WFH split day with extra long lunch

[Northernshepherd]

Does anyone wfh split their working day and enjoy an extended break in the middle? Have been thinking of the best way to structure my work day/week initially thought of condensed hours either 9 day fortnight or 4 day week. But then thought what I'd really like is 7-11 then 2-6 with 7-12 on Friday. No kids so no school run childcare duties thinking more chance to have nice lunch long walk or run. Anyone tried something similar?

Don’t you have any meetings to attend between 11-14.00? I would rather have someone around 11-13.00 than 7-9 if I wanted a meeting.

I do 10-6 and go swimming before work at 8am

Occasionally I do odd hours to fit in with something else - an appointment or even just fancying a walk, but not as standard.

I guess the key thing is how much your working hours have to tie up with other people's working hours. Do you need to meet with people or are other people reliant on you answering the phone, or responding quickly to e-mails ? Do you have customers / clients / patients / service users who might reasonably expect to be able to be in contact with you during "usual" business hours?

If you are entirely independent from others during your work, then crack on. If not - you'd have to discuss with your line manager.

Working from home isn't the same thing as working when you want to / find it convenient. Surely the employer / line manager has some say or rules?

Depends on what you do, I'd be really annoyed if I couldn't get hold of you for 3 hours every day in the middle of the day, as well as having this restriction when booking meetings. But if you work independently and no one relies on you, then don't see why it should be an issue. Best to run by your manager and team regardless. I'd also expect your calendar to be blocked 'out of office' and not that you're just MIA.

Don't you have a policy around this? Most places I've worked have core office hours, so an occasional long lunch would be ok, but not everyday. Remember you're working, that's why you're being paid 😜

No I work exactly the same hours as contact availability is required.

No because I run a team and am needed during working hours. Long runs are for my day off or weekends or I go at 6am!

if I wanted free time in the week, I’d suggest you do compressed hours and get a day off.

I worked from home during one of the covid lockdowns. I normally work in a shop so not a role that you can really wfh usually! But the company offered opportunities to support the online side of the business. I really struggled with sitting in front of a computer all day and I would often log on at 7am , work a few hours, have a break then work a couple more and have another break etc and finish work around 6pm. One of my colleagues worked in the evening when her kids had gone to bed. As long as we did our hours the company were not interested in what times we worked.

Work with a French company? This is standard there afaik. Well a 2 hour fixed lunch break anyway.

Wouldn’t be for me. I prefer to get work out of the way.

Assuming you can pick and choose when you work, I would be starting at 6am, exercise at lunch and finish earlier. For me that would be a 2pm finish.

Nope. I typically work 8-5 with up to an hour lunch. If I don't take the dog out at lunchtime then it's normally less than an hour.

Occasionally I take longer for something specific - say a Dr apt.

I might also take 30mins at some other point, for a run or some yoga. Though this tends to happen on non dog walking days, so I'm probably still only taking an hour but in two 30min sessions.

Those times would work for me as I work all time zones including us mountain time, OZ and Asia.

I work on flexitime so can complete my hours any time between 7am and 7pm with a minimum 30min - maximum 2 hours for lunch. I don't use it atm but will do in the summer.

I do this type of day quite a lot and love it! Worth trying.

I can do that, but it's because of my flexi-time policy rather than a working from home perk.

I often take 2 hours at lunch, it is the longest option under our core hours policy. It is especially good in winter as you can get out in the light.
I think taking 12-2 off is fine, I would want managerial approval for the hour from 11-12 as that is 'morning' to most people.

It is one good option for exercise, if you are happy with the longer overall working day.

I'd rather have a shorter break at lunch as it takes me time to wind down, equally I don't like stopping once I'm in the 'zone'; so I'd rather start early/ finish early or start late/finish late or do a condensed week. I'd also probably be needed during the middle of the day so it wouldn't really be practical to be away for so long.

If you work with a team or have meetings it will be very annoying for them all

I think companies were a lot more flexible with wfh during the covid lockdowns as they knew people had no option but to have kids at home so working in the evening was often better than trying to work set hours and supervise kids. Most companies are less flexible now

Unfortunately a lot of people think it is these days.

In my job I could do that maybe once or twice a week, flexibly depending on the demands of the day, but not routinely as being unavailable for meetings during 3 core working hours would be impractical.

But I have enough autonomy to be able to look at a day in my diary with few meetings and take a long lunch break and make up the bourse elsewhere.

I think it would be hard to find an employer who would be thrilled about that as a regular working pattern unless you have a highly self contained role - some of IT developers work very independently, just attend a daily stand-up in the morning and then just get their heads down rather than interacting lots, so a role like that would be conducive to the kind of working pattern you propose. whereas my job is at least 50% meetings so it wouldn’t be practical.

The trouble with flexible hours is that different people want different flexibility.

E.g. someone works 7-3. Someone else works 10-6. You do your hours. If the 3 of you need a meeting there are only 2 one hour slots you can fit it into ...

I wouldn't be keen on this because it would be the opposite to how most flexible working works therefore making it harder to accommodate. What about working 7-3 if most people are early starters or 10-6 if they're mainly late starters and going for your run or swim before or after work?

I'd also be totally happy to facilitate something like you suggest once or twice a week with a blocked out diary, because that would leave a lot more time to squeeze things in.

Yes to be clear I'm not just going to start taking 3hr break without agreement but am going to put flexible working request in.

My job is fairly self contained but do occasionally work with other teams and they might find it annoying to fit meetings in, although I'd be flexible when needed.

The problem I have is I'm productive early morning & then later in afternoon so end up doing long days then struggle to do anything after work. I think working long days over 4 with weds off is probably the easier sell as the 3 he lunch probably just feels wrong to people which I get

If your job is self contained and you're flexible for meetings then it should be ok. The pain is when trying to book meetings if you're not available for a big chunk during the day, so if that's not an issue then I'm sure it will be ok. In that case I'd not block that time out in your calendar and leave it tentative so people know