to stop extra flexibility after my manager imposed office hours?

[LouuLou]

I work in a small office team of five people. I’m the only full-time member of staff, everyone else is part time. We had a new manager start last year and honestly, up until now, things have been really good. We get on well, I like his management style and he has always said he cared more about people getting the work done than clock-watching.

I work very hard. I consistently hit targets, usually go beyond what is expected, and I won an achievement award last month. I also work very flexibly. I regularly start work at 7am, answer emails early, and will often still be available after 6pm. I usually work through lunch too. That flexibility has suited both the organisation and me because it means things get done quickly and I can also fit other parts of life around work. It is one of the things I am regularly complimented on - how quick I get tasks done.

Out of nowhere, he has now announced that I have to be physically in the office 9–5 three days a week. No actual problem has been identified, no concerns raised about my performance, no suggestion that work isn’t getting done. The explanation was basically that he “wants to try something different”.

Fine. He is the manager and he is entitled to set office hours if he wants to. I’m not arguing with that part.

But my feeling is that if he now wants strict contracted hours and presenteeism, then that is exactly what he will get. I no longer see the point in starting at 7am, replying to messages before work, being available into the evening or working through lunch. I’m planning to work my contracted hours, take a proper hour lunch break and log off at the end of the day.

I know this will reduce the amount I actually get done overall. But another part of me thinks flexibility works both ways. If management removes trust and autonomy, they can’t really expect staff to continue giving unpaid goodwill on top.

OP, are there dead periods in your day while you wait for stuff to come back to you? It sounds like your role is quite reactive? Stuff comes in, you deal with it quickly and then there might be lull until other stuff comes in. At home you can use that time to do your own thing with the quid pro quo that if something comes in at 6.30pm you turn it around then.

If that is the case then, in the spirit of malicious compliance, make sure you “communicate well” with your manager during those lulls while you’re in the office. Message him (teams/slack) to say it’s a bit quiet at the moment until New York gets back to me about the bondoogle. Anything I can usefully pick up in the meantime? Then do your online food shop while you wait for him to come up with something. (Do make absolutely sure there is nothing you could be getting on with before you do this.)

Also if you end up overlapping more with your colleagues, make sure you tell your manager how great this is. How much time you spend sharing best practice and swapping tips and catching up and creating a great team culture and strategising about next steps. Maybe he actually wants you all to more of this rather than being so task-oriented? Maybe he didn’t realise people sitting in the same office at the same time usually means they spend more time talking to each other (even if it’s “about work”) and less time focusing on individual tasks - in which case he can enjoy finding that out.

Just make sure on your days working from home you dont start putting in the extra hours too in order to cover things.

Quiet quitting. Tis the future.

Most employers dont give a damn about their employees and would replace them instantly if necessary so unless you get something from it, dont go the extra mile. It isnt reciprocated.

Do your job and do your job well but dont do anything more.

Very true.

I cannot see how you will be able to do this work as much you have done it from home. This is 9 hours which will be missing from your work

Yanbu. I have experienced similar things many times. A manager who wanted me to complete very well paid (for the company) contracts but refused to pay me any overtime to get the work done (which I'd have happily done).

So, similar to a pp, I 'quiet quit'. I do my job well, politely, nod and smile, but I only do what I'm contracted to do, 9-5pm.

Since I stopped being so flexible, they now don't make as much profit, as a 9-5 worker is less profitable than an 8-6 worker. But that isn't my problem, I enjoy having less to work to worry about tbh.

@LouuLou I get where you are coming from as I have also been in a similar situation, quite a few years ago though, so no wfh option available. People absolutely did not appreciate the extra hours I put in, and nitpicked about minutes instead.

I'd got into the habit of working half my lunch break and nearly always stayed for at least an hour after my set finish time. Occasionally it would be a lot later, especially as I was head of the finance department and a lot of stuff was time sensitive. Sometimes I was there till gone midnight to get things finished. Then my excellent boss (the Financial Director) left.

