Big Flex
October 1, 2019 6:07 AM Subscribe
My company just announced they were giving everyone the option of working flex schedules. Tell me about what changed when you switched over.
I currently work a normal 40-hour, five day week office job. I am salaried. In an effort to help folks deal with the rapidly increasing traffic and congestion in the area, the company announced that everyone now has the option to work a flex schedule - four, 10-hour days; 9 days over two weeks (9/80); or anything else that you and your manager can agree on.
I don't have the traffic issues that this is meant to address - I bike to work every day. We also already have a generally relaxed attitude towards working hours (as in, it's generally been understood that if you put in your 40 you can come and go as you please). However, the idea of having an extra day off every now and then is appealing. If you've shifted over to one of these non-standard schedules, what changed? Is there anything I should be aware of before I talk to my manager about it?
I currently work a normal 40-hour, five day week office job. I am salaried. In an effort to help folks deal with the rapidly increasing traffic and congestion in the area, the company announced that everyone now has the option to work a flex schedule - four, 10-hour days; 9 days over two weeks (9/80); or anything else that you and your manager can agree on.
I don't have the traffic issues that this is meant to address - I bike to work every day. We also already have a generally relaxed attitude towards working hours (as in, it's generally been understood that if you put in your 40 you can come and go as you please). However, the idea of having an extra day off every now and then is appealing. If you've shifted over to one of these non-standard schedules, what changed? Is there anything I should be aware of before I talk to my manager about it?
Figure out how holidays will factor in -- if you are working 4 10-hour days and one of those days happens to be a company holiday, how will you plan to make up those extra 2 hours? Etc.
Yes, I agree about making your new schedule predictable to your coworkers -- but sounds like it's meant to be a consistent change going forward, not a free-flowing, "pick your hours today" kind of thing.
posted by Bebo at 6:30 AM on October 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
Yes, I agree about making your new schedule predictable to your coworkers -- but sounds like it's meant to be a consistent change going forward, not a free-flowing, "pick your hours today" kind of thing.
posted by Bebo at 6:30 AM on October 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
I worked in an office with a flex schedule; the standard arrangement was every third Friday, but people did a ton of variations. For myself, I was able to work 5 days every week and bank the third Fridays, which I would use to expand holidays into 4-7 week trips. Long holidays like that I find to be very different than a two-weeker; I visited entire regions and got to go a little off the beaten path and get over culture shock.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 6:31 AM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 6:31 AM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
Most of my errands get done on schedule and my house is usually clean with my laundry done and the fridge well stocked. It gives you a bonus day: so either I sit around reading or watching tv and have more motivation to accomplish stuff over the weekend, or I use it to do things like go to the post office or grocery store, which are less crowded on a weekday. It reduces my need to take sick days once in a while just to get a breather.
Plus it’s great if you like taking weekend trips.
If your workplace gets US federal holidays off, there’s one set of every other Fridays that gives you some four-day weekends because they match up with Mondays off. I prefer the other Fridays off schedule, because it means you get a lot of three day weekends between your flex days and federal holidays.
I highly recommend flex schedule.
posted by sallybrown at 6:41 AM on October 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
Plus it’s great if you like taking weekend trips.
If your workplace gets US federal holidays off, there’s one set of every other Fridays that gives you some four-day weekends because they match up with Mondays off. I prefer the other Fridays off schedule, because it means you get a lot of three day weekends between your flex days and federal holidays.
I highly recommend flex schedule.
posted by sallybrown at 6:41 AM on October 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
I did 4/10s for a while (and also 2 12s and an 8) and I really like the extra free time, personally, but it depends a whole lot on what the work is and whether it is possible to do it for longer stretches without becoming useless. If everything is pretty chill there, you could totally just... try it out for a while.
posted by restless_nomad at 6:48 AM on October 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by restless_nomad at 6:48 AM on October 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
My work switched to a 9/80, and while the day off is nice, there are drawbacks that I'm not sure are worth it.
I wind up getting less sleep, since I'm generally burnt out/people want to do things at the same time after work, so that means waking up and getting in an hour earlier.
My dentist doesn't work Fridays, so I can't do that and some other things that the Friday off is meant to alleviate.
If I need to show up late/leave early it's that much more difficult to make up the hours within the week, since every day is already longer. And starting earlier means more time off to visit appointments that aren't until 9am, etc.
It screws with sick/vacation/holiday hours, if they are tracked by the hour and not day, with 9/10 hour days.
