My employer is considering allowing "5 days over 7" flexible working

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

And I dont know how I feel about it. 95% of staff currently work Mon-Fri, with flexi 7am-7pm. Everyone wfh unless you need to go in, due to covid. Suspect June for a move to more office based days.

The other 5% are the skeleton staff booked specifically to cover weekend (in only one specific team).

However they are also considering allowing everyone to spread their flexi over seven days.

I can see it being helpful for those who catch up at weekends due to family commitments during the week - now its official and they can take the time guilt free during the week.

But on the other hand I like to log off knowing we are all "off" for the weekend - no one will be sat on a Saturday wondering why I've not formatted the doc they've just sent me or whatever.

I'm worried this is just another step towards those home/work boundaries blurring for good.

Your right the home/work boundaries are blurring for good. It's definately got a lot worse this last 5 years and particularly though lokdown obviously.

I've now put a message on my phone and voicemail saying that i work from 9-6 and if you have an emergency please ring 999 and if it's not an emergency then I will deal with your issue tomorrow. The stupid reasons people were ringing me for when they could have waited, made a decision themselves or asked the on-call person were just getting ridiculous.

It is lovely to switch off at 6 and focus on my family . it's honestly a relief

Difficult because some people (like me) prefer to work weekends and have time off in the week. My current job means I can choose my own hours and that suits me really well.

Pre Covid I loved having my days off in the week, everywhere is quieter etc. But I am not bothered about spending time with my DH at weekends .

It will probably work for some people, and not for others.

We did it last year so that we could have fewer people on site at a time. None of us minded it in the very short term but we all tired of it after a couple of months.

You need to decide how to enforce your own boundaries: I used to have a job that was very long hours, expectation people would be constantly available etc. A lot of people logged on while on holidays, replied to emails on weekends etc but my out of office always said (eg) “I will next be checking my email at 9am on Monday, if you need assistance before then please forward your email to x”. Let people email or leave voicemails and just ignore them till your next working time. Flexible working is a great thing overall.

It would be great for a lot of people, who could save on childcare costs.

Also, it's not too bad in lockdown because there's not much to do at weekends. Once we can all start doing sports, meeting friends etc it becomes less appealing. That's what happened to us last year, managed it till about July and when everything started opening up again we all decided we'd had enough.

If it’s flexi then anyone who wants their weekend on Sat/Sun can have it.

As long as you’re not expected to answer calls or emails on your days off, it’s sounds great.

Depending on how it’s set up it will potentially breach the Working Time Regs.

@JellyBabiesSaveLives

If it’s flexi then anyone who wants their weekend on Sat/Sun can have it.

As long as you’re not expected to answer calls or emails on your days off, it’s sounds great.

Agree. As long as you set out that you won’t be available weekends because you’ll do your work during the week.

Just put your out of office on. Its good except family life might lack time together but as you can choose you can do it if it helps you.

Working Time Regulations mean you shouldn’t routinely be asked to work 7 days as you need 24 continuous hours rest each week or 48 continuous hours rest each fortnight.

I'd imagine that would be included in the guidance - "ensure you are off duty for 24 hours in a row at least once per week" or similar.