Pros and cons of flexi time?

StephenM_2

Our system is
Start any time between 7:30 and 9
Work 8 hours Mon-Thu, 5 hours Fri.
Lunch. Min 30 mins. Max 1 hour. None on Friday.

Having said that, I've never got into any sort of trouble for occasionally missing the 9am start. I just adjust my finishing time accordingly.

So I would call it a half-way house flexi time. Flexible starting times, but fixed number of hours a day.

I get paid overtime for working beyond my contractual hours, which happens quite regularly.

Bigmoney2

There may be limits on how many hours you can build up, or owe.

There may be restrictions on how you take the flexi-time off, e.g. can't add on to holidays can only take 1 or 2 days a month, so can't
build up an extra week off.
Lose the time if not taken within a certain time frame, which may then be difficult to take if everyone is trying to use up hours or there is a lot of work on.

May be expected to put in extra hours as you'll get them back ( in theory).

Management that see people leaving early but forget they were in early, and conversly think people staying late are putting in more hours even though they started later.

MoneySavingUser

I have this at work.

Normally go in at 8am and leave at 4 which is nice.

We have a rota system for Friday afternoons so someone is always there until 5.30PM

Ms_Chocaholic

I too use flexitime at work; it's great and I finish early one day per week as arranged with my colleague. It's all about give and take tho.

RobTang

I've always worked flexi time its great, although it will vary the only real down side I've experienced is it's generally harder to get paid overtime.
Depending on how much you build up you may have to be a bit careful of the WTRs as well.

Although at the moment my core hours start is 8:30 so I'm not sure how flexible is really is atm...

HurdyGurdy

Thank you all. I find it fascinating to read how other companies implement/run schemes

Although our building is open from 7am to 7pm, we will only be allowed to start work at 8am, which is a bit of a downer for me, as I had hoped to be able to start at about 7.15am (would fit in with my dropping my son off at work at 7am). I don't think they said in the meeting we had on Friday what the latest finishing time would be. Something to find out tomorrow.

There is no paid overtime where I work so that won't be an issue. And generally speaking, there are two of us who are *always* early, and three of us who *always* struggle to arrive on time (childcare issues), so it will probably work out just fine for us, with it rarely ever being the case that we all want to do an early or a late stint at the same time.

The manager has drawn up a rota for one person to do the set office times each week with the rest of us fitting around that as suits.

I am really looking forward to trialling this . Must remember not to dawdle and get engrossed with something online tomorrow morning and leave home too late to hit my 8am start time

StephenM_2

RobTang wrote: »

I've always worked flexi time its great, although it will vary the only real down side I've experienced is it's generally harder to get paid overtime.
Depending on how much you build up you may have to be a bit careful of the WTRs as well.

Although at the moment my core hours start is 8:30 so I'm not sure how flexible is really is atm...

That's the advantage of the semi-flexi system I work (see post #12). With a fixed number of contracted hours a day, its easy to work out how much overtime to claim. At the moment I've got on-going pre-approval for 5 hours a week, though I don't normally do that much.

eamon

We have flexi as well. But I would rather that it was scrapped, even though I can benefit from it. It is likely that my employers have historically not managed the scheme correctly and as many others have commented it gets abused and breeds resentment. Especially when one or more team members choose to start early as it suits them to do so. I wouldn't mind so much if I could see benefits in productivity but I don't. Luckily my current line manager is a stickler for detail and is seeing through all the bulls**t and is asking appropriate questions.

EndlessStruggle

I'm on flexi time and I love it. Can come in early/late, finish early/late, take a short lunch or a really long one, build up flexi to take time off but our boss is very flexible with it. I guess it depends on the boundaries and role you are in. We don't need someone to stay as we don't have a phone so we often all leave early or all have lunch together.

shortcrust

It's a nightmare for the undisciplined (like me) in that you end up working 10 to 4 for three weeks and then have to do 7 to 7 make it up!:D Seriously though, I always worked flexitime until a few years back when I changed jobs and I hated being without it. With flexitime you don't have to worry about being late because the traffic's bad, you can get to the bank and post office if you need to, and you can take flex days when the weather's nice. Very civilised.