Most other people don't have that day off, so you can't plan things to do with them.
posted by TheAdamist at 6:59 AM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
I wind up getting less sleep, since I'm generally burnt out/people want to do things at the same time after work, so that means waking up and getting in an hour earlier.
My dentist doesn't work Fridays, so I can't do that and some other things that the Friday off is meant to alleviate.
If I need to show up late/leave early it's that much more difficult to make up the hours within the week, since every day is already longer. And starting earlier means more time off to visit appointments that aren't until 9am, etc.
It screws with sick/vacation/holiday hours, if they are tracked by the hour and not day, with 9/10 hour days.
Most other people don't have that day off, so you can't plan things to do with them.
posted by TheAdamist at 6:59 AM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
I used to have a 4-10 schedule at a former job. I loved it; the days barely felt any longer and having every Friday off meant I didn’t have to use vacation time for routine stuff like doctor appointments or anything else during work hours.
Will they let you experiment a bit? Trying out some of the potential schedules will quickly tell you which you like and which you don’t.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:23 AM on October 1, 2019
Will they let you experiment a bit? Trying out some of the potential schedules will quickly tell you which you like and which you don’t.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:23 AM on October 1, 2019
Maybe it would be of more benefit to you personally to have Friday afternoon off, or one Friday a month, or Monday mornings. See what flexibility is really available and will work best with your lifestyle. 10 hour days can be very long, and may not really suit you, as people sometimes find themselves too pooped to take good advantage of the day off.
posted by Enid Lareg at 7:24 AM on October 1, 2019
posted by Enid Lareg at 7:24 AM on October 1, 2019
I worked at a place that had half-day Fridays in the summers and I adored it. 9 hour days are not as tiring as 10 hour days and that half day off was great for getting things done at home, getting an early start to a weekend trip, getting errands done, etc.
The tricky part is coordinating time off between you and your co-workers. If your job takes a lot of coordination and suddenly people are coming and going at different hours, it can make it difficult to get things done.
posted by beandip at 7:31 AM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
The tricky part is coordinating time off between you and your co-workers. If your job takes a lot of coordination and suddenly people are coming and going at different hours, it can make it difficult to get things done.
posted by beandip at 7:31 AM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
Ask yourself, What am I going to do with that extra day off? If you don't have an answer that's good for you ("nothing" is acceptable, if it works for you), then consider whether you'd really prefer longer days.
posted by Etrigan at 8:11 AM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Etrigan at 8:11 AM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
I would opt for four 10 hour days with a three-day weekend, if I had the option. I've done similar schedules before, and it's easier for me to plow through a 10 hour day and having one weekday per week to deal with stuff like grocery shopping and house cleaning and other adulting would be amazing.
People can adapt pretty quickly to "oh, so-and-so doesn't work Fridays" pretty quickly, in my experience. It all depends on how you interface with everybody else, of course, but if you can do your job in 4 days per week, I'd pick that.
I once had a three day, 12-hour schedule working for a hosting provider. That was great, but 12 hour days meant I usually spent the first day off just recuperating.
posted by jzb at 8:13 AM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
People can adapt pretty quickly to "oh, so-and-so doesn't work Fridays" pretty quickly, in my experience. It all depends on how you interface with everybody else, of course, but if you can do your job in 4 days per week, I'd pick that.
I once had a three day, 12-hour schedule working for a hosting provider. That was great, but 12 hour days meant I usually spent the first day off just recuperating.
posted by jzb at 8:13 AM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
I work four tens and I love it. LOVE it. It's glorious. It helps if you're a natural early riser because you can still have time in the morning on workdays to fritter on yourself and not feel like a drudge. But really, ten hours and eight hours, meh, what's the difference? It's still your whole day spent serving THEM. I opted for Wednesdays off, and it's a tiny weekend in the middle of the week. So really I work two two-day weeks and have a one-day weekend between, then the two-day weekend at the end. That's how I think of it. I take many fewer sick days and am actually using my vacation time, now, because every time there's a Friday or a Monday off, I need to use two hours of vacation to make my 40 hours. They used to steal some vacation back from me every year because I never took any, and it caused me to hate them. I do not hate them, the work people, now. I find them pretty pleasant, all told.
