Work flexible hours, AIBU in renegotiating what I have already negotiated

[Needallthesleep]

I’m due to start a new job, where I was clear during the interview process that I couldn’t do their core hours (because of childcare pick up) and if successful I would need to come to some arrangement to flex on the core hours.

I was successful in getting the job, and have negotiated a very slightly shorter working day, and a shift in hours so I arrive earlier and leave earlier. I’m still doing a full time working week.

I’ve now realised (I know I know, I have no idea why I didn’t look at this properly during the negotiation of hours, I’m an idiot) that I will have to actually leave 5 minutes earlier than I thought. I am also happy to come in even earlier to counterbalance the 5 minutes. It’s due to train times, and is central London so there isn’t an alternative way to get home quicker.

I’m a huge worrier so the thought of telling them I will need an additional five minute flex is making me lose sleep. Am I completely overreacting and it won’t be or AIBU to ask for a bit of extra flex?

For context it is a leadership role in a head office.

Five minutes is unlikely to make much difference but your lack of organisation/planning in not realising this earlier would concern me.

I'd also be worried that your timings are so tight that 5 minutes makes a huge difference.

That is cutting it very tight. Have you allowed time to clear your desk, pack away your things, speak to people who stop you on the way out, deal with a telephone call that overruns? Remember you work right up until your working hours end so you need to factor in a bit more than 5 minutes I would say.

It's 5 minutes in a leadership role. I would just do it and not bother renegotiating.

Agree that every leadership role I’ve known requires at least occasionally staying later than planned, no matter how good your team are. So you would need to have back up plans for that, plus a back up for when there are train delays which are frustratingly frequent.

I would also raise an eyebrow that someone in a leadership role hadn’t been able to accurately work out when they needed to leave.

It is only five minutes and most employers would agree despite the raised eyebrows. But I agree with PP you’re more likely to have problems if it’s cutting into what would’ve been a whole hour (so changing 3 to 2.55 etc) as it means another hour of the day when you can’t schedule meetings.

Agree with the fact it won’t be much of a problem to shift by 5 minutes. Agree you look less than professional so make sure this is not the start of a string of incidents that make you look unreliable. Rightly or wrongly you will have you card marked mentally as potentially both awkwardly entitled and unreliable.

But most of all you placing a lot of faith in London’s transport systems. I consistently allow for 15 minutes because of regular cancellations either end.

You can only ask, but in a leadership role can you just really clear off bang on time every day.
Be prepared for them to be pissed off I work a lot with new recuirts at work and we have a constant flow of people agreeing to anything to get the job then arriving with a big list of demands .

It is difficult in a leadership role to leave on time most days as PP have said.
Saying that I cannot physically get to my office before 9am and I made that clear from day 1 too. But I don’t have such tight deadlines - I would struggle, as there is always something unexpected running over and I couldn’t just leave

Agree with others re commute. If it's that tight you almost certainly won't have accounted for delays on the way to the main line station. On paper my office to mainline is 15 mins. In reality it takes 25, and once a fortnight or so more than the 30 I allow and I miss my train - half hourly service so quite inconvenient.

Did OP cite "attention to detail" as a strength ?

Saveforthat bit harsh

If someone wanted to re-negotiate 5 minutes in Central London, I'd be worried that they'd cut things far too fine!