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 they were told they only needed to work on a Tuesday if required for project delivery and this isn't that - then why would they be expected to work?

How do you know that, though? My DD is in secondary but I still have to pick her up.

The agreement was she would come in for project delivery.
No project was being delivered
So she's sticking to the terms of the agreement
Nothing wrong with that. Doesn't matter how much notice. She doesn't need to be there.

This.

It doesn't depend why they've reduced their hours. Tuesdays are their own time and their employer therefore has no authority to demand or insist that they work on Tuesdays. Much like my employer could ask me to work on a Saturday or Sunday and I can quite justifiably say no without needing to explain myself.

I've never been to a single team building event in my 43 years of working that didn't piss me off znd wasn't a complete waste of time and money. I certainly would not come in on my day off for it.

can you hear my eyeballs rolling?

Given that the agreement was that they'd be in for project delivery maybe you could point out for those that are missing it exactly what project was being delivered.

what was agreed was flexibility to achieve project deadlines.

I don't think you have 'done everything to accommodate them.' I think you've pretended to. But actually you don't want to stick by your agreement. Which I think is the least they can expect. So you've really not done everything atall.

I sincerely hope part time, or full time, NHS, carers, Police and firefighters aren't being expected to come in for team building on their non working days. Quite frankly they need the breaks!

If they agreed they would occasionally swap days to attend an event then thry should bde flexible. But really you should only expect them to do this if their attendance was absolutely necessary. People do make plans for their day off.

Ah loyalty to the company, if only it went both ways...

On Wednesday my company expects me to travel 3 hours, and three trains to an office (I have a physical disability) do a full day of team building and then travel three hours home. This will cause me days of pain.

On Thursday they are telling us which 10% of the team is being made redundant. It's the third restructure in 3 years and literally 100s of people have been made redundant in that time, new people have been brought in, and then they have been made redundant. All the female directors, and directors who are not white have been got rid of for the COO to bring in his male, white mates he's worked with before to replace them.

And yet I will be expected to go, to show loyalty and team spirit... Whilst they spout off about how inclusive they are.

I am a manager, I work part time, and I am
flexible as far as I can possibly be when it matters. I agree that it’s a lot easier if people are open about issues they are facing, but sometimes they can’t be, and sometimes they don’t trust their managers or organisations. Sometimes with reason and sometimes not.

None of us commenting on here know the full story here - we only have the OP to go on. We don’t even know the exact nature of the event and how it’s been communicated to the employee. We don’t know what their relationship is like with their manager or whether they are under stress in their private or professional life. So there are a lot of what ifs however you look at it!

But it’s really common for people who work part time to be on the end of a casual attitude towards their time off that makes them feel as if their hours aren’t respected, and reduces their willingness to be flexible. This person has already agreed to be flexible for business critical work.

not critical that they attend

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

Both from the OP's posts. No idea why people are banging on about mandatory training, loyalty etc. It's abundantly clear that the employee should absolutely not be required to attend - either for 'team morale' or for their 'development'. Any attempt to disadvantage them for not attending is bullying.

It's really kind of pathetic the way some people are so in thrall to this vacuous corporate crap that benefits no one and wastes people's precious time and energy. The majority of people just want to do their bloody jobs and have no interest in 'corporate culture' (which, as we've seen from the OP, tends to be a bunch of utter bullshit anyway). The insistence that employees have to engage with this shit actively breeds resentment, not loyalty!

@traintocatch

when someone goes that extra mile, whilst you do everything to accommodate their needs, it shows that they are worth it. IF they don't meet you in the middle you know to focus on the people who do and help them grow.

They are 'worth it'? 'It' = their salary, and if they're doing the job then they're 'worth it'.

TBH it sounds to me as though you resent the arrangement that they don't work Tuesdays. Perhaps it wasn't you who agreed to it?

It's up to this person to decide whether they want to 'grow' within this job. It sounds as though theirs is not the kind of employment in which a person would be expected to work extra hours to get the job done (a relatively senior position), and that they won't be paid the kind of salary that would reflect that kind of expectation.

Their contract says they need to work Tuesdays if occasionally necessary for project delivery. This isn't about project delivery and so they don't have to work it, and you are being unreasonable to behave as though they're not showing the proper team spirit or commitment.

Apologies if I've got the wrong end of the stick, but this is how your posts have struck me.

💯

To be honest I would book the day off if there was a team event !

thank the lord I don't have such waste of time events at my workplace! 🤣

I agree with the majority here.

Honestly, when I see "company culture", I think toxic managers who expect no work/life balance for their employees.

oh my word team building bull. honestly if your team needs team building courses then something is seriously wrong with your way of working. how about spending the money on them issues? I bet your staff has a list of stuff that needs fixing but you are not listening. it's her day off don't dare ask her to come in unless it's a crucial work issues.
I like my boss and you-know-why he doesn't pull this crap.lets me get on with my work without micro managing. I go extra mile by staying late to finish a project or something but get my time back.if I ask for a day off and it's approved I am not contacted. before Xmas I was on a 4 day week for three months. agreeded for certain reasons I declined all meetings etc on my day off. plenty of hours in the rest of the days am in as long as the person is doing their job correctly in the hours they are due to work leave the fuck alone

In these circs, with lots of different work patterns, you have to accept that there is no perfect time that suits everyone, and therefore some won't be there.

What you don't do is have every session on the same day and/or at the same time of day, so that it's always the same people affected. OP's team failed in this, by arranging Tuesdays in close succession. The person who does the arranging needs to be reminded of these basics.

And OP needs to remember always that if she wouldn't expect people to come in on a Sunday to do a task, then she needs to extend the same to everybody's non-working days

This.

Is this the same as "Jump when I say, even if I myself am being inflexible by constantly arranging things on your day off, or I will exclude you and make you feel like shit".

what is the name of this company? Just so I can make sure I never apply for a job there. Sounds toxic af

Lucky you, they're a pile of shite that suck all the goodwill out of you.

Want us to bond and have fun? Give us a half day on Friday and put enough money behind a bar to cover a lunch and a few drinks for us.

I can and have swapped my non working day if a project needs it and I'm available - that's what flexibility means to me and I'm happy to do it because the organisation has flexed itself around my needs on other occasions. I'm not messing up my schedule for "team building" and I would think significantly less of my (very good) line manager if she expected me to. My team has a strong culture of prioritising actual work over organisational wank and I value that enormously.