To ask to leave work an hour early each day and do my work on the train

[Suriya28]

So I love my job and don't want to leave. I've been there for 6 months now.

I need to move nearer family.

They live an hour and a half train journey away but it is a direct train and I always book a table and do work at the train table.

I don't want to be cheeky but it would massively improve my quality of life if I could leave an hour early each day.

I do three hours of train travel a day in total and I'm not asking for them to count. But as I spend an hour of productive report writing a day on the train I don't think it's unreasonable to have that count.

Our council have an agile working policy so you have a work laptop and can login using a key. You can work anywhere with the laptop.

I know some people who work from home some days.

I'm an adults social worker.

If you're an adult social worker, do you work for the local council? Sorry if you've said already and I missed it.
They should have pretty robust flexible working policies.
If you ask, the worst that will happen is your boss says no.
Realistically, if you could start earlier two days a week, do normal hours one day, and do a train day for two days.
I'd ask, if it Improves your life, you're more productive at work anyway.

Another option to consider is working condensed hours. Although at first it seems worse, gaining 3 hrs a week by working 8-6 and not commuting one day a week can mean work life balance feels better. Depends whether you want to get home earlier every day or just spend more time overall there.

You could ask but I can imagine most bosses saying no. As has been said, what if you cannot get a seat or table? What if people peer over the back of the seat? etc etc...

@nostringstoholdmedown

I don't mean this to be rude at all but why the hell are you asking a bunch of strangers about this?

WTAF? What the hell do you think this board is for? For people to ask for help and advice! Where do you think you are? On auto trader or something.

Gotta love people who put 'don't mean to be rude but............' They are, without fail, always fucking rude!

Adults social worker here too.

We also do wfh and have a laptop with key (you aren't in a small unitary authority down south by any chance? ;) ).

My boss would say no to this because we have to be able to be logged into our phones too - it's called 'work anywhere' and obviously can't have confidential client calls on the train!

What I do though, is work 36 hours over a 4 day week - 8 -5:30 with 30 mins lunch break.

I think my boss would be more ameinable to your request if you suggested 1 hour at home once you were home rather than on the train!

The concern here is data protection and confidentiality. I often take a sneaky look at what other people are writing / reading on the train out of sheer boredom. What if that happened when you were accessing records of clients or typing up their details on a confidential report. I do a similar type of job and wouldn't consider for a second sitting on a public train carriage to do my work. It would be just too close to prying eyes.

I also work in a public service and sometimes use personal/confidential data and details. We are not allowed to use laptops on public transport for this reason.

So I could ask to leave earlier and do an hour at home?

Yes I think we might have to be able to use our phone too!

I will check th agile working policy. They also have a good flexible working policy but those four long days would be hellish!

I hope I pass my driving test soon!

I'd ask to do the extra hour from home, and do it wherever it suits you.

I do this!

I work a day that is 45 min shorter (8.15-4). And I make up the time on the train. Makes a world of difference to get home at a reasonable hour when you've got a 2hr commute.

I'm quite senior (which means I get a bit more leeway). And I tend to work for 45 min of my 90 min train journey clearing emails from the previous evening.

If anything urgent comes through on my phone on the evening journey I can "tether" my phone to my laptop and deal with it then and there, but as I'm in early it doesn't happen v often.

I always get a seat and have a privacy screen.

Private sector for me, but if your boss trusts you, it does happen.

I'd ask to do flexible working and ensure that you are in the office uring core hours (or whatever the requirements of your local flexible working scheme is), rather than "I want to work on the train for an hour

How about telling them what time you would ideally like to leave (and why), and asking if and how they would be able to facilitate that. Suggest the work on train and work at home as options, they may think of a third option that suits you both.

Working from the train is not really feasible IMO, but arranging an early start working through part of lunch or compressed hours would be.

But what about when you are on duty or you have adult/child protection issues with your cases? I know I wouldnt be happy being technically responsible for a colleagues cases if they couldnt attend to deal with a crisis as they were never present at the end of the day which is when emergencies seem to crop up!

I wouldn't dream of working on anything like a report or having a phone call on a train but clearing emails and responding (emails in public services should not have patient identifiable information in them, either just initials or NHS number), working on spreadsheets and sorting out my diary would work for me. I tend to actually just work at home though after the journey

I would ask in your circumstances. And if they say no then brush it off. It's ok to ask!

There would be a massive problem with client confidentiality. If there is any aspect of your work which does not involve identifying info about individuals then, possibly.
Government info security training specifically mentions the danger of having info about people that others can read over your shoulder on a train.
I would be horrified if you were formally allowed to do it.
If you broke specific rules on it, you could lose your job and even, in extreme circs, be subject to criminal sanction.