What’s the deal with flexi time?

[MurdoMunro]

This seems to always come up when people are complaining about public sector workers (I think they specifically mean civil service and local government officers). What is it about flexi time that’s so heinous?

Disclosure: I worked the first half of my career in private sector and am now the second half in public and have been mostly salaried with flexi time for 30 odd years. Am completely fine with it.

Sure, sure, some managers aren’t good at making it work properly, it’s not appropriate for a lot of jobs and some workers take the piss. But these issues are the same, in my experience, whether in private and public sectors and in both flexi time and fixed hours workplaces.

What is it about flexi time that it’s overall an unfair practice?

You are being unreasonable, flexi time is obviously unreasonable and you should cut it out.

You are reasonable, flexi time is perfectly normal in a wide range of jobs and not specifically problematic.

Why shouldn't you?

If I work an extra 10 minutes a day, over a week then that's 50 minutes of extra work the company has received from me. It doesn't matter if I've done an extra 50 minutes in 1 block or 5. I've still gotten additional work completed.

Those extra 10 minutes a day used to give me change to plan my work day, empty my inbox and print of my meeting notes for the day before 8am started and the phone lines/meetings started. It also meant on a Friday i'd leave at 4 - since it was always super quiet Friday afternoons.

Sounds like you're just jealous your employer makes you work extra time without compensation.

I've never seen or heard anyone complain about flexitime. DH used to have it in the civil service – there was a cap on it though. Public sector can be hard to recruit for and retain employees, and certainly in some departments such as HMRC. There needs to be some incentives.

The scenario you give is very similar to the set up where I work - but the expectation is that if you want to use flexi to accrue a day off in that way, you would do the 'five tasks' in the four days, which is fair enough because you should still have worked enough hours to do the five.

Thankfully no one seems to take the mickey here, but there is an average throughput and if you were not achieving that while also taking flexi, I am pretty certain the line managers would be having a word!

I agree with you though, in a scenario where it is only possible to do one task a day, my feeling would be that job wouldn't be suitable for flexi.

I work flexibly rather than with flexi time. 100% if it's busy do more. If it's quiet take the hours back. My manager allows me time off for appointments, school etc as know when required I'll stay and get the work done.

I think the OP nailed it in their reply to me. It's the clock watching.

You can easily clock in 15 mins early each day - to avoid the traffic, coincide with school drop offs etc but get half a day off a month.

Just arrive at work a little early. Who needs to count their day in mins? This is what is unreasonable about Flexi time.

I get you @BlueMum16 but I’d be a hypocrite if I said I’d never been a clock watcher. For example a few years ago I was in an RTA and for a while after I was a stickler so I could prioritise rehab - physio, swimming, Nordic walking group. Yeah, I was trying to protect my annual
leave hours (for the family stuff, the ‘making memories’ bollux, a bit of relaxing etc) which could be said to be selfish but overall I think my employer benefitted by me getting back to good health and keeping cheerful. My boss has little children straddled between granny care, nursery and primary school at the moment and has his flexi time fairly firmly nailed down but this won’t last forever, he’ll be back doing extra hours without quibble when this crazy period has passed.

I work for a LA and have flexi- it’s brilliant. It’s not just having time off although I’m allowed 2 days off a month. As long as I work 7hrs between 7am-9pm it doesn’t matter when I log on. It means parents can fit work in around family life. I’m responsible for my KPI’s but I’m happier to put in the hours when needed because I know I can take the time back when it’s quieter. @BlueMum16 I’d say it stops me clock watching, I’m happy to start tasks knowing I’ll run over my working hours, rather than not starting something because it’s getting near 5pm. Wouldn’t you be a happier employee if you the flexible working you currently enjoy wasn’t on your managers whim? Wouldn’t you start work 15 minutes early so you had some time accrued in case there was a family emergency?

I think I work better being trusted to manage my time like an adult rather than being forced to be at my desk at certain times. There is absolutely no budget for overtime or bonuses. Flexitime helps me perform better and not get burnt out. I don’t see what all the fuss is about- it’s not like we get paid a huge salary or bonuses like in the private sector.