NOW CLOSED: Tell us what you think about the new flexible working contract designed by O2 - you could win a £100 Amazon voucher

[AnnMumsnet]

You may know we have been doing some work with O2 (via our panel) and as part of the Mumsnet Family Friendly programme - and now O2 are excited to announce the launch of the O2 Working Families' Contract.

O2 say "The O2 Working Families' Contract(* SEE ADDITIONAL NOTE BELOW) is a new flexible contract designed with working parents in mind. It allows groups of between two and four working mums and dads to freely decide how they will cover shifts over a month, to which they can make changes at any time, giving them the flexibility to balance their jobs with activities such as the school run, their children's holidays and unplanned emergencies. At O2 we want to make it as easy as possible for our people to be there for their family when they need to be, whilst managing their job responsibilities"

They want to help spread the word about this and also to get some feedback from the Mumsnet community about the concept. we appreciate working in an O2 shop may not be for your or your DH/DP but what do you think about the idea in principle? What do you think is good? What would you like to see in the concept? Do you think it it something you'd like to see your employer offer (or a local employer)? What pitfalls can you envisage? How do you think you/ O2 could work to solve these?

At the moment, this is just a trial - and is being piloted at O2's stores at The O2 in Greenwich, Edinburgh and St Albans.

Do add your thoughts on this thread - and if you think you might be interested in applying, please go to www.o2careers.co.uk and use the following reference numbers: St Albans - IRC126340/ Edinburgh 135 Princes St -IRC126341/ O2 at the O2 - IRC126343

Everyone who adds a comment on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one winner, drawn at random, will win a £100 Amazon voucher

Best of luck and thanks for your comments
MNHQ

NB: PLEASE NOTE:
The team at O2 have been reading your responses on this thread with great interest and are very grateful for all the feedback as it will help them shape the contract.

They wanted to clarify: "Whilst we designed this with parents in mind, it is absolutely open to people without children. Most of the shifts would be around the middle of the day, as it's the busiest time in store, which should suit parents trying to fit in school runs"

MNHQ

It sounds great- like a co-operative or kibbutz in theory, with people supporting each other to achieve a common goal (working/earning/work-life balance in this case). If only more employers embraced job sharing so fully.

I think its a great idea - obv people would need a bit of support to iron out issues as its such a new way of working, but self rostering really puts workers on a much better footing to balance their lives

In principle, great idea.

Not entirely sure how it's different to any other job where you have shift work - presumably there is usually a degree of flexibility within a team to cover unexpected events? I suppose that it's very positive to see an employer explicitly acknowledging that people might want to work flexibly, and putting in place explicit policies to make that happen, rather than relying on good will and informal arrangements.

Also imagine that it will still be open to workers to work fixed shifts without generally being flexible? That would suit some people more than the flexibility.

Agree with others who have said that there would still need to be strong managerial/ HR support for the inevitable issues in some flexi-groups.

I can't comment on my own employer as my work isn't shift-based. But my employer is very good with flexi hours (you have to be there 10am to 12 noon and 2pm to 4pm but can choose to make up your hours outside that largely however you want).

I think it sounds great. It would have been fab for me as a student, I was living with a single mum at that time and we could easily have made up half a group and covered school pickups etc that way.

Although I agree that quite careful management would be needed, a system of 'points' could easily be worked out whereby those that volunteered to cover other team members more often earned 'first pick' of shifts etc - that would help to balance things out surely?

Also if you had more than one team at a store, there could be flexibility between the two teams (I assume?) and again this could be recognised with perks / first dibs on holiday time etc.

I job share at the moment in an organisation where people doing the same job arrange cover directly with their colleagues before booking AL etc - it seems to work pretty well (although that is a much larger pool of people, all working remotely) and has presumably cut down on a lot of hassle for HR.

Think it would be useful to have a minimum amount of hours per month that each "group member" has to cover, and possibly a maximum amount. To stop 3 people from having to carry the weight of someone who has joined a group but is never actually available much, and to ensure that people have a certain level of hours/income they can rely on, within the boundaries of them being a bit flexible with their shifts. Think it's an idea with great potential.

Sounds excellent in theory, I don't see why it shouldn't be extended to non parents too, maybe those who have to care for elderly relatives, or just have a life, even! I just think all jobs should be as flexible as possible to cover all people.
Pitfalls could be parents wanting same time off for school runs, holidays, etc, but in essence it's a spot on idea.

Great idea. Who would be in overall charge of deciding who works when? One of the group, or an outside person?

Will there be a premium rate for working more unsociable hours? I do think that weighting these times would be a good idea.

No-one really wants to work long hours in the weekend, every weekend.

I also think the management's attitude and approach to this flexible wirking will depend greatly on it's success.

It would work particularly well if both partners worked for O2 perhaps? So you both had flexibility at work, and could work out your childcare cover accordingly. Not in the same group obviously, as otherwise you'd never get holidays together!

But this flexibility wouldn't work for me, as I need to know exactly when I'm working, to fit in with dh's self-employed long hours, because if the children are not in childcare I need to be there, so would be useless at picking up anyone else's slack if they weren't available.

