Sulking because I'm not getting the day off

[NoMoreShit]

My love life has recently gone down the pan so emotions are raw & I'm feeling a bit 'woe is me'. As such, I'm perfectly prepared to be told I'm being U & it's just a case of me feeling like the world is against me at the moment. I know things will get better regarding the ex, time heals, just need to keep moving forwards & ride it out.

Current problem is work related.

I'm in a really demanding, professional job. However, life has always been really demanding: lone mum for 12 years, carer for my dad, no support, no child maintenance, always worked & spent 7 of the last 10 years back at uni on top of everything else. Over the last 3 years I finished the post grad, kids have got older & independent, needy parent died, mortgage ended & suddenly I have a life again. I cope really well with the demands of my job because, relatively speaking, it's a walk in the park compared to the juggling, chaos & slog of the previous 10 years. I get everything done within targets, my work is good quality, I help struggling colleagues & have an excellent reputation.

My problem is that work are moving to a 9 day fortnight because 'most' people work unpaid overtime to get through their workload. I won't be able to have the day off because I get my work done within my paid hours so I feel like I'm being punished for being efficient & good at organising my time. My workload is higher & more complex than most because I can manage it, so it not that others have more work to do. I'm also paid exactly the same as my colleagues so no recognition for my efforts there.

I just know that muggings here will be expected to pick up any slack & provide cover while my colleagues have their days off. It happens already with sickness & holidays. I'm already feeling resentful & the new working pattern hasn't even started yet.

Am I just being a miserable, self pitying twat? Or am I right to feel miffed.

Surely you aren’t all doing the exact same role? So how are you measuring your output compared to theirs?

But if you only had 9 days to do the work you currently achieve in 10 standard days, then you would inevitably have to work longer hours for those 9 days, just like your colleagues. That's how a 9 day fortnight works.

How do they monitor it? Surely if you finish everything in 9 days you can get the 10th off

Tell work you want flexi hours too..

I don’t understand the problem. Work an extra hour each day and get the 10th day off. Why don’t you just do that?

Just spend the extra hours at work browsing Mumsnet!

This would really piss me off.
I’ve always been able to do work faster than most colleagues and I don’t take many breaks. When I’m in the zone, I’m very focused. Also some people like to stretch out the day (rarely women with kids!).
I would be annoyed if others were rewarded for being slower.
Talk to your manager and HR. I don’t think they’ve thought it through.

But could you do the same amount of work you currently do but over 9 days so adding extra hours on those days so you too can have the 10th day off. Also don’t pick up other people’s work

No. You’d be doing the same number of hours overall - you’d just rearrange your hours.

You’d do 9 longer days instead of 10 shorter days but the exact same number of hours.

You need to speak to HR/management - whoever it is that's telling you that you can't have the same arrangement. I'd ask very clearly if they consider that your output over X amount of time has been to their expectations and in line with others at the same level. Assuming they say yes, then I'd ask why you can't have the same working arrangements as others. If the answer is about the extra hours, then point out that essentially they are organising those that are more efficient/effective and rewarding those who produce less in the same time.

If the answers aren't as you expected, then you'll know more about why there's a difference and hopefully it'll make more sense. If they are being unfair and refuse to change, then it's time to take your efficiency somewhere it'll be valued!

I'm being a self pitying miserable twat aren't I? I should be looking at ways to alter how I work rather than resenting other people getting a day off.

There are always people like this in big organisations who max their hours where possible. In my place there is someone who is always in at eight and there late when it's either a case of working very slowly indeed or deliberately maxing his Flexi for days off.

So if the hours need to be 'banked' then it does mean they are expecting 10 days hours done in 9 days every fortnight, regardless of the unpaid overtime. So you can do exactly the same, you'll be better off than the rest because you already get your work done in the time.

Eg, if you had a 40hr week and 30 mins unpaid lunch for example, that means you work 75hrs (excluding lunch) every fortnight. So you could start working just under 9 hours a day (including unpaid lunch break) and would have reached your 75hrs in 9 days so have the 10th off.

The rest will have to work the 9hrs and by the sound of it will still have to do longer if the hours aren't enough for them to do their work.

You've answered your own question, drop your productivity

I've had a 9 day fortnight in a couple of jobs.
You work an extra bit per day (45 mins maybe) and have the day off.

Some choose not to do this but most will.

Why can't you do this? Have they actually said to you that you can't have the day off and can't now start doing the bit extra.

Otherwise you're being a little bit dramatic. Do the extra per day, you don't need to dramatically lower your productivity to space the work out a bit longer.

Thank you for explaining it so much better than I did. Yes, it's about quality/quantity of work.

Well it seems like its you that has created a me vs them rhetoric for this scenario. No one has said you cannot do a 9 day fortnight, you'd still be doing the same hours whether you tagged them onto the end of each day or did the 10th day- they won't be taking extra time to do it. If its anything like where DH works Fridays tend to be fairly quiet as in a lot of stakeholders off etc- he does extra across the other days as the people he needs to work with tend to be in, he's on flexi so does his hours, does all of the work he needs to but it's just more suited to his role. Just my experience but usually those who identify themselves as being most efficient aren't.

The solution is obvious. You use your highly organised productivity skills to do c. 40 mins of the work you’d normally do the next day before logging off. By the time you get to the end of day 9 you’re a day ahead of yourself and take the tenth day off.

Surely there are very few professional jobs where people don’t have the opportunity to flex deadlines and projects continue over days and weeks?

I'd leave. They sound moronic. Plus if you leave and they all have to take on your work load, they'll struggle even more and probably fail which is always funny after you've been carrying everyone for years.

Are you in an office? Do they monitor your hours?

I get it, it is similar where I work. You need to make sure you waste enough time, its simple.

If you are producing more value per hour than your colleagues you need to be pointing this out to the bosses and asking for more money to reflect this.

As my executive coach says to me (also an over performer who works like a machine and gets lumped with the work others can't get done) back off your work by at least 10% - 20%. Stop having capacity to bail others out. Not your problem.

An example for those who will say everyone who won't understand. A 6 week peak time for the team I'm on. I moved teams. A guy had half the work I did over that time and still couldn't do it. They made me bail him out by doing half of what he had to do. So he managed 1/4 of what I was able to produce, at a lower quality. Same level as me, apparently same skills... Obviously not.

I've been backing off to go from super over achiever to minor over achiever. Still over achieving but not to the extent I previously did.

9 day fortnights are common. My workplace has that option but I don't choose to take it up because I don't have the flexibility to work 9/10 hour days just like you. However I don't resent those who do. Is everyone moving to that pattern with the same day off? That's absurd if so and unworkable. It works for our organisation as people are on different schedules so it's unusual for people to be off on the same day.

I think your title and description are misleading. Don’t you mean they will get a day off in lieu because of the overtime? The OP never does overtime so won’t get a day off in lieu. There’s no point in the OP doing more hours to accrue the day off, because there’s no work for her to do, because she completes the work in standard hours.