Flexible working for parents is great. But child-free people need it, too

RestlessNatives said:
Think there's two sides to this. There are lazy people who will just ask because someone is there but a large part of my last job was people being able to grab me for a quick chat or vice versa and that wouldn't have worked if those people were working remotely.
Depends on what your job is I suppose. I can see how working from home would be better for you, but it's not always best for the business. I always got more 'work' done when WFH but whether I was giving the best value to the business by being at home is debatable.
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My best value at the moment is arguably being allowed to focus on the things I’ve been asked to do by the client. Not tell someone a figure they could calculate in 5 minutes if they wanted.
 


I work from home and in a strange way it makes me more available for queries. I'm never in a meeting, or somewhere else on the company site. If somebody sends a query via slack/email/whatever they normally get a very quick response from me. Partly cis I like the bit of interaction it gives.

Re giving people flex time, it all depends on how professional your staff are and how much you need to be flexible as a company to keep them. We lose staff to competitors all the time so we need to offer nice things. Other industries can probably get away with being more twatty or have to be cos they employ people who will take the piss otherwise
 
RestlessNatives said:
Think there's two sides to this. There are lazy people who will just ask because someone is there but a large part of my last job was people being able to grab me for a quick chat or vice versa and that wouldn't have worked if those people were working remotely.
Depends on what your job is I suppose. I can see how working from home would be better for you, but it's not always best for the business. I always got more 'work' done when WFH but whether I was giving the best value to the business by being at home is debatable.
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Spot on.
 
RestlessNatives said:
Flexible working for parents is great. But child-free people need it, too | Caroline Bullock

Don't think this is a particularly good article but the question at the core of it is a valid one. Are childless workers discriminated against?
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depends on situation and type of work being done.

its a case of some having an easier workload but that backshift cover has to be provided and that's at the feet of those who remain on backshift, so then end up having a greater workload than those who reverted to not doing backshift
 
Agree child free people need it too.

Was cheesed off in a job I had before I had children. My ex-husband is from Kent. Parents got priority over non-parents for holidays over Christmas and New Year. I wasn't allowed time off but we wanted to go and visit his family. Ended up driving down after I finished work on New Years Eve, doing flying visits round the family on New Years Day and drove back that night as I was back in work on the 2nd. I was knackered!
 
Ginger John said:
Agree child free people need it too.

Was cheesed off in a job I had before I had children. My ex-husband is from Kent. Parents got priority over non-parents for holidays over Christmas and New Year. I wasn't allowed time off but we wanted to go and visit his family. Ended up driving down after I finished work on New Years Eve, doing flying visits round the family on New Years Day and drove back that night as I was back in work on the 2nd. I was knackered!
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Place I worked for in Newcastle was the same with this on leave.

Giving priority to parents when it came to leave, one great way to piss off half the workforce
 
Charmless Man said:
My best value at the moment is arguably being allowed to focus on the things I’ve been asked to do by the client. Not tell someone a figure they could calculate in 5 minutes if they wanted.
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I get what you're saying, I've seen it from both sides in different companies but unfortunately not everyone is sensible with it. Flexible is fine but it needs to work for the business as well, the world can't stop because any particular individual is working 'flexibly'.
 
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I work flexibly. Part time and compressed. All of my team can have the same if they want, regardless of kids and can work home whenever they want. It helps we’re not customer facing.

It’s up to a manager to manage the output or deliverables of anyone in their team. Anyone can manage the hours someone is in the office.
 
HellsBells said:
I work flexibly. Part time and compressed. All of my team can have the same if they want, regardless of kids and can work home whenever they want. It helps we’re not customer facing.

It’s up to a manager to manage the output or deliverables of anyone in their team. Anyone can manage the hours someone is in the office.
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That’s the one area I can’t be flexible about - I’m client facing and frequently need to be on site.

Luckily my current client is happy for the people she engages to have some flexibility. E.g she isn’t bothered that I like to turn in at 07.30 and plough through a load of stuff so I can get away early.

As long as she has time in the day to catch up with me/us it’s fine.
 
Charmless Man said:
That’s the one area I can’t be flexible about - I’m client facing and frequently need to be on site.

Luckily my current client is happy for the people she engages to have some flexibility. E.g she isn’t bothered that I like to turn in at 07.30 and plough through a load of stuff so I can get away early.

As long as she has time in the day to catch up with me/us it’s fine.
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We use Zoom a lot - do you absolutely have to be on site or could you do stuff by VC?
 
I help manage an organisation in which every employee apart from two are contracted to work from home. I honestly love it. I get much, much more work done than in my previous place and the level of freedom is fantastic. We trust our staff to put in a good shift and to have pride in their work. If that means they leave a bit earlier today but make up for it tomorrow with meaningful working, no problem. If what we set out to accomplish at the start of the week is done at the end of the week I don't care. If anyone took the piss though, they will be sharp told.

Compare that to my previous experiences, where we would be in the office at all hours to be seen to be working. Pointless meetings, 'catchups', talking absolute shit to each other, enforced fun. Not for me.

HellsBells said:
I work flexibly. Part time and compressed. All of my team can have the same if they want, regardless of kids and can work home whenever they want. It helps we’re not customer facing.

It’s up to a manager to manage the output or deliverables of anyone in their team. Anyone can manage the hours someone is in the office.
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Customer facing roles are definitely a sticking point for flexibility. My previous roles were answering to clients and despite the best efforts of the agency to claim it had flexible working it just didn't work.
 
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I know a lot of people who work flexibly - on a formal basis. So do so due to childcare issues, some for other caring issues (like parents for example) and others for a variety of reasons. Many are not parents themselves.

I have a less formal arrangement; I travel a lot for work and occasionally work from home - it saves an unnecessary commute following nights away
 

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