To think this is a surefire way to insist that everyone comes back into the office?

[Pleasebeafleabite]

Latest BBC News link today. If I was an employer and I was forced into giving staff compulsory four day weeks based on compressed hours, I’m be making sure they were doing them in the office.

Yet more unintended consequences

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gl5w83z7do

Totally agree.

Yes exceptional to start with but the arrangement went on for several years, until she went to Comp School.

If they could do this for me, it can also be done for others too, not everyone, of course but this idea that the PP was saying that its nothing to do with the employer is where we go wrong.

People s circumstances change but sacking them, tells everyone else in the work place that they are working for a bad employer who wont help them.

In the right role, of course you can take on a new starter on a flexible contract.
& no i don't believe many employers would, i not anything special and my contract said "3 days bereavement leave" i got 6 months FP, they could easily have "let me go" and employed someone else.

Pleasebeafleabite · Today 08:01
In MN world everyone’s a self motivated high performer. In real life a lot of workers are very average.

I expect that this is your experience of 'real life'. Team managers who are below par attract very average workers at best.

Very true, which is why probation's often used to terminate employment in such circumstances, but as mentioned there's also the hassle of those who'll inevitably howl "discrimination" because something doesn't quite suit

It rarely works if the employer's behaved reasonably/there's a genuine business need and nor should it, but it still uses time and effort which is better spent on the business

but that doesn't alter the inconvenience of having to re-recruit because someone wasn't honest in the first place

recruiting can cost a fortune if using an agency.

Lots of jobs offer this already and not many people do it as they don’t want to work the long hours for the 4 days

Thank God for a Labour government who puts workers before bosses.
Hopefully, they will also put families before retired people who generally live rent or mortgage free while younger people are forced to live in smaller homes that cost way too much.
I would like to see them tax footage in a home-everyone, including children is entitled to so much spare feet and if you have more than that, then you're taxed for the extra space. This will see people-usually retired people with no children at home who live in three or four bed roomed houses taxed for the extra space.
The Tories tried this with council house tennants, so it would be good to see it extended to people like my neighbour-a retired lady living on her own with three bedrooms, a dining room, a sitting room, a dining kitchen and a conservatory pay for the luxury of all her extra space.
I have the same space but I have a partner, three kids and a dog and I'm paying sky high rent.

What about roles where you dont have the option to wfh and save all that money and time? Doctors, supermarket staff, cleaners, plumbers.

Er Doctors can work from home.

I also want to make it clear that I have no problem with employees taking time off for kids being ill, school concerts, docs appointments etc. I am flexible on later mornings for school runs etc but I won’t employ someone who has their small kids there every day.

I think people massively under estimate how much time people can waste and ‘shirk’ their responsibilities while in the office.

Compressing 5 into 4 means 10hrs of work a day, not ‘nearly 9’.

No - 9-5 is 7 hours a day, standard 35 hour working week.
35 hours into 4 days is just under 9 hours a day.

The trend for younger people to think a 40+ hour week is "standard" really worries me as they don't demand the pay such hours warrants

You've said your remote workers are your hardest working, yet in a previous post you have said people wfh do not do their hours. Contradicting yourself.

It’s a pain, yes but has to be done, easier in the long run than employing a double jobber who doesn’t actually get the job done.

You’re not “forced” to. Just earn more money and you can live where you like.

Isn’t it more important to you as a manager that people meet their performance targets, the work gets done to the expected standard and clients are happy? What does it matter if they do it in 6 or 10 hours or work in the garden, their bedroom or in the office if the results are as expected?

Do you get to choose your 4 days? Does it work if everyone wants Friday off? I'm retired so no skin in the game but I used to find if people wanted a 4 day week they always wanted Friday off which meant a handful of people being left to cope on a Friday if anything came up that the 4 day a week people were responsible for. When the boss said "no more Fridays" there was uproar.

This wasn't compressed hours, it was people wanting to reduce their hours.

The company where a family member works has scaled down their London office and issued contracts that stipulate office attendance is compulsory for 1 day per week.

I'm going to say you were a valued employee, with a good employer.

I know my employer would do the same for many people where the business could allow it. Not everyone, though sadly no. It really does depend on the resource and how valued they are. You had no doubt proved your work ethic and continued to, so they were more than happy to continue the arrangement.

But bringing in someone new on those terms can be a very different ball game. For a start fitting in training etc in core hours. I could go on. I don't disagree that it would be great if more roles could be more flexible. But it's difficult when so many people just take the piss out of contracts like that.

We have had people who clearly thought remote working meant they could do that for two employers at once!! They do get found out, but those people make it harder to offer flexibility to unproven resources.

I imagine commute time comes into it, if you've got a 5 minute walk to work you might not see dropping a day as much of a perk, if you've got a 1.5 hrs commute (3 hrs a day) then dropping a day probably seems much more attractive.

That isn't answering the question, it's swerving it. You already employ them. Perhaps they didn't have DC when you took them on, or perhaps they did but you didn't know, or perhaps they were nursery aged so the issue didn't arise.

And to answer your other subsequent post, you're wrong to say employers of course have the option not to employ such workers. They may not be able to get anyone else. You may not have realised this before, but you know now.

So what should happen in this specific situation?

You'd love me, I work 100% from home and I do compressed hours 😂i recognise how lucky I am that my employer is flexible and I return I am equally flexible, move my non working day if needed for an important meeting/client visit and working weekends where support is needed.

The past few weeks have been manic with 60/70 hour weeks. Today is quieter so I'll take it a bit easy today, I've done way over my hours already.

I'd hate to work in some 9-5 in the office type role and would be much more inclined to just do my 38 hour week and nothing beyond that. It's give and take imo.

Yes of course flexible working cannot work in many roles but i was replying to the PP who said they don't care about the lives of their employees.

I just think that this attitude is (one reason) why UK productivity is so low.

Successful companies have happy supported employees.

& yes i accept that some people in my situation would have taken the p$55, i ve seen that too, even with a good employer.

IF Labour do introduce this measure, the employer can reasonable refuse, in my role, a 4 day week would have never worked & i'd have been refused the request.

If I already employ them and then they have kids and expect me to pay them while they take care of them at the same time they are working for me, I will let them go. It states in the contract that you cannot have young kids present during working hours. They have signed this so they know the score.

I will always find someone else. Nobody is indispensable 😂. What would I do if they decided to leave of their own accord? Never fill their position? Don’t be ridiculous.

It's interesting how many of the posts from people who don't like employees looking after DC wraparound and/or holiday care work on the assumption that there'll always be a suitable alternative employee available, and the issue is simply whether the employer chooses to recruit them.

My team of 8 has 3 of us on standard schedule of 5 7hr days, 1 does similar but with 3 shorter days and 2 longer to fit around school pickup, 2 work 4 days (80% work for 80% pay - this includes our manager and on her day off another manager is on hand for anything urgent) and 2 work 4 days of compressed hours on full pay. We are all in the office 2 days a week, almost always the same 2.

It works excellently! We're more efficient by all having a say in when we work and not clock-watching to pad out the official working day, and IMO people who deny that it can work well are either bad managers, lack imagination or just hate people being happy. Compressed hours would be tough I think, but my solution is making 4 day work weeks with 7 hour days the standard.