking for the 3 days I work ( sorry but no 8 hour trek over mountains fighting off bears) plus pay more for longer child care in and pm - but that is life and I have a choice - put up or sort another job.

Yes you could suggest getting in later, leaving earlier and taking less lunch break and if all your colleagues are not wanting to do the same it may even work but your life choice doesn't trump anyone else's. Someone else may care for an elderly partner, relative or may not drive and therefore need to rely on public transport where trains/ buses may not run at convenient times for their commute.

During the school holidays when you presumably arrange childcare differently you could work longer hours to make up for all those late starts or early departures ? Or have it added up and deducted from your annual leave ?

The OP is being piled upon due to the not brilliantly worded of the title/post :(.

Tonnes of people have awful commutes, but in this case the OP has arranged childcare around longstanding working arrangements. She's entitled to find it a bit frustrating that childcare doesn't work with the randomly allocated new arrangements!

I usually have more than ten minutes wriggle room in my commute, but there were roadworks near my office recently that were adding anything between 5mins - half an hour onto my journey which meant I would be late to two childcare pickups. Explained to my boss and she kindly said I could go home early for the few days it was on. I totally accept companies don't have to do that, but I'm grateful. I don't have family nearby and while I could ask friends to step in in an emergency, I wouldn't have anyone to help out with a semi-permanent commute change. I might struggle to be on time in the OP's position. I'd probably ask if I could cut my lunchtime down if I was late though.

Is anyone here actually reading the OP?!?!

She is not complaining about having to walk for 10 minutes or about the parking facilities. Neither is she able to pay to park closer.

The issue is that her commute to work has been made 10 minutes longer and the OP will not make it to work in time after school drop off, or back to school in time after finishing work, having been able to manage this previously.

Badly worded title but ffs, read the OP.

OP you're quite lucky. We have a massive staff car park that we pay monthly for. We are moving soon to new city centre offices where there is no staff car parking at all, train station is a walk away, nearest car parks are a distance and the cheapest is £45 per month and has a three month waiting list. This is adding extra cost and travel time for all staff, many aren't happy with it but if we want to continue to work for the organisation we have to put up with it. In all the places I've worked only one had a unpaid car park and it was tiny.

Changes to your working conditions that impact your work life balance can be frustrating, especially when those have been implemented by your firm and are not of your doing.

redsky the OP said it was a rota arrangement, not permanent. It is up to each directorate how it is implemented and the OP hasn't said how long her arrangements will be affected for.

Yes Cotswold which is potentially even more frustrating for her, not knowing when or how long for this situation could arise again. Meaning she may need ad hoc childcare arrangements at various times.

Oh wibble. My commute usually takes an hour and 15 minutes. There are roadworks and closures at the moment that add on another 15-20 mins. They weren't there when I first took the job on. They are now. So I leave earlier. I would never expect to be allowed to turn up an extra 15-20 mins late (which, btw, would also mean the car park is full so I'd have to park elsewhere and walk in!)

I travel an hour each way to work, I have to rely on the good will of my family, friends and use school clubs to allow this. I wouldn't dream of expecting a part of my travel time to be included in my working time. What if your office moved location and it was further away? Would you expect them to pay for your additional travel time or for them to let you start later?

Seriously, this is bonkers.

YAB-so-U

All of that is true redsky but the OP isn't being made to work an extra 20 minutes at all.

If I were her and this would have massive financial implications for her in terms of additional childcare costs, I'd speak to her boss nicely and see if there's anything they can do

Do you have to drive? Can you get a bike rack and cycle the extra bit?

I think you yabu. This is part of your commute rather than working. If for example you drive to work and roadworks on your usual route cause a diversion adding 10mins to your journey, then you'd just have to start factoring it in.

Yabu. We have very limited parking, on an early shift or a night shift I can park. The other days I walk 15 minutes or so. I don't consider that unpaid work. My employers do not have to provide parking. It is a bonus when I can park.

In my last job, the office premises moved from being on my tube line with a really quick and simple commute, to being somewhere that required a bus and several tube changes which took 30+ minutes extra each way. I was a bit miffed but certainly didn't consider it to be anyone's problem other than my own.

I honestly can't believe that people have no leeway in their commute time! I always arrive at work an hour early as not giving myself any breathing space would be too stressful.

A woman at our school put in a holiday request for the 6 weeks - she's a midwife and if she didn't get it she was calling in sick. She only does two days ffs. I don't know how they keep their jobs

Okay WTAF?? As a teacher I'm paid to work from 9-3.15pm. Do you think that's the only time I work for your little darlings? If so, you're off your tree. I double my weekly contracted hours EVERY WEEK unpaid.

Not only that, I also leave my house at 6.15 to avoid traffic and my journey takes over an hour. I leave after the rush hour or it could take me over 2 hours to get home.

Have the whole packet.

Cannot believe this is for real. Work starts when you sit down at your desk, not when you arrive at the car parking space.

Appalling attitude.

I always start at least 30 minutes early, and seldom finish on time either. So do my colleagues, or we wouldn't be set up ready. We couldn't do the job in out actual paid hours.
Minimum wage, huge responsibility, no sick pay.

Have you tried swapping the pass with a less time strapped colleague ?

I can see it's a pain but unless a parking space outside of a in contract it's tough.

redsky the thread title is secrecy code for lets have a competition to see how long and arduous my commute is - see my earlier post

So far the longest commute each day is five hours and the earliest start is I think 5'30 and the latest arrival home about 8 pm with one person doing twice over what they are paid to work so an extra 39 hours a week unpaid.

This thread has nothing to do with juggling work changes with pick ups from childcare, to be fair the title was misleading but people want to show how much they suffer for their job

Totally agree. The few posts about juggling work with childcare have got lost. The general opinion seems to be that people should be able to manage long commutes and lots of unpaid overtime. I'm genuinely interested in how people that rely on childcare with set opening hours do that? As, rightly or wrongly, I could dramatically improve my career if I could stay longer at work but I will be late to pick up kids (incidentally I have a longish commute myself if that matters, no bears though).

YABU I also worked for the NHS and don't know of a single site in our trust that has staff parking, most people get train and walk 15-20 minutes or drive and park further away. You are not working for those 20 minutes and are just getting to work