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

Very glad I’m in a team where the general ethos is that as long as you’re completing your work, and to a good standard, no one is breathing down your neck checking the details of your timesheet and implying you’re not working if you work from home.

Sadly I can imagine it all too easily, Iwasafool
Despite the insistence about "staff giving soooo much more" if they're well treated - which is actually a valid point - this is how some react if they don't get exactly what they want exactly when they want it

Terrible! I could never be a people manager. And they are missing out, working Fridays is great. And no Monday blues.

The employer will still be able to say "yes but not Fridays" though.

Four day weeks aren't compulsory to be Monday-Thursday....

It's a shame isn't it, I mean they spoil it for everyone as I think my boss had a much tougher attitude to people wanting to reduce hours or change hours and I guess lots of bosses would feel the same.

Yes Monday off sounds good.

I have Wednesdays off. It’s fantastic.

I can't see it working all that well, to be honest.

I wfh , luckily we are able to be very flexible. our manager is very supportive which means we all help him out late nights/ weekends if required. some folk already condense hours. It works very well for us. our manager treats us like the responsible adults we are and we all have mutual respect for each other.

I take the Wednesday too. Breaks up the week beautifully, and it seems Wednesdays is not very popular for appointments etc. so I can normally book whatever I need/want.

This isn't a new idea, I did flexible hours ( 2 long days and 2 short ones to fit with childcare) 20 years ago when my kids were little, and a 9 day fortnight on 1.0 wte has always been popular in my team.
Ì've recently switched to work 4 days per week on 0.9 wte so just do one extra hour per day. It doesnt make any difference to homeworking arrangements, I could still WFH one day per week if I wanted to ( but mostly dont as I prefer to be in the office).

I think the complete opposite.

If my working day is officially going up from 8hrs to 12hrs, I'm certainly not going to spend hours commuting as well.

Have they actually stated the details of the proposals yet?

You did not answer the point about business 24/7 and 3 shifts a day, how does it work for them?

It's perfectly simple. If they can show it's not workable the employer can reject the application.

On the other hand if 24/7 is covered by multiple people on shifts can shift patterns be adapted?

Any proposal where there's a right to request flexible working terms always has to state unless there is a significant business reason to say no. No government is going to see businesses fail.

But, for businesses open 24/7 with three shifts, those shifts could still be 4 days. My dad used to work for one and he did 4 on 4 off. There's no reason the rotas couldn't be worked to be 4 on 3 off, with staff working Monday-Thursday, Friday-Monday, Tuesday-Friday, Saturday-Tuesday and so on.

Four days doesn't automatically mean Monday-Thursday. And there will always be those roles where your contract states you opt out of the working hours regs because the role requires it. Maintenance for example.

But if you have questions, maybe ask your MP or get yourself on Question Time. Instead of asking a random strange on MN.

Don’t you get Tuesday blues instead though?

If i was an employer, i'd want people to work the hours that work best for them and in the location that works best for them, including if that is at home.

So long as they're getting their work done, that's all that should matter. And if they aren't, then that needs to be addressed individually and not forcing everyone to do anything because of a potential few shirkers.

Amazon deliveries, the Tesco shopping being delivered and then 20 mins unpacking it, etc etc. plus all the other little tasks that can be done when you are supposedly ‘working’ from
home. It’s a skiver’s paradise.

How much do people working in an office 'skive off' chatting to colleagues, nipping down to Costa for a coffee or standing outside smoking a fag?

Cordless headsets mean you can carry on talking while you nip down and open the door to Amazon.

The bottom line either in the office or at home is that you have to hit your targets. If you don't you'll need have some explaining to do.

If you’ve got headphones on will you hear the doorbell ?

Four years of wfh says yes I will!!

They're light weight jobs with a boom mike designed for work use. Full over the ear jobs with a closed back, the sort of thing audiophiles use would be a different thing.

Lol.

As if working in the office never is.

I WFH 99.9% of the time and yep unpack my shopping, put washing on etc because I'm a grown up and have a grown-up job where my employers look at are you doing your job? rather than - do you have your nose to the grindstone every single minute that you're getting paid for?

The only people in my workplace who want people back in the office are the ones that miss 'the connection, the off-loading, the informal discussions sounding out x, y or z, the sharing of knowledge' which are the people that pre-covid spent hours a day arseing about chatting, off-loading, outside smoking and having 'informal discussions about this case or this' and generally moaning about how busy and overwhelmed they are for hours a day. Not only distracting other people, but also bringing down staff morale with their constant complaining and negativity. Then the extended breaks because there was a queue in the sandwich shop. The coming in late because of traffic and the disappearing early every day because they're going on visits or have to do x, y or z.

Which reduces overall team productivity because they drag everyone else down. They're now pissed off because they used to spend an awful lot of time 'being busy just looking busy' in the office and are now struggling with the fact they don't have those excuses anymore and it's really stark now that they did less in the office than they do at home.

How much do people working in an office 'skive off' chatting to colleagues, nipping down to Costa for a coffee or standing outside smoking a fag?

In most jobs, you're allowed a coffee break.

True but historically it involved a jar of instant and, if you were lucky, fresh milk rather than powdered.

A leisurely amble to Costa or wherever, queue and then wait for your skinny latte to be made and then amble back and we're in to 15mins + territory same as putting the shopping away.

And a smoke break. Do homeworking smokers take smoke breaks or smoke at their desk?