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?

I am with you on this. It sounds like an unnecessary team event that the employer is not respecting the workday of the employee. Unless that person is paid extra to cover all the costs, and normally earning base over £200k, I don't think this is a reasonable request. I would start looking for another job when I see this request.

I actually liked and enjoyed my company's team days.

However I agree that this situation isn't critical business delivery and this employee shouldn't be expected to attend on her agreed day off.

I don't think this working arrangement is effective for either party, and it shouldn't have been agreed because there are no boundaries, it's all a bit woolly.

For the business, it's clear that Tuesdays are a core day, otherwise why have there been two instances of arranging work events on her 'non working' days. For her, she is likely guarding against this becoming the norm. There is any number of reasons (not just childcare) that she opted for this day, and she'll have made arrangements based on it. What started out as being willing to, rarely, work on a Tuesday has, from her perspective started to become a pattern.

I had an arrangement in place where I didn't work Fridays. I chose Fridays because it is not a core day and important meetings and events are never arranged then. The business agreed and took care not to make demands on me on those days. I was pretty senior though, and in a profession that meant some unsocial hours occasionally with urgent matters. There were very rare occasions when I volunteered to work and switch days, because I could. The arrangement was binding, and I was never asked to step in.

Is there a review period for the flexible working arrangement?

YABVU - it comes across as though you find their Tuesdays off irksome, and it seems as if you are gunning for them. You say they have only recently started having Tuesdays off, yet two team events have since taken place on Tuesdays. You seem keen to show them as not being a team player, not going the extra mile, and showing a lack of consideration by only informing you the day before the event that they would not be attending. Perhaps you should take note of staff availability when organising these events. From what you say, all the negative aspects of character you seem to imply this staff member has, could equally be attributed to you, in addition to you coming across as extremely controlling.

Life's short, work is not the be-all-and-end-all. There's no way I'd go in on my day off for anything other than short-staffing cover. At a push.

What's so bloody wonderful about the "corporate culture" anyway? If it's such hot stuff, why isn't it obvious just from working there, why does it have to be rammed down people's throats by "experts" who don't even work for the company? Is being a decent employer and letting people get on with their jobs in their paid hours, and leaving them the fuck alone in their time off work, really too much to manage?

I work part time and have defined normal working days but am definitely switch them for this sort of thing. I see it all as a bit of give and take and my employer has given me time off for things I’ve needed too. I wouldn’t be as flexible if my employer was ridgid about me going to sports day or taking my child to the doctor.

But, you clearly haven't done everything to accommodate them. It actually sounds like you are a bit too invested in what they are doing on a day that they don't work. They might just want to lay in bed all day but, the simple fact is they don't work on a Tuesday and it is totally irrelevant what they are doing on that day as it is no-one's business. I dont work on certain days during the week and i wouldnt care less if my company wanted me to join an event on these days (unless it was vital for the business and turnover).

If you really want them to attend during working hours then book the 'non-critical' event on another day that they are at work.

Maybe they gave a hobby or a paid activity on their day off .
It's none of your business.
A day off is a day off.

If a person can't freely forward plan and make other commitments for there day off, because they might be asked to work, then it's not really a day off is it? It's a tied day.

I used to work 4 days and have Wednesdays off. On my day off I was attending college for something totally unrelated to my work. I lost count of the number of times that staff meetings were arranged on my day off that I couldn't attend without missing my very expensive college course and risking being kicked off the course for low attendance.
My boss "had a word" with me about me not attending staff meetings and implied that I was not a team player which would be noted in my annual review.
My union rep "had a word" with my boss who apologised and made sure that future staff meetings were on days when all staff could be present.

@traintocatch is there any chance you're testing this employee? These "corporate culture" days are a pain in the hole and only certain types of people really enjoy them (usually the one organising them! Everyone else is just there for the finger food). They are also fairly rare. Yet you have arranged 2 now in a short space of time on the specific day you know this employee doesn't work.

Have your other employees time to be regularly taking these days out of the job? I work 5 days. The work I do requires 5 days. If I miss a day for whatever reason then I have to fit 5 days work in 4. Somethings have a weekly deadline and have to be completed. If I've had an unexpected day off during the week where I wasn't prepared I often find myself staying back late some evenings to catch up.

If my boss only required me to be here 4 days they'd wouldn't continue to pay me for an unnecessary 5th day every week and have me sitting there doing nothing. Every week you organise a day of faff is a week your employees are under pressure to complete all their duties that week.

This. In spades. I have had 3 full day development days in the space of six weeks and I only work 4 days a week and it is my busiest time of year. I haven’t got given 3 days less work I’ve just had to work overtime to get shit done.

