FOOL'S EYE VIEW
How You Can Get More Flexibility At Work

By Jane Mack (TMFJane)
April 6, 2004

The other day I was having a chat with a colleague about a survey I'd read about which claimed that, by next year, 8 million people will be working at least one day a week from home. It sounded a rather high number and we were a bit dubious about whether it was true.

So we ran our own poll to find out how many people already work at least occasionally from home and, surprisingly enough, it looks like 63% of you do.

The survey had also asked people whether they would like to work from home and it turned out that 9 out of 10 of the people questioned certainly wanted to spend less time doing their jobs in an office environment. Admittedly, the market researchers were asking commuters who were just getting off their horrendously crowded rush-hour trains but it seems that employees either want more flexibility about how they carry out their jobs or, judging from our own poll, they're already getting it.

In part, this may be down to new laws came into force a year ago allowing parents of children under six or disabled children under 18 to apply to work flexibly. Employers have a legal duty to consider such requests seriously and can only turn employees down on clear business grounds.

According to new government figures, the law is working well so far with nearly 80% of working parents who asked their bosses for more flexible working getting their wish even if it involved minor changes such as starting and finishing 15 minutes later.

So if you're the parent of a young child and you'd give anything to miss that awful rush-hour commute, this news should give you some encouragement to have a word with the boss. The methods of working that you can ask for are very varied:

Annualised Hours: This means that working time is organised on the basis of the number of hours to be worked over a year rather than a week making it much easier for parents to take time off during the school holidays.

Compressed Hours: This allows employees to work their total number of hours over a shorter period. For example, employees might work from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Thursday instead of 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. They would thus be paid for a full time job.

Flexitime: This enables employees a choice about their working hours by selecting different start and finish times from the usual 9am to 5pm schedule whilst still working a standard length of day.

Home Working: This speaks for itself and obviously doesn't have to be on a full-time basis. For example, it may suit an employee to divide their time between home and the office.

Job-sharing: This typically involved dividing the responsibilities of one full-time position between two members of staff. Both are paid according to the hours they work.

Shift Working: Much like flexitime employees have a choice about when they work and it enables employers to keep their business open for longer than the usual eight-hour day.

Term-time Working: This allows employees to take unpaid leave during the school holidays.

The onus is on you to make a considered case for working flexibly. If accepted it means a permanent change to the your own terms and conditions of employment unless otherwise agreed so you need to think hard about what sort of working pattern you'd like. 

You never know your luck, you might get the result you want and if you need something else to back up your case for more flexible working, let your boss know that the survey I mentioned reckons that an employee working one or two days a week at home can save a company £3,500 to £7,000 through improved productivity, fewer sick days and reduced office space.

Find out more about Flexible Working Rights