Flexitime and work
- Thread starter Gman
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+1
We have flexi and OT at work. When this usually happens and it's not urgent, then it can wait til Monday. If I have something on Friday afternoon and it is urgent then tough, ask someone else. If I'm free on Friday then I'll stay and sort.
The contract is still correct. You should average the hours mentioned in the contract.
It should (in my experience does) make it clear there may be times where you have to do more some weeks than in others.
Being so inflexible to the needs of the business seems ridiculous.
In the OPs example, as long as you don't have any pressing engagements, helping out a colleague out for 30 minutes is a favour in the bank. If it's too long they would also understand if you say no. When did relationships with colleagues get so bad?
Expecting exact accounting of time and payments for overtime seems draconian to me.
Soldato
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I'd stay on the occasion. If i got paid for it or i could use the hours and put them towards the following week's flexi. if not, sod off basically.
Man of Honour
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I can honestly say that in 42 years of working I have never worked over without having extra money or taking the time back except when I did a bit of volunteering elsewhere.
Working for nothing is what happened in Draconian times.
Nobody is getting upset at not being able to leave bang on the set time each day, I think salaried non-shift workers accept that there may be times where some extra hours are put in. They just want a two way street where they can duck out early or come in late if they put in a longer day.
I was once told in a job when I joined a new team that people were expected to just deal with it if they were booked out to attend a client's site and had to leave home an hour earlier and get back an hour later due to the travel time, and come in early unpaid to attend a company meeting. That didn't last long.
I was once told in a job when I joined a new team that people were expected to just deal with it if they were booked out to attend a client's site and had to leave home an hour earlier and get back an hour later due to the travel time, and come in early unpaid to attend a company meeting. That didn't last long.
accounting for time can be important when your time is billable, but then again if you generate revenue (as a consultant or whatever) then you expect to see some of that revenue in the form of a bonus
overtime payments depend on the job - some people on here are paid hourly or are in fixed pay bands so no doubt will view working longer hours than some ridged set hours per week as 'working for free'
other people are rewarded partly by what they produce (and what they negotiated when starting) rather than how long they work for so working longer hours isn't 'working for free'
again different situation - you're in the NHS IIRC so presumably in some set pay band and paid basically the same as others within that band - rather different scenario to say someone with a large variable component to their pay and/or perhaps performance reviews from colleagues as well as from managers so perhaps more incentive to work well with others rather than ignore an e-mail regarding something urgent just before home time on a Friday.
Because not all businesses are the same.
I used to be of the "sure, i'll help out" mentality. I'd stick around longer, cover extra shifts when needed and do jobs that arent within my job role. Unfortunately most people don't recognise or give a damn about that kind of generosity so it gets ignored at the slightest mistake i might make. So now i do what i'm supposed to and thats it, certainly not if its without being paid for it.
All well and good if it's actually seen as you doing them a bit of a favour rather than them just expecting you to deal with it either way. Which is probably the more likely view.
Man of Honour
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I love my flextime policy, extra hours done one week accrue so you can take whole days off as "flexi days", up to 2 per month.
That makes staying to help someone ok unless I have a prior engagement.
That makes staying to help someone ok unless I have a prior engagement.
Soldato
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Unfortunately if it doesn't happen often I'd be inclined to stay, but if its a lot, I'd try and make a jokey but serious comment, something like "I need to be away bang on 3pm Fridays so please don't go breaking everything just before as I wont be able to help"
For me, if my phone rings at 4:29 I'll be expected to answer it (4:30 finish) if the call goes on for a while I'd probably say to my boss the next day I'm leaving xx minutes early today if its quiet as I got a call at 4:29 that took 30 minutes. If he ever says no then from then on I'll make myself 'unavailable' from 20 past
There are circumstances where you have plans you cannot break, but I believe you have to at least pretend to be flexible.
For me, if my phone rings at 4:29 I'll be expected to answer it (4:30 finish) if the call goes on for a while I'd probably say to my boss the next day I'm leaving xx minutes early today if its quiet as I got a call at 4:29 that took 30 minutes. If he ever says no then from then on I'll make myself 'unavailable' from 20 past
There are circumstances where you have plans you cannot break, but I believe you have to at least pretend to be flexible.
Man of Honour
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However if asked I would and have stayed over.
How on earth does that work?? Your core hours already cover 37.5 hours a week (assuming 30 mins lunch unpaid). The point of flexi is to tweak your start/end times, so the core hours need to be less than what makes up the full working week. How would you even start at 7am if you weren't allowed to finish until 5pm - that would make a 9.5 hour day.
@OP, we have a flexi-time based on "honesty". So we don't have to track hours, or reclaim hours within the week. So i'd say i'm kind of lucky that if i got caught out on friday before finishing and had to stay an extra hour, i could just go home an extra hour early the following week. Although i'm even more grateful that i work from home on Fridays, nothing worse that something popping up at the last minute and then having to fight a friday rush-hour to get home.
FWIW from your description, i would have said the same thing. If your company had a policy that flexitime had to be taken within the month, then you'd easily be able to avoid situations like that.
I guess a lot of it comes down to the expected hours that people are expected to work. For example if your manager expects everyone to start at 9am, then you can see why some people might kick up a fuss. I would have imagined it would be better for you to have left 20 mins early, than start 20 mins later.
EDIT: besides, how on earth do you time the extra 20 mins late? The traffic getting in and out of Bristol ranges from one extreme to the other. If i left 20 mins later than normal, i could end up either getting their earlier than i would do normally, or end up being an hour late
- although lucky for me i don't have a fixed start time.
Man of Honour
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That's another FLEXI WARS story.
When I started I was told we have Flexi, so not to upset all the females who wanted to go home early I decided not to get in the way and come in late on a Friday morning which I've done for 6 years.
Somebody has recently complained that it's not fair I come in late every Friday morning because they want to go home early every Friday, management basically told them to do one because I did it has a favour to everybody else.
