How do you fit in 35 hours of work if you do all school runs?

[Hillrunning]

I manage someone who doesn't appear to be doing anywhere near her 35 hours a week and have been advised to get her to confirm when she is completing thoes hours.

She does all school drop off and pick ups Tuesday to Friday and very often on Mondays too. She has also stated that her children have sports/activities 3 nights a week.

I just can't see how she has 35 hours spare to work with unless doing them at very unsociable hours. While she has a partner it's made very clear that he does not support and work out of the home 9 to 5.

It would be very useful to hear from others of thier patterns if they have similar demands please.

Have you spoken to her about declining meetings? This certainly wouldn’t fly anywhere I’ve ever worked.

The content of your diary needs to be visible to your team, and if you want to deny a meeting in work hours then you discuss it with the organiser rather than just decline or don’t turn up.

She's taking the piss.

Really useful considerations, thank you

@Hillrunning do they need to be in the office for any part of her hours?

I work full time and have children in primary school and do all the school runs. I need to be in the office 3 days a week., so a typical day might look like this with 7.5 hours work a day. We can work flexibly so times vary.

7.30-8.30 WFH
Drop dc off to school.
9.00-2.30 office
5-6 WFH

No clubs here as all on weekends but I'd struggle if I had clubs.

@kiraric he just hated both. He'd have had to get used to it if we lived further away but we thought we'd try it.

Why not focus on the performance issues? Arguing with her about hours seems a bit pointless.

But if they're at sports clubs/activities 3 days a week (I'm assuming these are straight after school?) and she lives right by the school then she could be doing, say, 8:45-4:15 3 days a week (22.5 hours), and 8:45-3:15 2 days a week (13 hours) that's 35.5 hours if she doesn't take a lunch break.
I've based the above on my DD's school - obviously timings will vary. I drop my DD at school and am back working by 8:45. We use after school club in the afternoon though.

But if there are performance issues then it's a bit irrelevant isn't it. She could be doing hours and hours of overtime and you'd still have a problem to fix.

I did this but DD was older so could get her breakfast and get herself ready. My hours were something like this, worked at home 7-8am before school run, on site for work 8.30am -3pm, school pick up and home for 3.30, log back into work, finishing between 4.30 - 6.00. If anything I went over my hours, my company are flexible and suits them as being part of a global team I’m around for early morning and late afternoon calls. The hour first thing in the morning allowed me to review emails which came in overnight, then I could mentally plan my day on school run in the morning, so even though I didn’t count the school run as working I was still thinking about it!

I’m assuming you’ve been asked to find out / confirm hours worked to ensure the person you are managing is not being paid for hours she isn’t actually working? Is this because she works remotely and you have no actual way of tracking this yourself?

I think you need to be really careful how you go about this to be honest. I don’t think it is fair to just assume that she can’t possibly be working 35 hours because she finishes early to do school pick up. For her, school pick up could be 5/6pm depending on whether her kids are in after school club on some days and in sports clubs / activities others. As for her unsupportive husband, maybe he is around to help at the weekend when she catches up on her work then…?

Even if she claims she works something like 0630-0800 and 1000-1530, which would be her 35hrs, that doesn’t suit the business need.

The problem is that she isn’t meeting her objectives and goes MIA when required in meetings. Her telling you (lies about) what hours she works doesn’t fix that.

Maybe the question you should ask is 'is she doing enough?' If she's delivering does it matter? Maybe she's making up hours here and there.

Have a quiet word then and get it sorted.

Supposed to be in 3 days a week but generally manages just Monday's. On the other days there always appears to be a reason that crops up.

I've always been more interested in output and so not drilled down into exactly when things are being done.

Much of the work is physical presence at events, and so her lack of availability has caused challenges for others.

Good to hear that many evening clubs are set up for parents to work, hadn't realised that.

I’ve done a lot of work in the evenings before and usually get up early to log on and quickly go through emails etc before walking up the children. It’s quite normal for me to be on Teams during the school run as well.

There are breakfast and after school clubs people can use but otherwise I’d say my working day can be easily broken down into: 6-7am, 9am-3pm, 7pm+.

We all work hybrid. School pick up for her starts at 2 and can go on till 4, for a school that appears to be about a mile from her home and about 4 from work.

Husband appears to be no more supportive on weekends but I think some other family members might be?

I'm genuinely trying to understand the different ways people manage it as we do need to find a way if the current one isn't working.

If You are expected to be in 3 days a week then most employers would not put up with someone making excuses all the time.

I work 37.5 hours and I do it. I use my break/lunch to do the pick ups. I work 9/6 never a second over lol. Xxx

Could you expand on what you mean here? Have a word with her?

We aren't, hence exploring current typical week hours so that we can discuss expectations and the future.

My friend works from home for a call centre;she works 8-3pm and forfits her 30 minute unpaid lunch break but has 2 x 10 minute paid breaks that everyone gets during the shift.

Her DS goes to the school breakfast club which opens at 7.30am and finishes school at 3.15pm which gives my friend time to do school runs.

Her DS goes to afterschool swim lessons and does cubs so has activities twice a week.

Her contract states she has to do 37.5 hours a week to complete her full time hours so she does 9-11.30am on a Saturday morning whilst her partner or her next door neighbour (if partner is on call that weekend) watches her DS.

To keep on top of household stuff etc along with this means she has to very organised.

So your company allows you to work and supervise the children or is someone else home after school till 6?

You sound a bit uncertain. 'If' it isn't working- it clearly isn't and you need to be clear about that. Has she had any return to work interviews for all the non-Mondays that she hasn't worked? What support has she been offered/accessed? Was there a plan that she hasn't been able to stick to?

Tbh I think you need to run through the options with HR before this meeting. I wonder if she really needs a job that looks different. But I'm certain you need to tread carefully on that front, and tbh it sounds as if you have been asked to manage this situation with zero options to consider.

I use breakfast club a couple of times a week which means I can be logged on for 8.30. After school club a couple of times a week. Then other days I use lunch break for pick up and he plays / watches tv while I work, which our company is fine with. It’s tight on the weeks I’m in the office every day but on those weeks I might fall a bit short and make it up on days when I’m working from home.

I was going to say as long as the work was being done, then I wouldn’t necessarily ask for her to account for her hours, but your update changes my view. I think you need to call her into the office more unless she has a fully remote contract as working from home isn’t working for you or for her.

To answer your original question though, the days I have to duck out to do the school run, I usually work for an hour or so in the evening, or don’t take lunch breaks.

There are multiple issues here

1. She is underperforming by not meeting deadlines etc
2. She is not meeting hybrid expectations

3 her contract is to work a set number of hours and you are undertaken/concerned she is not doing this 4 what is your company policy around core work hours/dependent children being at home while parents are working

Is she new? Surely you have 121s/performance meetings with her? If not you need to implement this going forward.

I would have a meeting with her firstly to ascertain her understanding of the above policies and what hours she is working. I would 199% expect her calendar for example to identify what hours she is working daily and these should fit the needs of the business ie core hours etc. in the same meeting I would review her objectives versus how she is performing against them. Set clear SMART goals hollowly the meeting and ensure both of you are clear on what policies the business has in place that she should be meeting.

I know that it isn't working form an output perspective but the hours confirmation is to determine if a) she simply is t able to fit thoes hours into a typical week or b) she does the hours and so low output is entirely down to performance challenges.

I've a good idea in my mind of options that I've talk to HR about but until I know what she aims to do, it's hard to move forward.