A decrease in human relation and interaction 11. Flextime What Is It and How to Manage It Security 8. And there is an orientation toward control in the question overall it could almost be summarized as Should I tell her no just to establish dominance?. Ayups error might be more along the lines of not keeping her manager in the loop enough for them to understand how shes managing her hours. Interruptions, chatter and all that blow my mental stack away, and I have to start over. Its just that she is using the perk more than the other person. As long as the work is getting done and both employees are being respectful and not taking advantage, I dont see the problem. Sometimes I need to know if what constitutes my job has drastically changed, and whether its time to quit that job. OP might be feeling uneasy because the employee requests are reasonable, so the answer is always yes, leading to OP feeling like a pushover, when the reality is the employee is mostly demonstrating how in tune they are. Its the disparity. Now I feel as though this perk isnt really available to me even though it was very clearly promised. I thought this line was incredibly well stated, In other words, she enjoys a lot of flexibility and independence while generally defending her own job boundaries. Im not as productive. Maybe shes just not experienced enough to know she can ask. Either personal (is it equally OK to leave early for a doctors appointment or a date) or work (is it OK to leave early as long as its not the busy season)? I completely get this vibe myself here, too. However, Im always answering emails/texts/calls outside of the office and will hop online at any hour of the day (within reason) and on the weekends to answer an important email or finish a project. Several people on our team have had car issues that required business hours stuff WFH is great for that. Very many things she was asked to do were not really my job. But she said this while she had maybe 20 hours of work in a busy week (while a full-time employee) and said it to people who were working 50+ hours per week regularly. That can be a very good use of the companys resources in terms of her salary, because she may be learning things that could be useful to both her and the company. I possess so much institutional knowledge that theres a lot of stuff I could do if were just talking about ability. Im also expected to continue to help patrons with the public computers, help patrons find books, while covering the desk. Are these tasks that, maybe it makes sense for her to pitch in if someone is really in a bind and needs help short term, but long term arent a good use of this employees time and skill? Maybe she does need to be more of a team player or maybe shes overwhelmed with work. Maybe, but it doesnt sound like shes had a reason to say no. Are they taking advantage of me? Its possible that the LWs older employee has experienced this in the past and therefore is trying to protect herself. I have folks work from home because of appointments for themselves, their parents, their pets, their house (plumber/electrician), and unspecified reasons. The need for structure for some 4. Could we get a sub-thread on Useful Rules for New Managers? Lets keep in mind that prior to that, I had been recognized across the company for my PM efforts. I had someone on my team who would ask that question a lot, and 4 other people who never did. Were both team players, it just manifests differently. Sometimes people get weird about your hours, and sometimes with some discussion, they can get unweird about them too. I agree that having an internal process for evaluating the requests will probably make the whole situation feel more structured and easier to manage. The one manager I know of who does require permissions and doesnt allow 1 2 days / week wfh is considered unusual, and has 2 positions unfilled (we prioritize internal hires). Its a perk its something to be enjoyed, not exercised when needed. He barely spoke to us, so there was absolutely no need for us to have our butts-in-seats crammed in the toxic little room we were all shoved into yet there we were, at his insistence, day after day. As a rabbit owner, getting a sick (or even appearing a little sick) rabbit to the vet ASAP is essential as they probably wouldnt be alive by the time I got home. Delays in her projects? There have certainly been months I needed to take a couple of hours in more than one week due to a bunch of appointments or other things requiring flexibility, but other months where I didnt take any (or worked beyond 40 hours), and I very rarely use the maximum of 4 hours. Shes probably learned to push back based on experiences that the younger employee simply hasnt had yet. This is a gigantic red flag to me that a company is poorly organized and managed. But maybe she prioritizes her family more than your younger employee, or more than you. Sometimes that can be a good thingan employee can learn about a new role and move into itand sometimes it can be not so good, as Ive seen employees who become dumping grounds for any task the manager cant figure out or cant figure out who should really be doing it. Weve seen organizations where some managers allow their employees flexibility while other managers dont. Job descriptions are pretty meaningless in the end, especially in a mostly at-will employment geared country. I think her point was that shes open to flexibility irrespective of it being family oriented or not. In that case, Id be letting Younger Employee know that, as long as work