I love the idea. However, I'm not sure how you would get all shifts covered if you just do the flexible working between working mums and dads as most children are at school at the same time and holidays happen at the same time. Could you perhaps add non-parents into the mix too and allow them flexible working. They might prefer a later start which allows a parent to do the earlier time and might like weekends off when a parent might want to work then.

I can see it being difficult to manage between groups of individuals, what happens if there are times that no-one can do, what if you have a particularly stubborn or forceful employee, do they bulldoze their way into doing the shifts they want.

It would be great if O2 could provide childcare that works as flexibly as the parents need to. School holiday care especially, with ad hoc days for school aged children on Inset days. Another option could be a day nursery that allows job share partners to "share" one nursery place between two children.

It sounds great in theory but as others have said the school run time could be problematic unless the parents live sufficiently close to each other and have children at the same schools so that is covered as well. I can see that it would be great for a group of mums who already knew each other, and whose children were the same age/at the same school. It would, of course, be a minefield for ill-feeling if someone was seen not to pull their weight.

Sounds like a start. But as I'm a LP I'd always need to be off to pick up my DC's from school.

I worked in a shop for years and it did work well when the students wanted weekend / school holiday work so the parents could have time off. Xmas was a bugger though as no-one was allowed time off in November and December, a huge problem when you have sick DC's.

I think it would work well if the other parent were working shifts which were allocated on a monthly basis as you could see what your partner was working and then arrange shifts around that.

I agree with other that it would depend on the group of parents who were arranging and that you may have to give up on some time you wanted to get some other time you wanted, a bit of give and take would be needed.

It would be great if parents could have more flexible time but unless other employers were doing it I can see that it isn't as helpful as it could be (one parent could do morning school run and other to afternoon one). My dh is struggling at the moment with running out of holiday now that he has 2 ds's at different schools with different assembly's/parents evenings etc but he is not able to go in late and make up time or go in early to be able to leave early as he has to work be avaliable for a core number of hours to fit in with others and so he has to take time off to be at any school things.

Also if you were to take time off for a sick child and you already work maximum number of hours you may have to find childcare to make those hours up which could be tricky if you don't have any childcare in place at all.

it does sound like a good start.

it would take cooperation between all the people on one 'shift', and I could see that it could lead to problems if eg one person on that shift pattern was always wanting to swap, but never able to cover other people's needs.

and the ability for one parent to swap shifts is useful, but unless the other parent can be flexible too, it could lead to it always being one parent who shoudlers most of the brunt of days off school ill, visits to the doctor etc. which could lead to an imbalance in the home relationship.

I agree it's unfair just to offer these arrangements to parents.

I like the idea in theory, but I'm not sure how it would work in practice. As with most people I can think of a few people on my team at work who I would be able to make this work with, but also people who would push the limits of what they could take.

I think it is a great idea and parents would work hard to make it work. O2 are great to even promote the idea as normally a great gulf between what working parents need and what employers offer especially in private sector in my opinion. Years and years ago I used to work in a place that offered a 7am to 3pm shift which was perfect for parents picking up children. Usually the DH or GP took the children to work. I agree with the posters who have mentioned those of us who are non parents. I was in this category for a long time and didnt really understand the needs of parents and their outside work lives are justs as important so they need to be included. Though often (and I still have single friends) I know that they sometimes appreciate a late start and a late finish. Thumbs up from me and I was a HR Manager in a previous life.

Sounds really sensible - there should be flexibility in every business as much as possible - as long as the hours are done, it shouldn't matter when. Well done, 02.

I think it's brilliant that they are trying to be more flexible but I agree that problems within the groups and from staff without children are very likely.How would it work within the group - surely within the 'team' people will start to assume roles and become bossy or controlling or take the piss.

Honestly, I think people will either make it work or ruin it altogether, depending on the personalities involved. I'd be really interested in seeing follow-up posts.

I know when I was a student I was desperate for a shift job like this , to fit round lectures. I am now a mum of three, and I find working saturdays at an Estate agent suits me, as my partner looks after them on that day- and I get a nice break form them after mon to fri with them. I enjoy sat only shifts but its not tat much money obviously.

It's a great idea, I would be keen to see the same degree of flexibility to those without children as well, some people who are not parents still have other commitments which are important to them.

Would need some system for monitoring it though so that people did not abuse the system.

I think it sounds like a great idea. Are there any plans to extend this beyond shops to O2's head office operations? For me, one of the key difficulties of finding family friendly employment is that the options that are available tend to be at lower end of the scale in terms of pay, qualifications etc. The breakthrough for me will come when there is genuine flexibility at all levels of the organisation structure.

With regard to this proposal, I think it could work where you have people who are willing to make it work - a bit of give and take would be required. If I was an employee entering into such an arrangement, I would want some fairly robust HR support in terms of policies that would protect me from being paired with (a) workshy partner(s).

One of the big plusses for me about this proposal is that it is seemingly available to all employees, so potentially avoids being resented by those who are not involved.

Anything that makes it easier for workers to balance their work and their lives is a good thing.

I think flexible working is a great idea. My job is completely inflexible (practically have to beg for holidays) and it means we have a high turnover.

I suffer from depression and there are days that I simply CAN'T go in. Being able to be more flexible would work so well for me.