On your day off you can just go somewhere and putter. For hours! You can take a nap! You can pull weeds or do housework or roast a chicken and THEN take a nap! Or take two naps! See what I mean? It's glorious.
posted by Don Pepino at 8:15 AM on October 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
On your day off you can just go somewhere and putter. For hours! You can take a nap! You can pull weeds or do housework or roast a chicken and THEN take a nap! Or take two naps! See what I mean? It's glorious.
posted by Don Pepino at 8:15 AM on October 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
If you wind up doing 4 10s ask if they'll let you alternate working Mon-Thurs and Tues-Fri so that every other weekend you'll get a 4 day weekend.
posted by bowmaniac at 8:28 AM on October 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by bowmaniac at 8:28 AM on October 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
I have worked with traditional 5 days/8am-5pm, 9/80, 4days-10hrs, and 5 days/core hours schedules and my preference (both as an employee and a manager) is for the latter. 10 hour days get loooooong, don't allow a lot of day-to-day flexibility, and make it harder to do after-work scheduled social activities. 9/80 days can be a good compromise but only if the team syncs up their day off, otherwise there is a lot of "Where's so-and-so? Oh, right, it's her 9/80 day."
Establishing core office hours and letting people flex their start/end times accommodates individual needs and preferences (child care, commute patterns, etc.) while ensuring that everyone is available in office for in-person collaboration during predictable times. It also allows some day-to-day variation—if you need to leave a little early one afternoon to run an errand or something go ahead and do it as long as you have kept the core hours and make up the time.
posted by 4rtemis at 8:28 AM on October 1, 2019
Establishing core office hours and letting people flex their start/end times accommodates individual needs and preferences (child care, commute patterns, etc.) while ensuring that everyone is available in office for in-person collaboration during predictable times. It also allows some day-to-day variation—if you need to leave a little early one afternoon to run an errand or something go ahead and do it as long as you have kept the core hours and make up the time.
posted by 4rtemis at 8:28 AM on October 1, 2019
It depends so so much on what you do and what your availability needs to be and what your team does. Some teams, it's better if everyone's off at the same time, other teams need coverage so it has to be spread out.
I personally would work 4x10 or 9/80 if I could. I am not in a big traveling phase of my life and use some PTO, especially in months without a holiday, to kinda do a 9/80 schedule. That extra day gets used for errands mostly, giving me a quieter weekend, and lets me handle the things I'd much rather try to do on a weekday (IKEA, Costco, DMV, car repair/service, etc) than a weekend day.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:36 AM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
I personally would work 4x10 or 9/80 if I could. I am not in a big traveling phase of my life and use some PTO, especially in months without a holiday, to kinda do a 9/80 schedule. That extra day gets used for errands mostly, giving me a quieter weekend, and lets me handle the things I'd much rather try to do on a weekday (IKEA, Costco, DMV, car repair/service, etc) than a weekend day.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:36 AM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
My company has occasionally floated the idea of 4 10 hour days and I am horrified. That is four days a week I would not have time to go to the gym in the morning or fix dinner when I get home, and still manage to get enough sleep/downtime. I suppose you could deal with dinner by batch cooking on the weekends (but that sounds like a miserable slog to me) but you can't really make up for the lost workouts in any kind of a healthy fashion.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 9:06 AM on October 1, 2019
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 9:06 AM on October 1, 2019
Twelve years ago, I went from consulting, in which I was regularly working 10-hour days 5 days/week, to a government position on a 9/80 schedule. It was like getting a 10% raise, because I got a full extra day off every pay period with no increase in the length of my work day.
I love it. I still get sick leave, so I generally try to use that for my dentist/doctors' appointments, but I can go to the bank, Trader Joe's, and the gym during times when they aren't busy. I can treat myself to a matinee and a glass of wine in the afternoon, or go for a long run in the woods without too many other people around.
And when my parents were alive, it was super convenient because I could take my father to his appointments, or at least visit with them and still get parking near the assisted living facility.
As for advice: if you go 9/80 and they want you to commit to a schedule, think carefully about which day you want to use. My organization sometimes gives us 2 or 4 hours leave just before a long weekend, and if I'm on my day off, I don't get to take advantage of that -- which is why many of my coworkers have Monday as their regular day off. They end up with probably a couple of days more leave during the year than I do as a result.
posted by suelac at 9:06 AM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
I love it. I still get sick leave, so I generally try to use that for my dentist/doctors' appointments, but I can go to the bank, Trader Joe's, and the gym during times when they aren't busy. I can treat myself to a matinee and a glass of wine in the afternoon, or go for a long run in the woods without too many other people around.
And when my parents were alive, it was super convenient because I could take my father to his appointments, or at least visit with them and still get parking near the assisted living facility.
