Rigid Work Schedule
Rigid Work Schedule
(OP)
I wanted to get a quick poll from users. I currently work for a large Structural Engineering Firm that affords me the opportunity to work on many interesting jobs and be exposed to all aspects of structural engineering. I love everything about my job except for the work hours.
Our office hours are 8:30 - 5:30 and other than coming in at 8 and leaving at 5, there isn't much flexibility in the hours. I can, of course, leave if I have something to take care of at home, but I would love to come in at 7-7:30 and leave at 4:30. Other places I have worked have had much more flexibility in the schedule. At my last place of employment, I routinely went in at 6:30 and left aroun 4.
There are several factors that contribute to my wanting different hours, not the least of which is my commute. If I could work earlier, I would shave about 15-20 off of my drive each way.
What is the norm out there as far as work hours go and flexibility?
Our office hours are 8:30 - 5:30 and other than coming in at 8 and leaving at 5, there isn't much flexibility in the hours. I can, of course, leave if I have something to take care of at home, but I would love to come in at 7-7:30 and leave at 4:30. Other places I have worked have had much more flexibility in the schedule. At my last place of employment, I routinely went in at 6:30 and left aroun 4.
There are several factors that contribute to my wanting different hours, not the least of which is my commute. If I could work earlier, I would shave about 15-20 off of my drive each way.
What is the norm out there as far as work hours go and flexibility?





RE: Rigid Work Schedule
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
CAD Administrator
SW '07 SP2.0, Dell M90, Intel 2 Duo Core, 2GB RAM, nVidia 2500M
http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
MYerges, have you been told that you cannot come in and leave earlier? Have you asked?
Cheers,
CanuckMiner
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
Other than the longer commute time, these hours are fine with me, and if I feel like coming in earlier or staying later, I do get compensated for it.
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
I haven't asked about switching my hours. There was mention of this during a meeting about 4 months ago (that office hours are until 5:30). I have been reluctant to ask because I have been here for only about 8 months and I haven't heard any grumblings from other employees. I haven't really asked others about it yet, but thought it would come up from time to time if people were unhappy about it.
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
When you need to talk to someone, you need to talk to them now. It helps to have everyone in place at the same time. Projects can loose momentum when too many people scatter the hours.
Charlie
www.facsco.com
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
-The future's so bright I gotta wear shades!
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
David
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
-The future's so bright I gotta wear shades!
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
Best Regards,
Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SWx 2007 SP 2.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)
(In reference to David Beckham) "He can't kick with his left foot, he can't tackle, he can't head the ball and he doesn't score many goals. Apart from that, he'
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
My place is flexible as long as you meet core hours and you can change everyday. I know other places that are flexible only if you are the same everyday.
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
www.probasci.com -
Implantable FEA for medical device manufacturers
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
My hours are totally flexible and anything outside of the core hours I just e-mail or call my boss. I meet all my deadlines and show the highest level of productivity so I don't get questioned. It helps that my boss in not a micro-manager. Although, a designer got caught "fudging" his hours and now has to e-mail my boss when he comes in, leaves for lunch, comes back from lunch and leaves for the day. His next step is out the door if he does it again.
Best Regards,
Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SWx 2007 SP 2.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)
(In reference to David Beckham) "He can't kick with his left foot, he can't tackle, he can't head the ball and he doesn't score many goals. Apart from that, he'
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
The admin staff is usually in between 8 and 8:30. We all have keys to the building and our office (mostly so we can get in on the weekend if we need to), so it is not a matter of the office physically being open.
ProbaSci-
I just have my 6-month review about a month ago (it was a month late), and I was told that my work was great and they were very pleased with me. Much other praise was thrown around...... but no need to bore you with that. I don't get a raise until my 1-year review, so it will be interesting to see how that goes.
All-
Has anyone brought up or initiated the flextime or was it in place when you started there?
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
Best Regards,
Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SWx 2007 SP 2.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)
(In reference to David Beckham) "He can't kick with his left foot, he can't tackle, he can't head the ball and he doesn't score many goals. Apart from that, he'
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
In practice my direct manager is extremely flexible, most weeks I work 4 x 10 hour days, actually closer to 1x10, 2x11.5 and 1x 7. Somedays in before 6, somedays as late as 7:30.
Of course if I'm not here when I'm needed...
Loading up the front of the week actually can work quite well. Often if means I can get more done at the beginning of the week, give it to people to review Thursday pm & Friday then come in on Monday and complete it. Of course if everyone worked my schedule this wouldnt' work anymore!
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
Now my schedule is very strict 4-10's (7:00 to 5:30). I'm not sure which work schedule is better. I don't like the schedule being so rigid now....but I really enjoy have every Fri off!!!
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
Flex time is usually brought up once every couple of years and the directors blame the parent company for not allowing it. Remote offices around the company seem to get away with it though.
I work on the theory that I am a professional and I'll get all the work done that is asked of me (including arriving at 7am to travel to meetings on site if necessary). So I usually arrive at 9am and leave about 6pm. I get more done in that last 75 minutes than in the whole day up to then. If I am ever pulled up on arriving late I'll join the 4:45 stampede and my work will suffer accordingly.
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
ZCP
www.phoenix-engineer.com
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
The cynic in me thinks the reason the company never offered it was because of all the 'free' hours of work they got from employees. They claimed that they needed all their engineers in the office at the same time, but other companies managed it.
