To wonder why some companies/managers have such a problem with flexi working?

[MotherOfDragons90]

My team, and the department it sits within are super flexible. Working from home is encouraged, we use Skype a lot for meetings, core hours are 10-2 but people’s hours vary immensely depending on workload/personal life etc. I think this is great, as it means I can finish a project late into the evening without having to worry about getting OT approved, or leave early on a Friday if I’ve got a weekend away booked or something.

DHs company used to be similar but they’ve recently revoked pretty much all forms of flexi working. He now has set hours of 8-4, and even that he only got because he’s been there a long time, new starters must do 9-5. No working from home except in unusual circumstances.

I get that in certain industries it isn’t possible, but I’m talking office type environments. It’s made things very awkward for my DH and I because he commute together and in the past have tried to align our flexi working and wfh days to save travel costs (AND the planet!). Traffic is hell at 4pm too!

AIBU to think this is absolutely bonkers and not conducive to a positive working environment at all? Please could I ask what your jobs policies are towards flexi working and any good reasons for banning all together?

Most people I know who work home do not quantifiable work, I'm not saying they do nothing but have my suspicions, there is lots of people who wouldnt abuse but don't get opportunity.

My most annoying is I haven't got childcare so working from home, are you working or looking after kid

The main reason is employees don't work when at home, well not as consistently, the other reason is working relationships with colleagues can really suffer. It works fine for some roles but just because it's office based doesn't make it suitable for home working and most offices prefer core hours at least so all staff overlap for meetings.

I've seen it work well and be a disaster, the worst being people who claimed to work from home but had no childcare, you can't work and care for toddlers (either work suffers or the kids, probably both)

When people talk about WFH they talk about how flexible it is for them. It is rarely a two way process. If they are needed to cover a busy period or when things are very quiet and the company needs them to be flexible, they don't play ball.

It is actually very hard to manage. People bank hours and then want time off in lieu on Friday afternoon or just before Christmas. They schedule appointments and then work around them - which is great - until the manager needs a project finished and they"can't" work on it. They use flexi-hours to have free time when previously they might have had to take annual leave to cover something. This means a leave allowance is in practice increased - again adding cost to the company.

Flexitime does have huge benefits, no doubt about it, but it isn't just a question of the hours; a whole fair workable system has to be put in place too otherwise it can be much more expensive for the employer to run it.

It's a poacher turned gamekeeper scenario in my opinion. A company I worked for was privately owned by two directors. They both disappeared and conducted their personal business during office hours at the expense of the business. None of their staff were trusted to work from home, despite their most prolific and efficient workers being freelancers - who worked from home. No distractions and no commute.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3582681-Working-from-home-Turns-out-Im-a-bit-shit-at-it?pg=1

I loved WFH and found I achieved so much more but it wasn't allowed on a frequent basis, think 4 times in 4 years. I never even took a lunch break on those days as didn't feel I needed a break! In the office I needed the break to escape all the noise and drama of others!!
But one of my colleagues did take the absolute piss when she was WFH. But then she did at the office too! Always on her phone, Facebook etc. Turning up late!

Don't suppose anyone wants to share their WFH jobs that could be done anywhere in the country? Need a more flexible job/no 4 hour daily commute :-)

We can WFH when we like and most also do compressed hours so WFH on a Friday and can finish at 12 if they are quiet/have no meetings booked.

But it is actively encouraged to come in and the benefits of being part of a team in one location, face to face meetings, promoted. There are some that are taking the piss, big boss knows it and is discreetly watching (they'll ask if X is about as if they want them for something, then say ok I'll ping him, then don't - X had been in only 2 days this month!). They are going to ruin it for all and our team will be the next ones posting on here "why do some companies have problems with flexible working ".

It wouldn’t really work in our office as people need to be available to clients and on site workers during operational hours.

Because of this type of behaviour

[https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3023633-To-make-an-official-complaint-about-colleague?pg=1&order=]

[https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3108722-Anyone-remember-the-Flexi-time-CF?pg=1&order=]

I work for the NHS and the admin staff absolutely take the piss with flexi time - coming in early or staying late, to be physically present in the office even when there’s no actual work to do and they’re not needed - just to build up their hours so they can take a day off next week.

They totally abuse it and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before it’s revoked.

I get very frustrated that my work don’t really consider flexible working. I can understand that some people take advantage but if I wasn’t doing all of my work then that would be picked up on whether I work 9-5.30 or 8-4.30

That’s bad management carol- when I managed a team who had flexi hours I told them they couldn’t work overtime without agreement as they needed to explain why they couldn’t keep up with their workload in their 36 hours a week.

user yes as far as I’m concerned my boss can review my performance if I’m not doing my work whilst WFH or working flexibly (not that it happens often) - it is very obvious when someone is doing it just for a sneaky doss day.

This thread has made me see that unfortunately the piss taking is obviously quite wide spread! I guess unless you have a boss who really embraces it themselves OR we have a software that actually tracks work/log in/activity it will probably continue to be an issue

Because of people taking the piss.

To be fair I've worked for organisations who have sacked staff and removed contractors from contracts due to not delivering work. In the case of staff they have had repeated proof they were lying about their whereabouts. Where it is difficult to sack staff I've worked for organisations that have prevented individual staff members from working from home. So I've been in situations where I've been allowed to work from home but half the team including the person managing the team hasn't been allowed to.