As for advice: if you go 9/80 and they want you to commit to a schedule, think carefully about which day you want to use. My organization sometimes gives us 2 or 4 hours leave just before a long weekend, and if I'm on my day off, I don't get to take advantage of that -- which is why many of my coworkers have Monday as their regular day off. They end up with probably a couple of days more leave during the year than I do as a result.
posted by suelac at 9:06 AM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
My employer had offered flex schedules for several years, but I didn't take advantage of it until 2009, when I switched to a 4-10 schedule. I LOVED IT. I'm not naturally an early riser, but I was able to adapt, the 10-hour days didn't really seen longer than 8-hour days, and having a three-day weekend every week was glorious.
So of course my employer discontinued the flex option in 2010.
One (minor, IMO) drawback is that in the winter I was driving to work before sunrise and driving home after sunset.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:15 AM on October 1, 2019
So of course my employer discontinued the flex option in 2010.
One (minor, IMO) drawback is that in the winter I was driving to work before sunrise and driving home after sunset.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:15 AM on October 1, 2019
I worked 6:00-4:30 for about a year and loved having 3-day weekends every week. I took Mondays. Just about everyone else took Fridays. This meant only three days of "real" work with meetings and due-outs and all that, and one really quiet day to catch up on things. Tuesdays could be a little busy, but whatever. We got 10-hour holidays, which is another 20 hours a year in time off.
Main downside was the workplace was pretty flexible for folks on 8-hour days about start and quit times as long as you logged 8 hours. For some reason that flexibility was gone for 10-hour shifts. Also if you or your kid happened to be sick, you burned an extra 2 hours of sick leave each day. Another was that anytime your were off-site you had to submit paperwork to change back to 8-hour days, and then submit another set to get back on your 10-hour schedule.
Overall it was worth it.
posted by the christopher hundreds at 12:13 PM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
Main downside was the workplace was pretty flexible for folks on 8-hour days about start and quit times as long as you logged 8 hours. For some reason that flexibility was gone for 10-hour shifts. Also if you or your kid happened to be sick, you burned an extra 2 hours of sick leave each day. Another was that anytime your were off-site you had to submit paperwork to change back to 8-hour days, and then submit another set to get back on your 10-hour schedule.
Overall it was worth it.
posted by the christopher hundreds at 12:13 PM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
I switched to a 9/80 schedule a few months ago, and I love it. I take every other Monday off, which I chose because church committee stuff was taking over my Sundays and I wanted a catch-up/relax day after. I'm single, so I'm not planning around other people's schedules as much, and my long weekends usually end up with cleaning/errands/shopping/must-dos on Saturday with time for a nice dinner or time with friends in the evening, church and committee stuff on Sunday with catch-up on any last errands for the week, and day spent gloriously doing whatever I want (usually hiking) on Monday. On my shorter weekends, I find that either doing what I want or doing what I need to do to prep for the week tend to get short-changed.
posted by lazuli at 12:33 PM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by lazuli at 12:33 PM on October 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
Oh, and our traditional schedule had an hour lunch, so I shortened that to 30 minutes and so stay only 30 minutes longer than I had been for my nine-hour days.
posted by lazuli at 12:34 PM on October 1, 2019
posted by lazuli at 12:34 PM on October 1, 2019
Response by poster: All great information, thanks for the responses. I think the biggest question that jumps out at me right now is how vacation and sick time would be treated if I shift schedules - do I log it as an eight hour day or a ten hour day? Right now our time card system won't let me change more than eight hours a day to an absence. The lack of time to do things in the evening is also a concern since I'm the one that usually cooks dinner.
The 9/80 schedule might end up working out since we already do a similar scheme for "summer hours" (9 hours Monday-Thursday and half day Fridays) so I could just keep doing that year round and take every other Friday off.
posted by backseatpilot at 4:51 PM on October 1, 2019
The 9/80 schedule might end up working out since we already do a similar scheme for "summer hours" (9 hours Monday-Thursday and half day Fridays) so I could just keep doing that year round and take every other Friday off.
posted by backseatpilot at 4:51 PM on October 1, 2019
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If you work collaboratively with teammates on a regular basis, the team needs to decide whether Mondays or Fridays will be the standard day for people to not be in the office, because of it's a 50/50 mix, productivity will slide and frustration will increase.
Taking a Wednesday off every now and then is a nice relief, but a pain to other people if they do rely on being able to get in touch with you.
posted by Candleman at 6:21 AM on October 1, 2019 [3 favorites]