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.

Sorry I'm too invested in this, what happened next? Did you land a better role with more reasonable managers?

[Only invested as I've been in a similar position, except I landed another job - my fantasy was definitely to rage quit though and do a Father Ted Golden Cleric speech on my last day 😆]

Obviously I pointed out the late finishes. I was told that was irrelevant. And after that I wasn’t really inclined to stay that late even if they had accepted that my being 4 mins late on one occasion was actually not the end of the world.

I will be doing the same at home. If I do start early, I will schedule all emails to be sent after 9am so I will miss all the international queries.

I’ve had a very similar issue with my employer.

We’re required to be in the office two days a week. I’ve gone into the office 3+ days rather than 2 some weeks, at additional expense, to attend optional meetings which are good for business development.

Recently I couldn’t get into the office because all trains were cancelled until midday. I asked to work from home, pointing out I’d previously done additional office days. This wasn’t a tit for tat reclaim of those days, but what I thought was a sensible compromise - I offer flexibility, and expect understanding when my commute is disrupted.

No, I was told I must attend the office even if it meant sitting in a station car park and not arriving until 3pm.

In return I now choose to strictly keep to two days a week. And if my commute is disrupted again, I’ll waste half a day getting to the office rather than working efficiently from a desk.

Office attendance policies applied without any nuance are incredibly short sighted, as they tend to undermine goodwill from employees.

Exactly. Doing more or extra sometimes gets you nowhere. That is why I will pull back. I know things will go wrong but I am trying the manager's new way of trying things.

That is a magnificent example of “malicious compliance” as I understand it from Reddit threads!
I do wonder why your manager has decided on this new system. It will be interesting to see what happens when he realises that there is a loss of efficiency as a result of the loss of flexibility. It sounds as if your availability to work over different time zones isn’t as important to him and the business as perhaps you think it is? Or, it may be that as a result, he finds out that he needs your flexibility more than he thinks, and he might change your working pattern.

I found another job during my month's notice, so all's well that ends well. I was only in the new job a year before I got pregnant and DH and I both decided I would be a SAHM. I did miss out on maternity pay, but you can't have everything.

If your manager wants to revert to a draconian way of working, I’d respond in kind and stick to my contracted hours.

I manage a team of 13 and we have an agile working policy. So staff are trusted to manage their time and success is measured by outcomes delivered and not by hours spent in front of a screen or in the office. I do not monitor their whereabouts or check up on them. It seems anachronistic to expect staff to be in the office unless there is a business need for it.

As the 'trying something different' literally only affects OP, how can it seem anything other than personal? The rest of the workers who are all part-time aren't affected at all. They haven't been told to come into the office.

If her manager struggles due to the changes that he has insisted on making, which only affect OP, surely OP is allowed some schadenfreude.

Im not sure why you’re getting such a hard time on here. Does this new idea start from Monday?

It sounds like you have been working too many hours anyway.
Also sounds like there is a problem with the others not working their expected hours but he doesn't want to be obvious in saying that.

This

Not being there we can't know the position from the manager's POV, but IME it's usually better to discuss these things than to start playing games - especially when there have been no issues with the management style before this

Why doesn't your manager try to deal with the poor productivity from his part-time workers? He has left them out of the mandate to work in the office rather than from home. It seems to be an issue that he needs to tackle but instead he is targetting you as the most productive and flexible member of staff. Why is he tiptoeing around them? He nees to be performance managing them.

Neither do I.

Yes it starts from Monday. I have to do Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the office every week. Set days.

That’s not more manipulative though. They still get the OP in the office and they also get the extra work on her wfh days - that’ll teach em

Remember op this was the managers decision any unfinished work is on him. Also remember managers are never your friends when it comes to work.

If he is struggling it will be as a result of his choices and decisions not @LouuLou .

I don’t see how managers have this authority to insist people come the office.
My company have mandated 51%+ in the office, but that’s come from the board of directors after consultation with the union.

I do need to remember this. Will keep my distance in a professional way from now on.

Absolutely. I won't be going above and beyond anymore.

I'm not a manager.

But if I was, and I knew my staff were consistently working many many hours above their contracted hours, and I also knew I would not have it approved to hire more staff, maybe I would bring in this rule to force them to work only their allotted hours. I could then feed it back up the line that more staff is needed as we can't get everything completed within allotted working hours.

Everyone seems to think that if you're not allowed to WFH all the time then the manager is some beast who hates you and just doesn't want to allow any flexibility - when maybe they're actually looking out for you as they see you working online at silly hours?!

I will stop working silly hours but is bringing people into the office the only way to stop it?

It will be backfire as I will no longer be dealing with the international stuff as I have to start at 9.

Well, maybe you can keep a log and make a suggestion to him then? Like you said, he said this is something he "wants to try out". Maybe in a month he says, this isn't working, Louulou instead of coming in to the office I'm happy for you to WFH but it should be 7am-3pm".

I get why this is annoying you, but it's quite normal to want to standardise office hours (whether in office or WFH) and it looks like he's seen an issue he'd like to resolve.

Or maybe he's just a bastard and likes getting people in for no reason. I don't know.

I guess if it’s what he wants then it must be for a reason, even if he’s not sharing it with you. He will have considered the out of hours work vs you being a visible presence in the office.

if it means that you end up working less then enjoy it! I find It helps with a work life balance to have hours fixed and then no work outside of this- if only my job could be like this!