Working Flexibly – is there now an option out there for everyone?



This week it’s National Work Life Balance Week, so there’s no better time to assess whether some form of working flexibly might give you a healthier balance.

Gone are the days when there was only one way of working flexibly: part-time with a substantial hit on the finances.  These days, with a bit of creativity and negotiation with an enlightened manager, there could well be something out there to suit your role and circumstances.

Ways of Working Flexibly

Whether you are a parent, carer, approaching retirement, have a particular out-of-work goal you wish to achieve (commonly these are sports or study-related); as long as you’ve been working for your employer for 26 weeks, you are eligible to apply for flexible working.  So why not consider the options:

  1. Working from home – particularly for those who are office-based, non-client facing and not on shifts – you may well split the hours you work at home g. working before, during, and after school hours, with non-working time for the school runs and/or home-jobs
  1. Changes in shift patterns – for example requesting to do all the late shifts so that you can spend the first part of the morning with your baby/children and drop them at school or childcare
  1. 9-day fortnight – every other week you have 1 day off – salary decreases accordingly – for those who need the extra day twice a month but who don’t want to take too much of a cut in salary
  1. Condensed or compressed hours – working more hours in each day and then taking time off in lieu – for example working 7am-4pm over 4 days instead of 9-5 over 5 days
  1. Term-time only – for those with school-age children with lack of childcare/support network during the holidays
  1. Part-time hours – working for example 3 or 4 days a week to leave the other days free for home/hobbies/caring responsibilities
  1. Job share – do you know someone who does a similar role to you who would also like to reduce their hours? Could you split the week in half or both work 3 days a week, with 1 day when you work together?

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