Pros and cons of flexi time?

HurdyGurdy

We are starting to trial this from next week at work.

Having never done it before, what are the good bits about it and what are the bad?

We are a team of 8 staff, including a senior and a filing clerk. The senior and filing clerk will be in the trial, but essentially, their work doesn't really cross ours, so their hours won't really have any impact or need to be taken into account.

ironlady2022

We have a clock in and clock out system and I keep a tally on a spreadsheet so I know I have worked my minimum hours. It's my first time in a company doing flexi time. The latest we can start is 10am and the earliest we can finish is 4pm apart from Fridays whereby you finish at 230pm though there must be enough cover.

I've found the system to be very suitable and it's great for booking appointments at doctors or dentist. Also I've no need to worry about being late when bad weather hits so long as I get in before 10am!

KME91

The pros are many, as has been noted, time to go to medical appointments, drop kids off at school, or just sleep in a bit longer! Lighter traffic on the way to work, finishing early on sunny days, etc. The downsides are when everyone clears off at 2.30 on Friday afternoons and you're left to man the phones. But a sensible conversation with colleagues should mean that isn't a problem. The only other negatives I can see are if there is no longer a culture of starting and finishing at set times those people who struggle to keep their work hours to sensible levels may feel pressurised or may not be able to help themselves working excessive hours. Equally some may try and flout the system to work less hours.

Evilm

Another Bad: If you are the sort of person one of my family is it encourages you to drift in later and later and therefore end up finishing later in the day too. Can be a hard habit to break!

Another Good: Less chance of you sitting at your desk doing little actual work for a few hours when its quiet and then having to work extra for the next few days when a large issue hits.

HurdyGurdy

Thank you. it's being trialled from Monday until April. I am quite excited about it, as I am always in work early, but at the moment, unless we are doing extra hours due to pressure of work etc, then we can't use it as TOIL. So with flexi time, I will be better off. I think! I can't really see any downsides to it, but wondered if I was missing something

I do wonder how they will police it though. What is to stop someone turning up at 7am and sitting doing personal stuff on the internet for an hour, or reading a book, or doing the crossword! We don't have a clocking in system. I would hope that people are trustworthy in that respect, but there is the potential for abuse.

We are having a meeting about it this morning, so hopefully these issues will be addressed then.

Oh - just thought of one MAJOR benefit for me. I get in at around 8.15 at the moment (for an 8.45 start) and the car park is pretty full by then. I am sure if I get in earlier, I will have an easier time parking. Woo hoo

getmore4less

The rules need defining so everyone knows the boundries that are acceptable.

This is especialy important if there needs to be cooperation to maintain cover.
The more people can be trusted the more flexable the policy can be.

If there is a accumulation and TOIL policy beyond a week it is important that people don't end up with too much in the bank.

Look at the policy for flaws and people abusing the spirit of the flexability.
At the end of the day it needs to be mutualy benifitial so make sure the company gets something as well as the employees.

My last place was nothing contractual but 100% flexable just get the job done, try to turn up every day or work from home, no TOIL policy but if specific tasks required urgent extra work like weekends or overnights then a day off could be banked to use as holiday.
This worked because our external contact times included far east(+8) to west coast America(-8).

Yorkie1

We have flexi time and it's great on the whole, as long as core business hours are covered. We have to cover the phones up till 5pm on a Friday, so those who always decide to swan off at 4pm without asking are the subject of some resentment when the managers won't manage the fairness of it.

That being said, other than that, it works really well for me as an employee. As others have said, being able to vary arrival times according to how easy it is to get out of bed is wonderful.

Our flexi periods are 4 weeks; we are allowed to carry up to 2 days in credit, and 1.5 days in debit over - but can't take double the following period. We have to deduct 30 minutes for lunch.

Abuse of the system is unusual but there needs to be clarity about sanctions, particularly if there is no way to monitor actual timekeeping.

Kathy535

I've been in organisations who've operated flexi time for 20 years and it's great. As long as you are clear on the core hours (say 10am to 3.30pm) and when cover is needed (in my current organisation 8.30am to 5.30pm) and prepared to enforce that with rotas etc then it works great. I loved having the flexibility to deal with childcare / school plays / feeling under par and have repaid that in full by working over my core hours generally which I don't mind doing because there is flexibility when I need it. Great system and builds good will amongst staff.

p00hsticks

HurdyGurdy wrote: »

I do wonder how they will police it though. What is to stop someone turning up at 7am and sitting doing personal stuff on the internet for an hour, or reading a book, or doing the crossword! We don't have a clocking in system. I would hope that people are trustworthy in that respect, but there is the potential for abuse.

Agreed, but chances those will be the same people who, under the current system, are consistently turning up five minute late, then spend the next twenty minutes getting a coffee, chatting about last nights eastenders, have a fag break at ten, surf the web for a bit, then go to get another coffee, spend ten minutes on the phone to their friend etc, etc , etc....

Basically, lazy b*ggers who don't pull their weight are the same whatever system you have - and everyone in the office generally knows who they are.

antonic

I am a Civil Servant who has always worked flexi-time (core hours 10.00 to 11.30 and 14.30 till 16.00) and I am part of a team of 11 - we have no problem with covering the work between us.

The people I work with all tend to work the same hours everyday, I am sure you will make it work for you !.

(I also work whats known as a compressed working week , where I work my 37 hours in 4 days and have every monday off).

Callie22

I have flexitime and I think it's great. It's so much less stressful not having to be at work for bang-on nine, and it's great to know that I have the flexibility to come in earlier if I want to. We have to work core hours - 10 to 3 - but how we manage our time beyond that is pretty much up to us. The office is open 7-7 so you can choose to work more at either end of the day if necessary. And it's better for customers as there's a longer period when they can get in touch with us! We also have a flexi lunch period where we can take up to 2.5 hours, but again you have to make the time up if you do that. Ours is managed in three months blocks and we are allowed to carry over a positive balance of about 60 hours, or a negative balance of eight hours.

The advantage of flexi is that there is much more goodwill in the office when people do need to work longer hours, and there's much less time taken off overall for those small things that you need to do in the working day - like medical appointments. Also, you're not stressing if you're stuck in traffic at five to nine! Practically it also makes a difference in terms of the volume of cars on the road at a certain time. Where I work there's quite a few offices, most of which start at nine. The traffic can be awful and it does make a big difference that one of the places has flexi. Since we can start work from 7 am it does remove a big lump of the 9 am traffic, and spreads it across a longer time.

The downsides? Well, there's always someone who takes the pish and that can cause bad feeling. Flexi is something that does need to be monitored and managed quite closely. Also our system can be a little temperamental so it's a good habit, I think, to get used to keeping an eye on your balances. I personally have a problem with having too much flexi to use up, so again that's something to watch. But I really love flexi and at the moment it's probably the main reason I stay in my job lol!