Work Flexibility - Where Do You Stand?

Lgrabdeal on 14/01/2017 - 17:49
Last edited 14/01/2017 - 17:51

Fellow Ozbargainers, hope you all had your say in the Sick Leave forum topic.

I just wanted to initiate a discussion to see where do I/you/we stand in terms of work flexibility and work benefits. Employers and managers could comment on the work flexibility you offer to your employees to look after your employees. I hope that this thread would help employees to negotiate better work flexibility at their work to have a better work/life balance.

I am obviously not asking about mandatory leave entitlements (such as Parental, Personal leave, etc).

Some work flexibility examples are:

  • Variable work hours (start and finish hours)
  • Work from home when required
  • Additonal annual leave / recreational leave
  • Time off compensation when you work additional hours during busy work periods

Please follow the below structure or suggest a better one:

Work Flexibility level : High / Medium/ Low/ Nil
No. of years with the company/employer : ….
Comments : blah blah blah

I will start with mine:

Work Flexibility level : Medium
No. of years with the company/employer : 1
Comments : I am a temporary employee(contractor) so I don't get many entitlements. However, my manager is flexible with starting & finishing hours and can leave early if required. On the whole, very pleasant workplace.

My previous workplace was the total opposite, I was employed in a permanent basis. Working hours were 9-5:30. They made the lunch compulsory for one hour so that we will stay until 5:30 pm to support clients. Office location wasn't near a central/shopping area so most lunch time will be spent at desk and the max lunch used will be 20 mins. I used to drop my partner before coming to work so somedays I started at 8 am as it's no point driving 45 mins back to home. Yet I was made to stay until 5:30 pm and the occasional early finish were hard to get permission for. They didn't hire a receptionist and made us answer phone calls apart from doing our mainstream IT consultancy jobs.

Note: Voting is not mandatory, your comments are more valuable.

Poll Options

  • 23
    My work is very flexible
  • 8
    My work flexibility is moderate
  • 6
    My work has low flexibility
  • 4
    No work flexibility, anyone one know a better employer?
  • 4
    I am an employer and I offer work flexibility
  • 2
    No work flexibility at all
  • 0
    I am an employer and I don't want to offer work flexibility
Education & Work

Comments

  • BensonP on 14/01/2017 - 18:16

    My employer is very flexible, aside from work hours being set in stone (730am to 400pm). Been employed for 6 years.

    Rostered day off every second Monday. Take half hour smoko and 1 hour lunch at any time.

    Need to leave work early? No questions asked and no pay/sick leave docked. I haven't handed a doctor's certificate to my boss in a few years.

    It's also a two way street. Once in a blue moon lunch might get cut short or I'll have to stay back a half hour or so and wont claim overtime for this.

  • justaverage on 14/01/2017 - 18:18

    Work Flexibility level : Medium
    No. of years with the company/employer : 1
    Comments : flexible start times can start from about 6:30 to 9 and finish from 3 to 6 as long as you do your 8 hours. Also can accure up to 16 hours flextime.

  • modsec802 on 14/01/2017 - 18:46

    Work Flexibility level : Extremely High
    No. of years with the company/employer : 1-2
    Comments : I get paid a FT salary but have no hours I need to work - just to get the job done. I work 100% remote from home for a very popular online American site. We have unlimited vacation policy, paid three months sabbatical after five years, 2-3 paid overseas trips per year, and six months medical leave available at any time. New parents (fathers and mothers) all get 3 months paid leave.
    Since I have no set hours I can work when I like and do errrands/jobs/kids things when I like also. Most flexible job I've ever come acrosss.
    You can also take any number of paid days off to volunteer.

    • grabdeal on 14/01/2017 - 20:19

      Is that before you woke from sleep or after? just asking..

    • dylanando on 14/01/2017 - 23:38

      Wow, They employing?
      ;)

      • grabdeal on 15/01/2017 - 00:20

        Yes of course, it's called the Dream job..

        • dylanando on 16/01/2017 - 16:04

          a grave sounds better than myen

  • Google Chrome on 14/01/2017 - 18:53

    Work Flexibility level : Extremely High
    No. of years worked: 6
    I'm flexible with rostering for my team, they pretty much start at 9 and finish at around 4, but most of the time it's variable as long as you get work done. There are weeks where they only work 3 days, while other weeks 6 days even through holidays. Lunch start anytime between 12-2 but they have to swipe their card so it's logged. The rostering is set by the manager so every team may start/end and different times. My team can accumulate their rostered days if they need to go to work and can take sick days no questions asked by me as long as its not a "red" day.

  • tomlikesbeetroot on 16/01/2017 - 02:13

    Work Flexibility level : Nil
    No. of years worked: 6

    I do shift work for a very large company. Hours are very rigid and swipe on/off times are monitored. Some other teams have been told that due to the nature of the roster, they cannot take just one or two days leave at a time, but when they take leave they need to take the entire shift rotation.

  • [Deactivated] on 16/01/2017 - 16:25

    Work Flexibility level : High
    No. of years with the company/employer : 3
    Comments : Work flexibility in academia is generally good. Can start/finish at your leisure, provided there aren't important meetings to attend or talks to give. However, job security and funding is quite dismal for research in the health sciences. On average there is a 15% success rate of your grant getting funded. So, not sure if it's worth it.

  • jonnoyeo on 28/01/2017 - 00:07
    +2

    Work Flexibility level : High/Medium
    No. of years with the company/employer : 2.5 Years
    Comments :
    - Work from home once a week
    - RDO once a month
    - Can work from home additionally as we need if there are things we need to attend to in out of work life
    - No set start or finish times, 'get your work done', however no 'overtime' but never needed to do overtime.
    - No set lunch breaks
    - Some people in our team even work compressed 4 day work weeks
    - In the end i can't complain, i can say i've never really been stressed at work, or come home having to do work!

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