Is your job not a priority?
And so you can have people, and I've listed at the bottom.
Think about what your response might be.
You might just suffer quietly which is a terrible way to think about
going through a day.
You might actually call in sick which nobody really wants to lie.
But that's the way of getting some time off if you need it or
you just don't show up which is even worse or
more importantly you might just say I can't do this job and I need to quit.
None of them seem like very good responses for
somebody who just needs some flexibility.
Now back to best employers they know about this.
They know that employees want and value flexibility.
And the first step an employer needs to do is just have an open door I'm willing
to talk about it don't be afraid to come into work and
tell me you might need something done a little differently.
And the fact is companies can do a lot with planning.
You can do almost anything within the bounds of reason.
And in the case of emergencies if you set up a cultural value that we're going to
help each other out in times of emergency everybody can pitch in and help.
And it can handle almost anyone of those.
So creates a cultural value that's not only just flexibility but
that it's a caring value as well too.
Unbelievably powerful when done right.
So some examples of work place flexibility are shown here.
They are from a study done by Boston College.
And there are more than just these, although these are the most common.
When I come in, when I leave, sometimes just starting an hour later, and
finishing an hour later makes a huge difference.
Or alternating schedules, or
I've really got to take some time off to go deal with a personal need,
can I come back in a month or two, and pick up my job where I left off?
And you can see the rest.
There are a quite a few.
Again, this is where creativity comes into play.
What can you do to help somebody meet a need?
Now these approaches can be formal or informal.
So not surprisingly, there's a big difference.
It can just be an agreement between a manager and an employee.
And in this case every situation is separate, it's one on one discussion and
it's all between those two people and maybe the coworkers might be affected too.
For a company a program it's different.
It's more open, more transparent, there is formal process,
might even require approval, might be some written guidelines.
There's less variability by manager but
also less ability to be spontaneous by a manger too.
And there is a different employee risk between formal and informal.
You're probably not as worried with a formal program about raising your hand.
And if you don't know, you might be worried how your boss is going to think.
This is again we talked about great manager
before great managers understand this.
They tend to be superb at embracing the concept.
Employees know who the managers are who embrace the notion of flexibility,
they want to work for those people.
And the bottom line here, and
I underscored it, we all need flexibility at some point in our lives.
So if we look at the patterns of this the surveys show
employees really value workplace flexibility.
We also know that needs changed.
They're not the same.
It could be different today than it is tomorrow and
it could vary over a longer period of time.
We know the very best employers.
Those that are employers of choice embrace the concept and do so
while keeping the performance standards of the business and the individual high.
Not embracing flexibility can lead to a couple of bad things.
It can lead to people leaving and it can lead to poor morale.
Neither of which is something that the company wants.
Alan BensonAssistant Professor
Mike DavisSenior Lecturer
