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?

Is it really necessary to have quite so many 'team-building' days? You know employees really REALLY hate them, don't you?

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

Fucking hell. Its not 1975.

You are confusing "flexible" with "part time". This employee is paid less, in return for which they are available on fewer days.

People who just do the hours they are paid for are also "worth it".

When you are asking them to "meet in the middle" what concessions are you making for them? Do not include "allowing them to work part time" since you are also paying them less for this.

You say you organise 'everything ' around work life balance yet clearly you don't if they've only recently reduced their days and you have already organised two things on their days off. You shouldn't be organising things on a Tuesday unless you absolutely have to - in my work we have people with different days off and there is only one day we can easily get our team together- guess which day we go for? Hint - not someone's non-working day. Sure sometimes it's not possible to avoid it but as others have said you should treat it like a weekend, if you'd hesitate to disrupt someone's weekend then you should do the same for a NWD.

If they've agreed to be flexible presumably that's around necessary things e.g. client commitments, projects etc where extra hours are needed for example, not coming in because you've organised something on their day off. It could be that they just CBA and don't want to but equally there could be a legitimate reason that they can't do it, flexibility doesn't mean that they will always drop everything but that they will be adaptable where possible.

Just sit them down and ask them what their view of flexibility is, making clear you accept that Tuesdays are their NWD and will do your best to avoid them. You want to understand what they see as flexibility so you can operate accordingly e.g. scheduling in other people to support work if necessary etc. That way you can understand if they just CBA or are genuinely willing to be flexible but couldn't on these Tuesdays. But really I think you should just not schedule things on Tuesdays unless genuinely critical.

Everyone has worth. They don’t need to ‘go the extra mile’ to prove it. A good employer can see worth for themselves instead of expecting employees to ‘prove’ themselves. Your opinion of what makes a ‘good’ employee is draconian at best and perhaps it would benefit you to educate yourself that people do have a work life balance now and aren’t at the beck and call of those that pay their wages.

Maybe their 'extra mile' is just to far and any commitments and plans on their day off far outweigh anything work related.
I can see there are two sides to this situation but i lean towards the employee, you don't know what goes on in their private life and Tuesdays may be very important to them.
I also must admit to an internal eye roll at the mention of integration ,morale and culture , i would'nt be suprised if a large amount of the team wished their day off coincided with these events too.

For most people going the extra mile means doing more work for no more pay

I think you're being very unreasonable to expect an employee to come in on their day off for something that's not essential. I always roll my eyes when I hear of an upcoming workshop, team event or forced "fun" activity.

Not one of them has helped my development or understanding of team culture and the employee is dead right not to attend. Coming in on your day off, when you have the relevant pay cut, is a slippery slope, nothing is ever as important as management seem to believe.

It's all corporate bullshit.

If you were my manager OP, and I found this thread about me on a parenting website, I'd print it out and stick it on the staffroom wall 🤣🤣

I'm cringing here.

Or send a link to HR!

Nobody chooses imo a Tuesday off unless they had a reason. It's a weird day to take off work.

You seem a little tone deaf OP, you down own your employees.

These tram building things are properly tedious as well. I'll bet if you put it to the vote to be binned it'll be more clearer

I posted pretty much the same before I saw this. I'm actually tempted to be sick when some of these events are scheduled, nevermind come in for them if I had the day off. 😂

Swapping a day off for business critical project delivery is one thing.

Having to rearrange an agreed day off for a shitty team building morale session (which does anything but build morale) is completely different and YABVVVVU

Nobody wants to go to team building events. They suck.

You sound like an archetypal toxic ladder-rat employee - "can't do enough for a good company" etc "I know """"IIIIIII"""" would attend..." (bully for you) it's for their benefit...go the extra mile. Honestly - you sound naive and inexperienced as a person manager trotting these trite little hostilities- is all you've learned about managing people, situations, processes, change, etc derived from the role you are in now - watching the a*holes one rung above you and mimicking their language and behaviour? It's not going to make one jot of difference in the long run if they attend or not - all you're doing is adding friction to the mix - how do you think that will pay off? Don't like being told no? Get over yourself.

How senior are the OP? In my experience, the more senior someone is, the more flexible they are. I work in admin and no way would I be giving up my day off for a team event !!

Also, if this is a fairly new set up then maybe they are setting the ground rules now as I’ve known managers who just constantly book stuff on employees NWD & then expect them to accommodate.

just because their children are in secondary school, doesn’t mean they can be flexible - perhaps they care for an elderly parent that day? Or are doing a course ? Even if none of these things apply, they aren’t obligated to attend.

