Flexible working at big UK media company

[allhailqueenmab]

BACKGROUND
I work in the London office of a big company whose head office is in LA.

Official hours are 9 - 5.30. I have small children whom I will not see that day if I leave to get in at 9 and am delayed leaving beyond 5.50pm. this is a nightmare as the only window for LA communication is from 5pm onwards.

Where the calls involve a team in my office, I can't expect my colleagues to do this, but when I am the only London person I would rather get home for my kids and be on the phone from 8pm to talk. Between calls and other parts of an insane work load I do a fair amount of work in the evenings. However I do try to leave in time to see my children whenever I can, even if I will be working later.

It's about a 60 hour week at the moment.

WHAT I WANT

I work from home on Fridays and would like to finish work at 3pm and do school pick up. I will be available for calls after that if necessary on a case by case basis.

WHAT I HAVE BEEN TOLD

this is not a usually agreed way of working. we are expected to work longer hours than the 37.5, giving some back to me would be a bad precedent as it implies everyone will get time in lieu for working a bit over here and there, if is is possible it must be done "under the radar".

I don't want it under the radar. I don't want to be vulnerable to disciplinary proceedings for being at the school gates that afternoon. I take working from home very seriously and always do what I say am doing. I don't want these waters muddied.
Also I am a bit insulted at the idea that I am trying to work a strict 37.7 hour week. As if. I wish.

Our LA office work all hours god sends (though they don't like to get in for 9 which is a bastard in terms of making me late, grrrrr) and it is not expected that flexibility like this can be arranged.

Has anyone any experience of this sort of thing and what did you do?

thanks

Could you simply do a flex working request to lower your hours by 2.5 a week, finishing at 3pm instead of 5.30? If you are expected to work overtime anyway as part of the job you can explain that they can contact you after 5.30 (or whatever time) on the Fri then they may agree? Alternatively could you start slightly later a few mornings if evenings are the busiest time in your job, so you can see the children in the morning?

Hi Rockchick, thanks for getting back to me.
the title has a typo - it's a US company not a UK company.

I don't want to take a pay cut when my work load will not change.

I am happy to be contacted at whatever time, I accept that anyway.

I have seen lots of reference to people working "condensed hours" and I guess that is the thing that I am talking about - having my long days recognised the other days I work, not asking for it all back, just a tiny bit.

Starting later doesn't work for me - the commute takes longer, and it seems to waste so much of the day - in theory we can start at 10 but I hate it the times I have had to do this (dr or something) and feel on the back foot all day. this is what is so annoying - the biggest pressure in my job is workload and volume and I am really great at managing this and being efficient with it - there are loads of people who could work my job and get nowhere near getting through it - but I have tricks and techniques to make the most of my time - and yet there is this goddamned quibbling about something I know I could make work without hurting anything

I completely sympathise with this. I left a job where I was doing a lot of work with the West Coast and with Latin America, for this reason. I didn't figure it out personally.

However, a friend of mine who works for a genuinely international organisation (meaning she has to speak with people from Asia through to the west coast and all time zones in between and needs to be uber responsive to VIPs in the UK) has managed to negotiate flexible hours whereby she does 9-5 (ish) 4 days per week and 1 day per week of 9-1, with the hours made up in evening working on that day and across other evenings of the week where needed. In reality she will work more than a 'full time schedule' but she gets that afternoon off that allows her to do a bunch of stuff and feel like she's not being entirely screwed by the system and to do the bit of childcare she really needs/wants to do. Would such a thing be possible? She also does her 9-1 day at home, allowing her to plough through all the admin stuff that can be waylaid when you're in the office. Seems to work very well for her.

I think you have to have an honest and open conversation with 'the boss' / HR about why you need some flexibility and recognise the difficulties for the company, while also noting that their allowance of flexibility for working parents will enable them to retain excellent staff.

You do need to set out your own 'business case' in my experience.

that's exactly what I want, fizzly.

I started with HR, my next step will be my actual boss. He seems reasonable but I am pissed off with all this teeth-sucking when I work like a bastard.

Sorry this didn't work out for you. i hope you have a better job now!