Handed in notice at job I love - new job giving me red flags!

[Randomname1848]

I currently have a job I love, it’s pretty flexible, but the wages are low and I wanted more experience higher up in the sector so I started to apply for a couple of jobs.

I received a job offer, and accepted. I was told the hours were flexible due to the company having 7am-7pm flexi policy. 4 months later I’ve only just handed my notice in at my current role and I sent over an email to my new manager asking a couple of questions. One of those questions was to clarify this “flexibility” and the response I got was that whilst they did have a 7-7 flexible time, core hours are 8-5.

…. I’m sorry how is this flexible at all? The choice between working 8-4 or 9-5 is not at all what I would consider to be flexible, this should have been stated before in the original email. Aren’t core hours usually like 10am-2pm, how is there any flexibility when your core hours are just.. your hours? The contract I got never stated any sort of working hours, just that it was on the flexi 7-7. These hours are pretty much a start and end time, and this is only being communicated to me now!!

Am I wrong to feel like this is a massive red flag?

I agree that's not very flexible! And makes the 7-7 meaningless if it's true.

I don't think it's a red flag though.

Do you know what flexibility you need? Eg is it for childcare etc. I'd ask some questions around what you specifically need rather than just questioning the whole policy.

For instance you might need to finish at 3 every day to pick up your kids. That is, in theory, fine within that policy. However depending on the role you might need to be there until 5 some days due to business needs.

It's fairly typical for people to think flexibility is all for the employee's benefit when actually it needs to be on both sides. The business needs to accommodate but also so does the employee.

One of my teams is customer facing. When I took over it was a failing service. One reason was that they thought they could all go home at 3 when we need cover until 5 to run the service properly. All very well they start at 7am and "do their hours" but those two hours 7-9am are not business hours and not conducive to that particular role. It doesn't mean they all need to be there til 5 every day though so we rota it fairly. When we have new starters we let them know in advance that's the deal. However there are plenty of roles in the organisation where working 7-3 every day is fine.

That doesn't make any sense. Assuming it's a 7.5 hour role if you start at 7 you should finish at 3!

It's a red flag to me. What else are they being dishonest about? The lie about the hours is very manipulative. I would challenge them on this per the contract and judge their reaction.

What has taken the 4 months from offer to you giving notice?

I would double check it with them and ask them how it works if the policy says 7-7. Someone might have got confused or they might not understand what 'core hours' are. If the policy is written and part of your contract then it's the policy they need to follow. Just have a chat with your line manager and try and get it cleared up. Share what hours you would like to work and talk about it. It sounds like you've leapt to the worst case scenario without even having a conversation with them.

My work is like this.

For the entire organisation there is a 7am-7pm Flexi with no official core hours (scrapped after covid). However if your team is customer service, between the team the phone lines need to be covered 9-5pm. A small portion of the company fit into this bracket and there is a high turnover of staff for this reason.

Occasionally you can finish at 3pm but you certainly can't every day as it's unfair on other team members.

I moved to another area of the organisation so i could work 7-3pm for school pick up

Sounds shit.
Can you retract your resignation?