To think that workplaces should be less accommodating of personal lives?

[HangryDenimBird]

I’ve noticed workplaces bending over backwards to accommodate personal lives. AIBU to think that employees should keep their personal issues separate from work?

Flexibility works both ways. If a company can't be flexible with employees, then employees don't go out their way with additional hours etc in an emergency. Luckily I work for a fab company, been there 12 years and never intend to leave!

Totally agree
I've worked in HR for 20 years the level of expectation is out of control.
No recognition that people are employed to do a job there's no endless pot of money and shareholder's to answer to.
We have phenomenal flexibility, benefits, wellbeing and health care options, higher than average annual leave, sick pay and its never enough

People can be really black and white about this but it isn’t realistic to expect to have a perfect wall between the two.

I certainly think people have a right to privacy and to not be forced to involve themselves in lots of work social stuff if it’s inconvenient. But I see no harm in employers trying to foster some social cohesion and playing a pastoral role if their employees have a difficult home life.

There was a thread recently about someone whose boss had invited them over for Sunday lunch at their house and some posters were suggesting it was a gross invasion of family privacy bla bla bla.

But this is probably the same people who dislike having any interaction with people outside their household.

Don’t you mean:-

“need to wfh over summer holidays because summer camp has shorter hours than wrap around provision but I will actually wfh and not spend from
3.30pm pretending to wfh and dealing with children”.

I’ve seen too many “oh I’ll log off at 3.30pm and then log back on at 5pm” and they either forget or their day really does end at 3.30pm in their mind and they don’t log back on.

Had an ex colleague of mine earlier this year who had a chronically ill child (which I sympathise with) but whenever you wanted her after 3.30pm, even though I had deadlines to meet, she couldn’t be around then but would be later, she sometimes was around later but often not. Chronically ill child was used as an excuse if they were off sick. After the zillionth time of her ill child being discussed a lot, during our catch ups I was quite pleased when my contract came to its end date.

It's give and take in my opinion, however I have noticed that at my work, it is the same offenders who seem to just take and that's where issues lie when you don't have management strong enough to push back.

Bereavement, urgent childcare issues, being able to quickly nip out to take your car for an MOT for example or attend a GP appointment are all things I think employers should be flexible with.

However we had someone at my work who asked for a few days off because her 'chicken' had died and it was granted. Funny world we live in.

If you have a problem recruiting and retaining staff, then it's not enough. If you don't have any recruitment or retntion problems, then you're doing enough. It's really as simple as that.

I’ve 25 years in person-centric HR and I couldn’t agree more.

God I would never want to work somewhere where they cared nothing about me as a person, nothing about my personal life. That sounds so horrific! As others have said a sustainable healthy business is one that does really great HR so it also makes a lot of business sense to care about your employees wellbeing. What a bizarre and unpleasant view you have.

N one on my work team can WFH, but at the managerial level above us, it's possible for some.

Of the three that do regularly, one, the CEO, seems like a hard working guy. The other two we all suspect are taking the piss, playing video games and smoking weed. Any time we ask them to do stuff, we can't contact them.

We know there have been attempts to disapline them but they try to claim they are being discriminated against.

Bad management of course but nothing we can affect.

If home life shouldn’t affect work life then work life shouldn’t affect home life. So zero working late, no weekends unless it’s your normal days. No emails or calls outside of any working hours, no nothing outside of that 8-5pm.

Or you flex. Dh can leave early to do the children’s dentists appoints, come out for school events without using leave, during the holidays because no school runs he can arrive a little earlier. Often his a little later home by half an hour or so. Flexible. Works both ways and actually 9/10 still works more in works favour.

Half an hour even once a week working longer it’s more than leaving work 1 hour early every six months or arriving late by half an hour twice a year too. Or that phone call he will answer during annual leave because he knows it’s important otherwise they wouldn’t be bothering him.

Same.

Out attrition is far too low because of people who are comfortable and entitled and feel that actually doing what we pay them for is an unreasonable expectation. It’s ridiculous.

Can't keep mine separate as health appointments only take place in work hours so yeah, I bring my health issues to work
Fortunately there's laws around disabilities so I don't have to keep it separate

I’m guessing OP has a cushy number at work but resents those she deems lesser having perks / adjustments.

Bring back the workhouses!

I have worked for the same company for 16 years, most of the time life has been fine and I just get on with it. Occasionally life has thrown me a curve ball.. mastectomy, child’s MH, death of DF and work has been accommodating because I work hard and they appreciate me. Were they meant to dump me when I had my wobbles? Maybe refuse sick pay for the 2 months I took off after surgery, or refuse paid leave for my Dad’s funeral? Do you think I would still be a dedicated, loyal employee, putting in the long hours when needed, supporting other sites outside my written job role if they’d done that?
It’s give and take really isn’t it?

My personal view is, if you 'give' to employees when they are in great need of your support you will, in 90% of cases, get this back threefold.

Some will take the micky, of course, but not most.

Spot on!

Oh and I can't flex to take the time off so my only other option is goodwill from my employer
Otherwise I would never be able to see a doctor or consultant

Good to see Kemi reaching out to us all on here

But if it literally makes no difference to your output if you ask to work 8-4 one day rather than 9-5 so you can attend a parents evening why would it matter?

Goady much op?

Things I’ve heard this year:

”nobody would notice if I went to Sainsbury’s for 3 hours in the afternoon.”
”I don’t want to pay for nursery for my toddler so need to WFH to look after him.”
“I don’t like the office so I’m not going to come in the mandated 40% of the time.”
”I don’t like my manager any more and I want you to move me somewhere else, but not to anything low profile”
”I block out my diary for 2 hours every other Tuesday morning to have my nails done, then meet my friend for lunch”
”I don’t have agreement for compressed hours but just stick Fridays in as flexi time”
”You haven’t increased my pay in line with inflation so I’m not inclined to do my full role”
”I don’t like the project I’m working on so I’m taking 3 months off sick and someone else can deal with it”
”I’m going on mat leave and don’t think this massive project should continue without me - I find it discriminatory”
”I’ll raise a grievance if you don’t give me a good performance mark this year, even though I didn’t deliver anything”

There don’t seem to be many of us not taking the piss.

An employer is more likely to attract and retain good staff who are willing to be flexible to the need of the business when there’s give and take, understanding and flexibility (not taking the mic of course)
I once worked for a firm that didn’t permit to to leave 3 mins early to go to your flu jab round the corner (I kid you not), every minute was documented. Safe to say me and the other girls left on the dot of 5 every day, such and such is running over could you stay and help-absolutely not! We did what we were contracted to to the letter and the managers had to pick up any extra.

I'm all for people showing consideration in any environment (professional or otherwise) but the problem is that this has gone so far now that it is being taken advantage of by people who just lack the self-discipline and wisdom to keep their own lives on track. This is turn leads to low levels of being arsed about anything at all from the rest of the workforce. There's more to it than just that but it's definitely a developing theme in workplace culture and this is one of the contributing factors. I'm stunned every day at how little work people actually turn in these days. Any excuse is good enough to cop off.

You get your best out of your employees when you reduce their stress and allow a good work life balance.

Also, since we live in a society where women still disproportionately carry the weight of caring responsibilities in a family, not being accommodating unfairly impacts women above men.