is done and meetings are attended, that she too can use these perks. I know it must be hard as a manager to do that, but I think youre doing a good job. The combination of an older, more experienced employee whos comfortable drawing boundaries with a younger, less experienced, more eager employee does sound like a recipe for the younger one taking on more stuff. Thats doubly true in tech world, where for the most part as long you go to team meetings and client meetings as appropriate, when/how/where you do your individual work just doesnt matter. Right! Sometimes its really not their job, and its reasonable for them to bring it up for example, women who get asked to do an outsized share of admin work, people who came on board specifically to get away from X and now are being given a lot of X, etc. No, you really dont get to have someone come in thinking one thing is their job and then regularly have them do a lot of completely unrelated things and claim other duties covers that. I asked because I want to know if he is like my prior experience. Taking away the permission aspect of going to a doctor appointment is great because we know we are valued as people as well as employees. update: I resent my employee for being richer and more qualified than me, can I say I cant come to the office because of my dog, our unlimited vacation is really just three weeks, and more. And yes, this would have made sense in a call center, but no, not a call center or any similar sort of customer service job. If you ask me to do certain things, like secretarial work or personal assistant stuff when Im a technical professional, I will tell you thats not my job, because it literally isnt. Its a big ask, but you do it to help out. Risk of burnout, trouble drawing professional boundaries, job performance suffering because theyre taking on too many things outside their role, etc. If the younger employee doesnt have children or health issues or any of the things that we are taught are worthy of work flexibility, that might contribute to her not asking as often. The company offers flex time and WFH. It would be really annoying if someone just snapped up all the holidays like that. Im not saying pets are equivalent to children but if my cat is having an asthma flare-up, I dont want to come home and find her in distress or worse, but she doesnt need the stress of being boarded at the vets for monitoring when I could do it if I werent shamed for asking for a day off. It was owned by a larger governmental group, which had its main offices ten miles from the station. But yeah, it can become where youre the person whos the go-to for grunt labor and it should always be okay to steer someone away, some companies dont allow for it and those companies stink the stinkiest stink [ask me how I know!]. I stock my office with post it notes, pens and scotch tape. Because I think it sounds like she gets everything done you ask of her and if thats the case, than you really need to decide if there is some other issue you need to address that youre avoiding. This is a question that needs to be asked, though. If you discover that one of the things that affords Older Employee flexibility is that Younger Employee reliably doesnt ask for flexibility, maybe thats part of your hesitation? If its something within those hours, then Id need to flag it for my boss, otherwise its on my calendar, that my boss can check if hes like Wheres she at tho? But, if I WFH (work from home), I can do it on a lunch hour. It never got foisted onto me, and deadlines didnt get missed. Asking for things and setting boundaries are skills that I wish MORE people had in the workplace. Just because the work is there and needs doing doesnt mean it makes sense for it to be done by her if the company would be better served by her experience and skill being applied elsewhere. I dont cut people loose willy nilly, my turnover is actually well below company average. If the older employee says, right here, still doing a great job and the younger says, Great, I was hoping to talk to you about paths to promotion internally, and a reasonable time-frame, and what skills I should work on, then probably everyones entirely happy with the situation, and theres absolutely no problem. I work in a customer service type environment where people generally need to be in the office to answer the phone to customers or to manage other people who do that. I think the only issue is that shes drawing attention to it by having to run everything by you. This honestly sounds like you have no real problem with it, but you dont like it just because. I get to hop in on random projects just because Im around and have comparatively little to do. Three types of modern flexibility todays workers demand If the employee frequently asks last minute, or leaves the other direct report hanging for example, where its not that the work isnt getting done, it still is, but certain things that should be even are now disproportionately going to The One Who Is In The Office, that would be a valid reason to say no. We have a calendar where we keep the in/out of office information. My old company was against us working from home if we werent on the sales team grandboss values face time in the office over actual productivity, and we sat on the same floor as the companys president, who apparently would comment when hed see peoples desks empty. Agreed. Maybe she prefers to get out of the house so she doesnt feel stuck all day. Younger employee does use WFH occasionally so I think she knows about it but chooses not to