Apparently it's employees working with their own circadian rhythm. Which actually can be a nightmare to deal with, unless you have really explicit boundaries. Otherwise the nightowl group gets dragged into morning meetings and the 9-5 group ends up having to field questions when they're winding down for the night.
Management probably loves it because without boundaries everyone ends up working extra hours in a way that's very stressful but the nature of it makes it difficult for people to even realize they're working overtime.
huh. Yeah I've noticed that with my work. I can technically be flexible with my hours to some extent, but in practice I am expected to always be available during normal business hours, so its hard to justify ever really deviating from that schedule too much, I just end up working more after hours and can't really detach during 9-5.
I do have one coworker with explicit boundaries that are just like "I don't work x weekday and I'm off x morning until noon" and it seems to work well for her, but she may have explicitly negotiated that (used to be an independent contractor).
Offering this flexibility is one thing but yeah, keeping it vague and pushing people to work more by aggressive deadline and such are definitely shitty management tactics.y
At least for me, the circadian rhythm thing isn't as set in stone as I thought (not that I have total control over it but recently it shifted to where I always wake up at 6am, when I used to struggle to get up at 8 or 9)
Lol, at my old work your manager didn't know the details of your contract. I think it was a strategy to reduce pay in the long term, but it let my coworker claim she was on a remote contract for like 4 months before anyone noticed.
Yeah exactly. And most managers also don't care enough to check them or know the details. Really all they care about is whether work gets done or not and whether their lives are being made easier or harder by a particular employee. You can get away with anything as long as the perception is that you are a net-positive to their life being easier and the work getting done.
Flexible schedules don't really help you set your own schedule, but sweet God do they make it easy to get fucking errands done. Just go do what you gotta do check the phone a few times and maybe chat something back to someone. Boom, your car is fixed. Your teeth are clean. Amazing
There's something I really like in the company I work, and is that between 20hs and 9hs the computer didn't even let you login (neither on weekends). And if your boss wants you to do extra hours or do something on the weekend, it had to be approved by the VP of your area and the HR director. Still remember when my boss asked me if I had plans for the weekend, or if I could finish a report he wanted and I told him that I had no plans, but I couldn't help because the computer didn't even turn on on weekends.
so this is the one where they make you work all hours of the day and night at random or something?
Apparently it's employees working with their own circadian rhythm. Which actually can be a nightmare to deal with, unless you have really explicit boundaries. Otherwise the nightowl group gets dragged into morning meetings and the 9-5 group ends up having to field questions when they're winding down for the night.
Management probably loves it because without boundaries everyone ends up working extra hours in a way that's very stressful but the nature of it makes it difficult for people to even realize they're working overtime.
huh. Yeah I've noticed that with my work. I can technically be flexible with my hours to some extent, but in practice I am expected to always be available during normal business hours, so its hard to justify ever really deviating from that schedule too much, I just end up working more after hours and can't really detach during 9-5.
I do have one coworker with explicit boundaries that are just like "I don't work x weekday and I'm off x morning until noon" and it seems to work well for her, but she may have explicitly negotiated that (used to be an independent contractor).
Offering this flexibility is one thing but yeah, keeping it vague and pushing people to work more by aggressive deadline and such are definitely shitty management tactics.y
At least for me, the circadian rhythm thing isn't as set in stone as I thought (not that I have total control over it but recently it shifted to where I always wake up at 6am, when I used to struggle to get up at 8 or 9)
Or she's a chad that just says it and everyone assumes it was explicitly negotiated.
Who's gonna check? lol
Lol, at my old work your manager didn't know the details of your contract. I think it was a strategy to reduce pay in the long term, but it let my coworker claim she was on a remote contract for like 4 months before anyone noticed.
Yeah exactly. And most managers also don't care enough to check them or know the details. Really all they care about is whether work gets done or not and whether their lives are being made easier or harder by a particular employee. You can get away with anything as long as the perception is that you are a net-positive to their life being easier and the work getting done.
Flexible schedules don't really help you set your own schedule, but sweet God do they make it easy to get fucking errands done. Just go do what you gotta do check the phone a few times and maybe chat something back to someone. Boom, your car is fixed. Your teeth are clean. Amazing
There's something I really like in the company I work, and is that between 20hs and 9hs the computer didn't even let you login (neither on weekends). And if your boss wants you to do extra hours or do something on the weekend, it had to be approved by the VP of your area and the HR director. Still remember when my boss asked me if I had plans for the weekend, or if I could finish a report he wanted and I told him that I had no plans, but I couldn't help because the computer didn't even turn on on weekends.