As a parent many of you have to juggle work and family life.
It can be a fine balance between having to put food on the table and physically caring for your family. You may be lucky to have friends and family to help out. You maybe able to afford to pay for childcare. Either way you may feel the odd twang of guilt that you can't be there for your children all the time as bills have to be paid.
Earlier this year the UK Government published new legislation giving all employees the right to request flexible working. Your employer is required to say yes or no to your request and if they cannot say yes, they have a legal obligation to provide you with a valid reason why.
Source Go To Meeting Blog
From job sharing to working from home, flexitime to part-time and staggered hours to phased retirement the ways you can now work, will make a more flexible and yet more productive workforce, in my opinion.
If you are not sure about this think of these scenarios:-
Your child is sick and you have no one to care for them.
In the past you may have rung in sick yourself or taking an annual leave day. Now you maybe able to work from home on that day instead.
You get stuck in traffic every day having to get in for work at 9am.
Flexitime may mean you can miss peak travel times but still put the hours in every day.
You have a school concert, parent's evening or meeting with your child's teacher
These are especially difficult to organise if you work afternoons on a regular basis. Perhaps taking flexitime, or compressed hours will help in this situation.
You find you are doing a full-time job in part-time hours.
Job sharing allows you to share the role and the backlog of work maybe less when you return to work after your days off.
You share the care of looking after one or more parents.
Phased retirement or working from home can help in this situation.
Source Go To Meeting Blog
As you can see from the infographic above, in a study by the Chess Media group, 81% of US companies and organisations offer flexible working practices.
In these companies and organisations over 85% of employees were more productive, whilst just over three quarters reported more job satisfaction. Happiness levels increased greatly as did reduced work stress.
It also benefited the organisations too as unscheduled absences and staff turnover were significantly down.
Of course there maybe instances where flexible working is not possible. Well now there are employer guidelines in place on how to handle a flexible working request. If the request is declined there must be a sound business reason why.
For more information go to the Go To Meeting Blog.
* A collaborative post with Go To Meeting
Such a useful post - hope lots of people read it and take it on board. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThank you Sarah.
DeleteI had no idea about this as I freelance from home but this is great! Totally of to share this info with my husband, thanks for sharing x
ReplyDeleteI am glad it has been of use.
DeleteThis is a very informative post. I hope that employers take note. The only problem I have encountered with this is that some employers just say no, as they have the choice, as otherwise they find it too much hassle to make alternative arrangements.
ReplyDeleteThey have to give a valid reason now by law. I know flexible working cannot suit all companies but some flexibility can make a great difference to the happiness and productivity of the workforce, so it can be in the interests of the company to accommodate this where possible.
DeleteThis is really interesting - especially the bit about being able to work from home. My other half might be able to benefit from that, as I'm not always able to take care of both children if one is ill (eg when we recently had to go to hospital with Austin).
ReplyDeleteI think this information is very useful for parents are well as those that care for others with a disability or the elderly. Glad it is of use to you.
DeleteI am so happy I don't have to work 9-5! Flexible hours are so much more me.
ReplyDeleteFlexible hours suit most people these days.
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