use it. Handling clients 6. If you think thats not my job is some sort of attitude problem, then you should take a closer look at your culture. Perhaps the older employee just has more confidence in speaking up when something isnt technically within the scope of her role. So, a long time of administratively supporting a bunch of doctors. Reading the letter, it seems a bit like OP has problems with Older Reports work style beyond this issue and that thats why Reports many quests for flexibility are grating on her in way they wouldnt if it were someone else making them. Maybe she specifically is on call for such things 2.5 days a week and Jennifer the other 2.5 days. Think about the type of work that must be done, and when and where its best performed. Watch how hard I work now. Am I asking too much? > How would she respond if you were to say Well, actually, it would be better if you were in the office on Wednesday? And I think this LW has a list already in mind they get their work done, I dont have to constantly keep track of whether or not theyre on top of things, they take initiative, and, most importantly, I feel like they actually show up and care.. Really? Every job description Ive ever seen has some variation of all other duties as deemed necessary. So, the answer to the question of whether something is their job is always yes. I would never ask my reports to do anything illegal, immoral, unethical, or dangerous. If you need help with something when my workload goes down, let me know and Ill be happy to help. Ive always gotten good responses from management when Ive said stuff like this, and none of my good managers ever questioned my desire to be at work or my ability to work well with the team as a whole. In fact, if youre just uncomfortable with how often shes asking, even though the individual requests themselves are fine, maybe thats a sign that you should reconsider whether she needs to get your permission each time. If you offer flexibility youd better mean it. OP needs to remember that a younger worker is often isnt as willing to ask for reasonable flexibility or otherwise speak up because theyre at the beginning stages of building their reputation whereas a veteran worker isnt. Flexibility is a huge incentive and if the person is able to manage their time well and stay organized, then its fantastic. But this wording combined with how OP interprets the technically my job questions as not a team player makes it sound like a primarily subjective assessment, which is a recipe for downgrading a perfectly effective employee because theyre not a young go-getter with lots of face time with the boss. Finally, OP is comparing this employee (who does good work, uses flexible time responsibly, and sets boundaries at work) with a newer employee (who does good work, almost never uses flex time for whatever reason, and says yes all the time *I* certainly dont say yes all the time, but I did at the start of my career because I thought I needed to show how eager I was and because I didnt know I *could* say no). I agree 100% with your point about family obligations not being the same as enjoying flexibility and independence and I have to chime in about this. The is this technically my job thing is probably OPs real issue. Disadvantages of All duties as assigned within reason, but it is not a free pass to just heap extra work on someone when its totally outside their scope. Instead youre asking your engineers and accountant to vacuum the floor, no thanks, Ill find another job and have done it. A hundred life events, voluntary and not, could shift her from someone who almost never needs to flex her time or location to someone who really values that in her job. my coworker answers questions directed to me, social media post trashing a colleague, and more, updates: I secretly moved peoples desks two inches, coworker keeps stealing our snacks, and more. What an exceptionally well-reasoned and thoughtful answer. I came to say this, more or less. Emotional commitment is not a reasonable request from employees. But asking if something should really be part of your role isnt inherently a problem. Something similar happened to me when I was much younger and my SO was still in the military. Not only am I able to focus on whats important in my personal life, but I am also highly motivated to get my work done competently knowing that I am not chained to a 9-5. You are in charge. Sometimes its to get out of work, sure. I immediately thought of many examples (as have others) where flagging something as not your job is right thing to do. It doesnt at all sound like the younger employee doesnt know she has the option to be more flexible, but if OP is worried about that, they can always check in with the younger employee to make that option explicit! So, no, creating reports is not in my job description (nor the broader team) but if my manager asks, Im not going to say not in my job description or ask is this really part of my job?. As Allison says, if she is doing a great job managing her work this shouldnt count against her. We also do changes from home after hours, so its not like we actually have to be in the office to work. Cleaning? I am in my late thirties and while I dont believe I take off frequently, I do take time off more frequently than my co-workers with no outside responsibilities, personal or otherwise. Still, because its my name on the system, people will come to me with queries on things that I dont deal with. Anyway, I do think its important for people, especially women, to make sure people