I manage a team. We have the whole range of working arrangements - WFH a day or two a week, compressed hours, part time, full time but working flexibly. I would know if someone were taking the piss, and I'd tackle that person rather than spoil it for everyone. The deal is that everyone must be in the office at least two days a week (we don't have anyone who works fewer than 3 days, it would be different if I had someone who was very part-time), and I sort team meetings for days when everyone can be there. It has now reached the point where the next person who asks for a flexible arrangement is going to have to pick a day other than Friday, because we're down to the bare minimum of cover on a Friday as things are.

The price for everyone else working so flexibly is that I have to be physically there 5 days a week! I can do the odd day at home to cover domestic disaster, but it wouldn't work if I tried to do it regularly. Going part-time would be completely impossible.

Sitt so everyone else gets to work flexibly apart from you, the manager? I’d be a boiling ball of resentment

Our company has a reception with one member of staff that has to answer phone 8-4 Monday to Friday. It's just not possible to do flexible working for that.

But we do completely close for lunch for an hour.

I impose that on myself, no-one's imposing it on me - I agree I would be ferociously resentful if someone told me I couldn't! It's a combination of other people's flexible working and my level of responsibility that means I can't do it. The deal with my job is that I'm always on call for emergencies, so realistically if I went part-time I'd be doing full-time work for part-time pay. No thank you.

I worked for a Local Council and we had flexi time but periodically different department heads would try to limit it/revoke it. Core hours were 10.30 -12.30 and 2.30 - 3.30. We could have up to two days per month flexi-leave (one in each half of the month) but it had to be a whole or half-day not random hours. Up to 15 hours could be carried over to the next month but only a 5 hour deficit and if one was in deficit for 3 consecutive months flexi-time would be revoked and standard hours re-instated.

It worked well in our section, we had a good mix of early starters and late finishers and at lunch time we were expected to work it out amongst ourselves so that the office was always manned. If we all wanted to go to the pub ie for someones birthday we had to arrange for another team to take our calls, again this worked as it was reciprocal. Team meetings were usually held in core time but if one needed to be held early or late we were expected to arrange our working accordingly. I suppose we all had the attitude that flexi was a privilege not a right and if someone started taking the piss it was usually addressed at colleague level before it got to team manager - a lot of us were working parents and we loved our flexi time and we didn't want it taken away.

Working from home was very rare as due to nature of the work we needed to be in the office, but if someone needed to work from home it was looked at on a case by case basis. Taking work home to finish something needed for a deadline was unfortunately quite common but any claim for time off in lieu was checked rather carefully.

There were other teams within the same department who operated the flexi policy as a variation on standard hours ie instead of 9.00 to 5.30 with an hour lunch some worked 8.00 to 4.00 with half an hour lunch or 10.00 to 6.30. Once agreed those hours had to be adhered to and it wasn't possible to build up flexi-time to take extra days off. In most cases this had been brought in due to staff abusing the flexi system but some managers were just dickish.

Tell me about it. Won’t go into details but it is so fucking backwards in 2019 for companies to be resisting this. Obviously not every job is suited to flexible working but mine certainly is and yet I’m being told ‘no’. If I had the energy I would drag them to an employment tribunal which I daresay I would win, but probably I will just leave.

These companies will struggle to hold into staff, especially those with caring responsibilities, which realistically will be women.

I’m a shift worker, so am often off during the week. I often get invitations from friends who are ‘working from home’, inviting me out for dog walks, shopping trips, or once even a spa day I also know a lot of people that WFH so they can look after their children during their day. I just don’t imagine anyone with a toddler at home is as productive as someone working the same hours in an office environment

Where i work actually sometimes wfh seems more productive than in the workplace. Someone starts a project and then 25 phonecalls later or people turning up with something urgent that has to be done NOW and the first thing you started is still barely in progress at 4pm!

I have an agreement that allows me to work from home occasionally due to disability, where I work we actually do have the flexibility to work from home and could do it once or twice a week if needed. We run our own diaries and have a great manager, in the past people have taken the piss and that’s why it’s now an occasional rather then regular agreement. The idea of split working with a couple of days in the office and a couple at home is good because you are maintaining links with colleagues and getting the flexibility to work at home as well. I actually achieve more at home than I do in the office because I don’t have constant interruptions but at work some of those interruptions are very important so I am happy with my arrangement.

The place I work now doesn't like flexible working. Only the very select few people who the managers like get to work from home or work part time.

I asked to reduce my hours so I could leave one hour early, twice per month. NO. Not allowed. I have recently been moved sideways as part of a "restructure" and the person who was doing my new work before me was liked by the management and was allowed to work from home once per week on a fixed day. Something I have asked for previously and now been allowed to do. Well actually I didn't even ask for the day to be fixed. I was allowed to work from home up to twice a month but when I got back from maternity leave my laptop had been swapped to one that is so old and crappy it is so hard to work from home with.

I have done SO much home working recently but all in the evenings and weekends because it has been so but recently. Over 55 hours of home working in the last month. So it's ok when it works out for them but they will make no effort to extend flexibility towards me. I am going to request to WFH once per week just like this person before me and will be interested to see their answer they give to explain when they won't let me.