In reality most staff came in before 9.00 and left after 5.30, but were only paid for the 7.5 hours. The company got the rest for nothing. If they had flexitime the staff would start working out how many additional hours they worked and take them back on Friday so they could leave early. Or maybe I am just delusional.
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
I appreciate all of your input in this topic. I think I am going to wait until my 1 yr review and bring it up then (provided my 1 yr review goes as well as my 6 month review).
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
In Atlanta things are so bad there is a government office dedicated to promoting ideas like flex time to reduce traffic. They have a section on their web page about how to get your employer interested.
One thing that fixed hours allow is car pooling. Is there anyone that lives near you? I've worked in the same office as my room mate before and we had to take different cars because the hours were not predictable.
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
Another thing that comes up is lunch- 1 hour is fine for those that like to go eat, but I'd rather eat at my desk and then go home 45 minutes earlier. But that seems not to be an option.
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
I normally need to average four billable hours of work per day (M-F) each week. Super flexible. Sounds like a piece of cake, but for what I count as billable is fairly narrow. Plus, I have to do all my own promoting, web management, accounting, etc. on top of the design work (that peripheral stuff really adds up).
Where I previously worked (real job), we were supposed to be on-site by 8:00 am and I often didn't leave until 6:30 - 7:00 pm M-F. No compensation for time beyond 40 hrs/week. Needless to say, I decided I didn't need that crap anymore.
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
Out: after your boss leaves
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
PS: Don't look back. Anyone not willing to accommodate his/her employees does not deserve to have those employees.
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
Whilst it is true some people get more work done without the constant hassle of a busy office, others view this as time to drink more coffee, surf the net and generally be slack.
It is easy for a company to make a rod for its own back, in the UK at least you have to be seen to not favour an individual, so if you let Fred start early for whatever reason you have to let anyone else that wants to, or else it is discrimination and heaven help you if that becomes racial or sexual.
Security is also an issue, unless the premises are manned (or should that be personed?) 24/7 do you give everyone a key that might possibly be the first in or last out? If you do watch your insurance prices rocket, if you don’t is it really flexitime or just moving your hours? What happens the one morning that the people that normally start early decide to come in at 8.00 and someone is left in the car park for two hours?
Another downside is heating and lighting, if you turn an eight hour day into the office being open twelve watch those bills rise, anyone who has been in the position of “turning the lights off” will know how careful everyone is to ensure all none used items are turned off, yeah right.
Do you deal with companies in different time zones? If so does this affect the amount of time you can actually contact each other? Also for meetings or even personal contact it cuts down the time people are together and depending how flexible a company is you can actually create a situation where 4 key people are never together or only for a few hours a week.
On the plus side you will probably have a happier work force and certain people will be more productive, but there are down sides as well. Each company will view this differently, but it is not necessarily them just being bloody minded.
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
http
Plus a link or two regarding my Generation X. ..don't be the solitaire guy.
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
Best Regards,
Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SWx 2007 SP 2.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)
(In reference to David Beckham) "He can't kick with his left foot, he can't tackle, he can't head the ball and he doesn't score many goals. Apart from that, he'
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
My job requires a lot of travel. All who travel know that it can involve brutal hours at times; flights at 6:00 AM means arriving at the airport sometimes as early as 4:00 AM, and flights back sometimes get you in as late as midnight. Most flights to the southern hemisphere are all night flights.
I am about to stipulate to them that if the companies hours are to be rigidly adhered to, then 8-5 is 8-5, and that means no more early or late flights, much less overnight flights.
I am tired of them having it both ways.
rmw
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
I hear you man, in other countries, employees have a travel stipend (a per diem per day in addition to all expenses paid-the cost of taking a man away from his family). In the US, it appears that employers think that employing someone is doing him a favor, and therefore they can ask all they want.
Well, that's how we also have two weeks of vacation, while the rest of modern world has four weeks.
Your 8-5 request will not fly, it will only irritate the boss (and I mean really irritate), I think you should ask for comp time instead, or better yet, extend your stay by a couple of days at the company expense, or ask that your spouse be with you on a trip, fly the night before the meeting (bring fatigue, jet lag, at the meeting as the sole reason), etc..
I've found that employers can be responsive that way. They are somehow willing to compensate in "nature".
Now, if you look at it from the boss's perspective, he is looking at 30 plus guys doing a super bowl pool, and being Monday morning quarterbacks at the water cooler, he adds up 30 guys wasting four hours each on Friday and Monday (240 hours down the drain) just to talk superbowl, and you get his picture on things, so he figures, asking you to travel on your own time is only pay back time.
You may be the good guy paying for the bad guys, stay cool man, don't irritate the boss.
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
My previous company (Military aerospace) was fully flexitime. You had to be in for the core hours of 9.30 - 12.30 and 2.30 - 4.30. Otherwise it was free reign and you could finish at 12.30 on a Friday and have a "flexi day" off per month on top of the 25 days annual holiday plus the other bank holidays that aren't taken out of your holiday allowance. Fitter, happier, more productive....
Oh BTW - that company is making the US presidential helicopter when the current one is decommisioned.
Ben
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.
RE: Rigid Work Schedule
Sigh.
Now it's 8 to ???, I usually am doing my 1 hour commute home in the dark, and the closest body of water is a retention pond. The bottom of my boat hasn't been wet since October. I cannot imagine a more heinously tortured victim of the decline of the US automotive industry than my sorry butt.
John Nabors
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.