dont take advantage of their supposed willingness to help, by making sure that certain types of requests are appropriate to their position. When I was younger, I poo-pooed that advice, and ran myself into the ground. Are they tasks my employee should be doing, or do they belong to another department? Maybe its my own experience, but I really feel that the OP resents that the more experienced employee is generally defending her job boundaries. But heres my take on this: For the newer, less experienced employee, it can make a lot of practical sense for her to take on things that arent really technically her job, because she can really benefit from the experience. I kind of get the same feeling at annual review time, when all my cohorts say how awesome I am to work with and how I really know my stuff and am a great help in making the projects run smoothly, then theres a 1% raise. Shes enjoying the flexibility regardless of whether shes enjoying the time away from work. How can we maintain the flexibility you enjoy but get these side tasks done timely and equitably?. The previous manager always said no first, but I asked around, and found that lots of things she said we couldnt do, we actually could do. Also, I think LW needs to do some thinking about how work and other duties as assigned is assigned and how it flows. Solved. It was wonderful having that spelled out. How to Offer Flexibility to Employees Without Being Taken There are also issues of lacking domain expertise, legal/industry/regulatory certifications, established company processes and management from one department trying to borrow employees from another just to name a few examples. I agree that the solution may be to let her leave early or work from home without having to ask every time, just inform. I think this is an important missing piece of the puzzle. Theres possible miscommunication somewhere. Younger employee has the same perks. Our organizations policy states managing salaried employees time comes at the supervisors discretion. If flexibility is available to all employees on an equal basis, then OP should make sure that her reports are aware of that, that they are free to use the flexibility, and dont feel pressure to be chained to the desk either because of their age or inexperience. Maybe she likes a scheduled day. Shes being compensated for her skill, and if that skill isnt being used at the level for which shes being compensated, the company is being, as the expression goes penny wise and pound foolish.. His support calls were way longer than they should have been, and it set the wrong expectations for what our group was supposed to handle. I disagree. You may even want to practice some scripts. They come first. If I assumed, I would say I bet most of the people you let go for this were women.. It has never interfered with my availability, and Ive been scrupulous about being available online most of the time and responsive to emails, calls, and requests. And then dont hesitate to do so. I just think the idea of enjoying it minimizes a lot of peoples experiences. Yuck was my reaction too. These are all really great points. Im going to let my manager respond to this request. The thing isthe person who asked (and who also took /very exact/ breaks and holidays) actually MET all, 100%, of her deadlines. As for my current coworkers, I think that theres definitely some extra hustle when end of month/quarter comes around, but mostly their jobs are kind of like, if it gets done, it gets done when I get it done. Id take this situation as a push to look at whether that should be the set-up here. yes! I think if you go through this exercise, and then think about why you answered that way, it will help you clarify in your own mind whether what youve been doing is OK. And then youll also be able to communicate clearly with your two reports I strongly agree with the commenters advising you to explicitly tell your younger, more eager report that shes welcome to use this flexibility too if she wants. I know I sound cynical, but balance really is crucial. I would say more often than not I have a couple 8.5 + hr days and a day under 7 hrs. The employee was hired to do a job, and asking questions to inform her priorities is not a bad thing. I suspect in this case, work requirements have expanded, are probably still within the bounds of the senior reports position, but the senior report just doesnt want to do them or honestly doesnt believe the tasks are within her purview. but unlike my other group members, who work from home one day a week, i only do it every once in a while. While we dont know why the younger employee doesnt ask for more flexibility, it seems like a good idea for the manager to make sure shes aware its also an option for her and that is doesnt have to be family related. One is rude and unhelpful, the other is not. I think people say yes to be nice (and also to be able to tell others how nice they are, and how much theyve done for you), but its more of a kindness to say no if it is going to affect your treatment of the employee later. That they feel they should be saying to no because the other person doesnt ask as often and it seems unfair. She is choosing to not use them. We have people who work at home one or two days a week every week. Maintaining healthy boundaries in your work is not grousing. Obviously sometimes Ill have to say no to requests to be out of the office, but Ill try my best to say yes. Then give herself a quick checklist for out of office/work from home requestswill needed work be delayed?
