Travel Time for Meetings

getmore4less

Schedule the line manager to attend the meetings.

ReadingTim

1985rabbit wrote: »

I wouldn't normally be bothered about any of the travel etc, it's just the email I got this morning riled me as I still maintain that I was not unreasonable by heading straight home. So I just wondered if there was any kind of formal/legal standpoint on the issue.

"Not unreasonable"?!? Mate, you're taking the p!ss.

Your hours are 9-5.30. The meeting started at 10 at the client's. Most places would be pretty happy for you to 'start work' (as it were) at 10 rather than 9 in lieu of having to get up earlier to get to the client's site. But after the meeting you basically sat on the train doing nothing but look out of the window for a couple of hours, then skivved off home mid-afternoon. And you wonder why your boss ain't impressed?!?

Unfortunately, unless you want to drive to the site, you're probably going to have to demonstrate you're doing something work-related on the train, or log on from home and do something there. At the moment, all you seem to have to show for a day's work is simply pitching up at a meeting. If you don't have the tools to work remotely, and your company won't provide them, you're probably going to have to suck it up, and head back to the office for the rest of the afternoon.

TELLIT01

I was fortunate enough to work for a great bunch of people in the finance sector. I was generally reporting to Director level and even they had a great attitude to the work life balance. One, who had young children, said that if they travelled away from the office for a meeting and would be likely to return by lunchtime, they would think about returning to the office - then decide to go home to spend time with his kids. If he would get back after lunchtime he wouldn't even think about returning to the office!
On another occasion I was at my desk early afternoon when another of the directors parked himself on the end of my desk. I looked up and he asked why I was there. I replied to the effect that it was a working day. His response "Bugg*r off home, you put in plenty of hours over the weekend"!
We did put in extremely long hours when the need arose, but in an environment like that, with lots of give and take, it wasn't an issue.

ReadingTim

TELLIT01 wrote: »

in an environment like that, with lots of give and take, it wasn't an issue.

Problem is, I can see a lot of take, and not much give, on the part of the OP. Which probably is the issue.

1985rabbit

ReadingTim wrote: »

Problem is, I can see a lot of take, and not much give, on the part of the OP. Which probably is the issue.

WOW!


Is there really so much need for the aggression, Tim? You sound like a bitter troll just trying to get a reaction.

1985rabbit

TELLIT01 wrote: »

I was fortunate enough to work for a great bunch of people in the finance sector. I was generally reporting to Director level and even they had a great attitude to the work life balance. One, who had young children, said that if they travelled away from the office for a meeting and would be likely to return by lunchtime, they would think about returning to the office - then decide to go home to spend time with his kids. If he would get back after lunchtime he wouldn't even think about returning to the office!
On another occasion I was at my desk early afternoon when another of the directors parked himself on the end of my desk. I looked up and he asked why I was there. I replied to the effect that it was a working day. His response "Bugg*r off home, you put in plenty of hours over the weekend"!
We did put in extremely long hours when the need arose, but in an environment like that, with lots of give and take, it wasn't an issue.

Agreed, as I mentioned earlier, working long hours is very common in my line of work and I'm more than happy to do it. I've worked 60 hour weeks for this company on multiple occasions which is one of the reasons that this email got my back up.

gettingtheresometime

Instead of getting all het up why not have a word with your line manager, explain the situation and come to an agreement?


Doesn't matter a jot what we think is reasonable

1985rabbit

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

Instead of getting all het up why not have a word with your line manager, explain the situation and come to an agreement?


Doesn't matter a jot what we think is reasonable

That was always the intention. I came here beforehand to try and arm myself with any useful advice from someone who knows more about this sort of thing than I do.


As it happens, I had a very reasonable discussion with them this afternoon during which they apologised for the inflammatory email and offered to arrange a workspace for me in the clients office on Mondays which allows me to stay up there a bit longer and avoid the hassle of coming home via the central London office. I'm more than happy with that so an agreement has indeed been reached.

xapprenticex

1985rabbit wrote: »

Not really. Certainly nothing meaningful. To properly do what I need to, I need powerful software and large files which are shared with the rest of the team back at base. It would probably require a NASA spec laptop and a reliable wifi connection.

Whats a NASA spec Laptop? Do you have an example?

Sounds impressive but NASA typically use pretty standard to even outdated hardware. Nothing more than you find at PC World.

Minor but it caught my eye.

1985rabbit

xapprenticex wrote: »

Whats a NASA spec Laptop? Do you have an example?

Sounds impressive but NASA typically use pretty standard to even outdated hardware. Nothing more than you find at PC World.

Minor but it caught my eye.

Thanks, Buzz Aldrin. I have edited the original post so that it is now factually correct :rotfl: