to expect employee to be flexible and attend team event on a day they are usually off?

[traintocatch]

We have an employee who recently reduced hours and chose to have a whole day off during the week -Tuesdays (working week is Mon-Fri). Before approving this, we agreed they would work on Tuesdays as and when required for project delivery so not 100% set in stone. Since they started this pattern we happened to organise team events with external facilitators and 2 of these events were held on Tuesdays. Whilst not critical that they attend, it would be important for their development, their understanding of company culture as well as team morale and really showing that are willing to integrate. We cannot always choose days to suit them. They declined to attend on both occasions and wondered what would be reasonable to expect? I know I would attend and take the day off another time that week?

If you dont know right from wrong, then you are either:

• Incapable of doing said job

• In the wrong job

Either way, no employee is owned by their employer to come in for some bullshit team exercise, especially on a day that they do NOT work.

YAVFU and should quit your job while you are behind.

Incompetent "managers" like you are what drives good, hardworking and honest people to go off sick with fear, stress and anxiety - all because managers are fucking clueless.

I guess I was disappointed when I knew I did everything to accommodate them...

What exactly did you do to accommodate them with this?

That’s exactly it. The employee is sticking to the agreement and prioritising her flexibility according to stated need.

Need = Important project delivery

Not needed = Team meeting where we share and bond together to build morale

If she drops her Tuesday for the second one, then she’s probably worried she’ll be needed in next cos it’s Bernard in accounts’ birthday and he’s bringing cream buns for fun-jumper-Friday.

In my last role I worked a 4 day week (Tuesday also being my NWD). I can’t remember a Tuesday where I didn’t at some point log in, respond to emails, attend meetings when requested. I went the extra mile every week. Then, due to business issues way above my head/pay grade, they made my role redundant. I won’t give that extra mile again.

You’re being a tad aggressive for no good reason imo.

By doing that you were showing the role couldn't be done in 4 days though!

I'm self employed now but when I ran a team, we agreed on one day a week (Tuesday) which everyone had as a work day and team stuff was always booked on that day so no one had to be 'flexible'.

Tuesday is a very odd day to choose to take off if there isn't childcare to do so I'm assuming either the employer chose this day or the employee has a specific reason for wanting that day.

I guess in some ways you might be right, but I think I more so did it because I wanted to ‘do the right thing’ by the business. To go above and beyond.

i’m pretty sure if I looked back that the business would have coped fine if I didn’t respond every time or agree every time but I didn’t really let that situation play out. I think instead I did what OP called ‘the extra mile’ which is a bit of a trap for ‘part time’ workers. I think that’s why it’s probably fairer for both sides for 4 days to truly be 4 days and for neither side to scope creep, even if days can be swapped etc.

Is her name Veronika ?

It’s her day off. Offer her paid overtime. If she says no then leave her alone.

And stop booking things on her day off.

Very Unreasonable.

Stop arranging events on the day your part time employee is off! I’d feel like you had done it on purpose tbh and consider that I was being pushed out of the team by you. I wouldn’t come to the office for this on my agreed day off, it’s just the same as expecting an employee to come in on a weekend, which is just as unreasonable (unless of course it’s part of agreed working week)!

It just feels they are taking advantage and don't attend when in fact they could, they just don't want to.

it's about being there with the team, if they can and want to

Kind of contradictory OP, what is it? It's either ok for them not to want to attend random, non critical events in their day off or not... You seem clueless.

What is the job?

Yabu

I know they're secondary age but maybe the dc has a club after school and they need to ferry them there .

Maybe it's the day when they go and care/ help out parents.

Maybe they have a dog and every other day the dogs care is accounted for during the day but Tuesdays are trickier to cover.

It doesn't matter what it is but they agreed working Tuesday for important projects nearing deadline. Not some god awful team building thing

Oh please.
Let's be real.
You did not do "everything to accommodate them".
You had to follow legal guidance where you cannot shut down flexible working request unless business cannot function that way.
Team building is not crucial.

Get the fuck over yourself for doing bare legal minimum.

Oh god team events aka let’s make life all about work. No thanks, been there and had the burnout
companies will drop you for business reasons whatever you put in, I’ve a seen this happen to colleagues who have been there twenty odd years, never take holiday etc.

This, My last job during covid the office furloughed all support staff (because they did not contribute anything apparently to the income of the firm) and told the fee earners they had to cover support as well as keep up with our targets. I was on 4 days a week (with fridays' off) and in order to cover my role plus my support staff roles I started working through the night until early hours after homeschooling for a large part of the day and doing telephone hearings during the day. (I was a lawyer). I was working through weekends and replying to client e-mails at 4 am on Sunday mornings.

When we all went back to the office, they did a reintroduction 'welcome back' bullshit teambuilding on a friday. We had to dress up in fancy dress and run around our local park and then have a lunch. I said i could not come. I was told that i did not show enough commitment to 'the team'.

That was the point I quietly quit. I gave them nothing at that point and the properly quit.

Employers IME take the fucking piss quite alot of the time.

@traintocatch I am going to go against the grain and say it’s unreasonable not to attend. On the face of it, it’s not unreasonable not to go to work on a NWD but when it was supposed to be a flexible arrangement and could have been swapped it should have been. On the plus side they’ve shown you who they are; not serious about a career in your company and not loyal to your company.

Depends on their contract , if it states the day off must be altered for operational reasons then unless there's a specific reason why they can't change their day off that week eg drs appointment then perfectly reasonable to ask them to come

it would be important for their development, their understanding of company culture as well as team morale

You lost me here. I hate this type of stuff. I want to come to work, do my job, get paid and go
home. Don’t care about all this “culture and morale” bullshit. It’s draining as fuck.

We had to dress up in fancy dress and run around our local park and then have a lunch.

Public humiliation as a welcome back. Shower of wankers!

I work 4 days a week and often swap my days around when I need to to accommodate stuff like this. I have no childcare on my day off so it’s a proper hassle and I can’t always manage to sort options out but I think it’s important that flexibility runs both ways.

I got really pissed off when I worked part-time with the attitude that my non-working hours were somehow less my own than people who worked full-time. Nobody expected full-time employees to give up weekends/evenings to come into work but all my time between 9am and 5pm was fair game, even though my contract was mornings only. My life was organised around my working hours, I had other plans and commitments for my free time. Do your full-timers have to be willing to work extra hours for "project delivery" or team building events?

I work four days a week and my employer would never dream of asking me to work on my day off. I love my job and I am very committed, but my day off is my day off. I expect everyone to respect that and they do. Once work starts to eat into your free time, my experience is it's a slippery slope. If it was vital I attend a meeting, the meeting would be rearranged to a day I was working. That is your responsibility as an employer - to make work accessible to all. And it doesn't matter how she's spending the day - that's her business. And nor does it matter 'how much you've done for her'. It's totally irrelevant. You've agreed to a specific day off (great!) - now honour it. I really think you're overstepping the mark here and being a bit unprofessional.

You haven’t done everything to accommodate them. You’ve authorised their request to work less than full time and then repeatedly asked them to work on their day off to attend non-critical meetings.

If you want to do everything you can then stop booking meetings on their day off!

You come across as though you’re jealous and/or resentful of their person’s working pattern. That might be worth reflecting on.