You sound like a terrible employer. I would love to hear the other side of the story.

I work part-time, I don't work Thursdays. I don't get paid for Thursdays. My employer is very flexible so if I want to swap it for a different day one week, then they are happy for me to do so, as long is it doesn't negatively impact my work.

Occasionally, things are scheduled on a Thursday and, if I can, I will swap my day. However, my employer has made it clear that I am not obliged to. I am happy to put myself out for them because they have given me a flexible contract and they treat me well. They know I do a good job so they want to keep me happy.

If they behaved like you, i would not be putting myself out for them or swapping my day off to help them out.

@traintocatch this is pretty bad OP!! You can’t punish people for not making an effort to come in on a non working day! You have no idea what’s going on in your employees personal life. Perhaps they actually have a Tuesday off for a specific reason that they don’t wish to share!

My employers are pulling this crap with me just now. I keep being asked to go on training courses (2 full days - require 2 overnights due to location) on my non-working days. I reduced my hours after Mat leave to fit nursery hours. When I stated that I couldn’t attend due to childcare i was given comments about how DH was capable of doing childcare too 🙄🙈 and they then changed it to my working days. When I stated I still couldn’t attend as i had no overnight childcare they told me I wasn’t being a “team player” and that it’s paid so I can’t complain 🙄

I don't work on Fridays (I took a 20% pay cut to reduce my hours) and there is no way on God's earth I would work on my non-working day, even if I could take an alternative day off. Especially if it was for some kind of team building bullshit.

The thing is, you’re chipping away at her boundaries. These events clearly are not business delivery critical. Where in your opinion should she reasonably draw the line? Because if she says yes to this, what is the next thing she is asked to come to? How long before in practice her Tuesday off is seen as a moveable feast and optional? And actually she needs it to be respected.

Despite the fact that you are using the right words around culture in some of your posts, your tone suggests that you don’t authentically respect her work/life balance, and that doesn’t suggest a great working culture at all. Many people who have worked part-time on sufferance can tell you how miserable it is to be in those teams.

Company culture

Translating to no culture, stuck in an 80s management book and expecting employees to come in on their day off. What a load of bollocks. Team building is shite at the best of times.

I work in a huge engineering firm. NWDs are totally respected as are compressed hours or whatever the split of hours. Naturally in project delivery there are times when people have to work late or at the weekend but go in on a day off for team building bollocks. No.

They're NBU. I don't think you've been clear on the terms of a) their reduced hours and any expected exceptions and b) this instance.

It certainly isn't clear from the post whether it is either not critical or important for their development. You've said both. Which is it? If you can't clarify that, why should they decide in favour of turning up?

All that waffle about going the extra mile is nonsense. Either there is an operational need for them to be there or not as per contract.

They may have another commitment (that you don't necessarily know about). This has nothing to do with other staff going on trips. This individual has made an arrangement and they can't be expected to continually step out of it for woolly reasons.

You need to be tighter on your contracting and your direction. This really isn't on the employee to divine it's genuinely necessary that they're present. And you can't use their flexible working arrangements as a weapon against them to determine whether they're willing to 'go the extra mile'. That is ghoulish. You make it sound like a weird little test of loyalty when it's a paid job

How long ago was the change to her working week made?

How many events have been hells of this kind?

What percentage of these are in her work day off?

Two events to be booked in her day off, which is a recent change, seems a lot for coincidence.

You can't expect someone to work on their days off, and it could be that they are trying to set a precedence now, if it's all quite new, so they don't get taken advantage of in the future.

Everything about your posts screams terrible faux caring work environment.

The employee has already shown their flexibility and extra mileyness by building out in to the agreement. If they're needed they'll work on their day off. That is them meeting you half way.

Your flexibility equates to, if they don't do what I want voluntarily with a great big smile, we'll maybe Janet gets their promotion and my adoration.

But dress it up as team integration if you want

I have Tueadays off too as does DH, its our only day off together. I wont give that up for anything other than an emergency. This time with DH is much more important than work, I wont see friends etc on Tuesdays either.

It’s not clear @traintocatch if you actually had a conversation with her about the two days. I’m entirely behind her automatically declining any invites that cim3 in for a non working day but I’d expect the line manager or meeting organiser to call and say “I know you dont usually work an x-day but could you swap that week to attend this.” Personally I wouldn’t rearrange my afternoon early finish just because of a group meeting invite but I would if I were asked specifically.

this would never be the case here. We offer flexibility on all aspects. As I explained in my post this was to be flexible on their side too. It just feels they are taking advantage and don't attend when in fact they could, they just don't want to. First event was actually organized before they reduced their hours.