Are we really working flexibly?

There are three types of organisations out there. There are those that proudly boast a flexible working policy for all their employees, not just parent or carers. There are those that say they have a flexible working policy but it’s limited to senior members of staff, parents or carers. And then we have those organisations, who sadly still can’t say they have a flexible working policy.

I remember speaking to a friend, who was telling me about her brother-in-law. He works for an organisation full time and at home he has a part-time working wife and a 1-year-old baby. Whenever he needed to leave work early, to go see to his son for various reasons - picking him up early from nursery, going home to see his baby boy because he was unwell - his line manager would shamelessly reject the request. *Cue gasps and outrage*. Any Friday, if he was to work from home, he would have to check in every hour with his line manager and provide updates on his work.

I listened to these stories - horrified. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how it must feel to be so mistrusted by your employer. What sort of work life is that? Recently, my friend’s brother-in-law quit his job because for him, like any parent, no job is more important than his family. And you know what? I applaud this.

It is also worth noting that men are now playing a much more active role in the lives of their children and unless organisations understand this and change the culture so it is acceptable for them to ask for flexible working, we will never create a fair workplace and unfortunately flexible working will still be seen as a thing that working mothers only do.

Furthermore, we must acknowledge that flexible working is not only for parents but for everyone and you don't need a reason to work flexibly. It should be the norm and is the foundation of any organisation that wants to see productivity rise and values innovation, as a truly flexible organisation will achieve both of these goals with relative ease.

Interestingly, someone asked me the other day how I manage to work, manage a family and attend so many events! My answer: Those are not different things but are weaved together as part of my day, all as important and all flexible to ensure my day is managed in a way that means productivity in everything that I do. This balance allows me to do what I love, what needs to get done and what is important to me.

However, whilst there are some organisations that promote flexible working – are they truly advocating it? Another friend of mine works for a great organisation, where she has the flexibility to work from home whenever she wants. She can pencil in 30-minute gym classes, sign off to attend them, come back and log in to work. Sounds perfect, right? Flexible working at its best? Not really.

She comes back and ends up working more than 7 hours and very rarely will sign off at 5/6pm. The government describes flexible working as a way of working that suits an employee’s needs, e.g. having flexible start and finish times, or working from home. But ultimately, the idea is you work your normal shift, across the day to suit you, in an environment that suits you. Right? And can we also stop for a moment and focus on the word “employee” in that definition? Employee. Not employer. But employee. So flexible working is designed to benefit me. You. Us as staff.

So many employers fail to trust their staff and thus cannot appreciate the true value and benefit of working from home, despite it being an ethos of their company. And why is this? In my opinion, you should trust your staff to work how they want and where they want and it should not be something to question. If the work gets done, don’t question how it was done. When you trust your staff, what you’ll find is that the loyalty and integrity one has for its organisation will also strengthen and hence productivity will increase.

We must remember that being present at work, in your seat, in-front of your desk does not mean that you are being productive and working hard. The amount of times I have walked through offices and seen people sitting on Facebook, or doing their shopping or just browsing the net is phenomenal. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying you should not be allowed to do this, but the perception we have that people only do work at their desks is not true. 

I have the freedom to work flexibly, my workplace trusts me to manage my hours, work from home whenever I want and in turn I dedicate an honest day’s work to the company. If I start and finish work at different times each day. If I stop and start in the day for whatever reason – quick stop off at the gym, dentist or doctor’s appointment, I ensure I make those hours up. Can we all say the same?

Generations are changing, work is not what it use to be and we live in a digital age where we are connected to work 24/7 through our emails on our phones, What's App, Skype etc. Therefore we need to focus on creating a work life balance to ensure our well-being. This is only possible when we allow our staff the flexibility to choose when, how and where they work.

Lets embrace flexible working in its fullest and understand that flexible working means different things to different people and that's OK. We need to start off from a position of trust with all our staff and rather than counting hours, let's start looking at output, as that's what we really desire, tasks being completed not hours being clocked!

Written by Asif Sadiq MBE and Sana Butt