About 3 weeks later one of the other directors had called me in to say that someone had noticed that I sometimes didn't arrive before 9am and it could be 9.03. I pointed out that the FD had left and his replacement had not yet arrived, so I was covering that role as well as my own. I also pointed out all the hours I worked late. He wasn't interested. Apparently the other staff weren't there to see me work late (well no, they'd gone home!!), all they saw was me coming in late and it wasn't good for the morale of other staff. I knew who'd complained, and she had a short walk to work. I had a long drive through heavy and unpredictable traffic.

The director was insistent, so from then on I arrived early and sat at my desk drinking coffee and twiddling my thumbs until it got to 9am exactly. I took my full lunch hour, and went out of the building instead of sitting at my desk and manning the phones for other people on their lunch break. I downed tools at 5pm precisely and went home. Not one minute more unpaid work did they get out of me.

That will be for the manager to deal with. I will be logging off at 5 on the dot.

Ridiculous isn't it? You were doing extra work yet they still brought in the stupid rule. You were right to stop the unpaid work. I will be doing that too.

It's not unpaid work though really, it's you having a flexible approach to your starting and ending hours, just because you start work early and finish late doesn't mean your doing unpaid work if your taking hours off in the day to do life things.

YANBU to do your 9-5 and no extra though. But I do think you have the understanding wrong.

I am not taking hours off every day to do life things. Yes I will do the odd thing here and there but I am doing more hours than I should be. Well I won't be anymore.

Op have you asked why the other staff don’t have to do this?

Yes because they are part time apparently.

My previous boss had headhunted me into the role, and I had a huge amount of respect and loyalty for that, and was prepared to repay it by putting in the hours.

Once he'd gone, the atmosphere changed immediately. All that loyalty I'd shown meant nothing. They didn't care. I was so offended and insulted by their attitude, I thought that's it - no more. Fuck 'em.

The new FD, when she eventually arrived, turned out to be a monumental bitch I was not prepared to work for at all, so I handed in my notice after that. I didn't even have a job to go to, and I made the absolute most of my 'thank you for the leaving gift' little speech on my last day. There were gasps!!! 😂😂

its like me , in my roles when i know the hours extra i did are apricated then i didn't mind, its when you get shafted even when you put the hours in that takes the biscuits

Surely they can do office days 1 or 2 a week. Seems unfair on you.

This!!!!

I used to work 8-6 and beyond, in a 9-5, taking lunch at my desk. I offered to make up the time for a few medical appointments that meant arriving at 9.30. My manager felt he couldn’t accommodate this, so I took annual leave as directed, and diligently worked 9-5 minus lunch breaks thereafter. (He later decided he had been ‘hasty’ and offered to waive the annual leave but the damage was done).
I bet we wouldn’t be having this discussion if we were Gen Z!
Do what works for you OP.

I was 5 minutes late once. They docked me 5 minutes of pay. Never again did I stay late to finish dealing with a customer. And I started job hunting that day. Never put yourself out unless it is reciprocated.

You're choosing to work 10-15 hours extra unpaid every week, but people view you as "quick"
You're annoyed because maybe your manager wants you to just work your contracted hours, or perhaps is worried about your wellbeing.

Do your contracted hours. Not because you're going into the office but because that's what you're paid for. If anything happened to you or you left they'd replace you in a few weeks.

I think your approach is exactly right OP. I look forward to your updates when your manager realises their mistake.

But if they’ve complained why hasnt the manager done some digging and then spoken to her? It’s a really odd way to manage. Well it’s a poor way to manage , it would be a sit down conversation if that was me.

I know. There are people around me who say they cannot do certain things and I have to do them instead. Then they say they can't work on this day of the week, or need that day off (no school age kids) and then when I need something it is refused as we are short staffed.

If my request is refused then I am going to do what is within my control, and what is within the law and put it in writing that I am not doing it anymore.

Unpaid overtime is accepted but not appreciated in most circumstances. I’d just have a quick conversation confirming with manager what hours they want you to work/be in the office and, once confirmed, do exactly that. Then, if manager takes you to task for less output, your response is that you’re working to your full capacity between those hours as per their instructions. It is malicious compliance, but a manager should consider all possible ramifications before bringing in a new instruction. I do think you need to be careful about still doing additional time on home days, as it is very pointed that it’s only in office days to which you’re applying this approach.

This is an easy conversation to have with a manager, to put them right.