I have been pretty flexible with my non-working day so far (I look after my child) in terms of joining calls and logging on to approve things but actually I’ve decided to be much less flexible unless it is genuinely critical.

A short call means I miss the only chance I have when my child is napping to actually get shit done at home. Or I have to turn down an activity because I’ve committed to take a call.

Logging on for five minutes to approve something actually turns out to mean logging on multiple times during the day to chase the people who need to send me things to approve/trouble shoot and means I can’t get out of the house to do something with my child.

And that doesn’t even cover the instant rise in stress and anxiety when I log in and see the incoming tasks on my “day off”.

So yeah OP YABU.

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

You didn't do anything to accommodate them. You organised 2 unnecessary team days, both on the day they don't work. What exactly do you think you did to accommodate them here?

And if they took a day off later that week, do they have someone to cover their job so they're not coming back to a backlog or are they expected to to attend your day-of-fun and then do 4 days work in 3, and be happy about it, knowing you "did everything to accommodate them"?

You are being unreasonable.
They are working the agreed hours on the agreed days.
Tough if you arrange things for the day they have asked not to work.

Oh please don't take advice from mumsnet on how to be a good manager. This lot want the whole world handed to them on a plate. Of course they should make themselves available. Flexibility has to work both ways if it's going to work - mutual respect is so important. Maybe she's got a good reason for refusing to come - but it sounds like she doesn't or she wouldn't have waited until the last minute to cancel. You need to talk to her to find out the reason. The key thing here is that she agreed to be flexible and now she's refusing. Her part-time status was given on the basis of her being flexible.

Really? I'm a manager. When I organise an in person meeting for my team I do it on the day they are all working. If it falls on a non working day I call them, apologise, reassure them they don't have to come in but tell them if they want to they are welcome to swap a day.

That's not handing the world to them on a plate, it's being polite and courteous. Mutual respect is just that, mutual, not just the employees responsibility

Insanity.

The only unreasonable thing the employee did was not declining immediately.

A meeting was arranged this morning which will be on my non-working day. Spoke to the meeting organiser about ten minutes after the invite, who understood I would not be attending, no suggestion of swapping days or anything like that was made.

@ZiriForGood

Another hilarious idea is planning only for days this employee is there. That would effectively limit number of part time workers in a department to one or two.

Well, it is pretty clear from what the OP has posted that she has no experience of managing PT staff, so clearly, in this case that isn't an issue.

However, where I work, there are a lot of PT staff, and the agreement is, every part timer works Wednesday. Therefore it is just a given that any training or meetings that need everyone there, get booked on Wednesdays. Nobody has to change their days or work extra.

Of course in the case of the OP, she had a choice of 4 days to book it.

In this case the employee was allowed part time work with mutual understanding that there will be some switching to meet business needs and education might be a valid case

No, she said herself it was for project delivery . That is completely different from saying it is for "anytime her incompetent managers fancy telling her they want her to come in"

One issue might be communication. Maybe it wasn't clear that you consider that event as the important one to use up one of the swaps.

Except, the OP has clearly stated
a) it isn't critical that the PT employee attends
and
b) The 4 day week arrangement was agreed, with the caveat the PT employee comes in occasionally on her NWD for project delivery

A number of people work part-time in our company. Meetings are often called on days when someone or other isn't working. So the meeting either goes ahead without that person, or if that person's presence is essential to the meeting the meeting is scheduled on a day they will be working.

Nobody in our department has ever been asked to come in on a day they don't normally work for a meeting or training or "company culture" or whatever. It's always arranged at a time that suits the majority or suits the people who have to be present.

What part of "flexibility for project delivery" don't you understand?

Yes OP ignore the 700+ posts saying the exact opposite, I mean clearly we are all silly wee women who couldn't possibly understand how the corporate world works.

You do realise that colleague took a pay cut to reduce her hours so now is no longer paid to work a full week, it's not some little back handed deal, but a reduction in salary and pension contributions so I guess that day is important to her.

But by all means feel free to interrogate her about what she does when she isn't being paid, that's bound to improve staff morale.

If a Tuesday was problematic OP shouldn't have agreed it, Friday generally a much better NWD with less meetings and events.

and once again for the hard of thinking. The agreement was that the person would come in on their NWD if required for project delivery.

Oh god you sound like my (ancient) ex boss. He is my ex boss for a reason!

Do you manage people? You sound like a terrible manager if so! Shocking attitude in this day and age.

Oh, look, another jobsworth manager.

The only flexibility expected of the employee was to be flexible when a project deadline had to be met. As per the OP, there is no obligation to attend nonsense team building days to learn about the company culture. All these days do is foster resentment while boring everyone.