Don’t box me in

The positives, negatives as workplaces offer more flexible schedules

Rhonda Pelan says she loves her flexible work schedule: “It allows me to drop off my kids at school, work later hours when I have to and work from home if someone is sick.”

But those aren’t the only benefits. “Of course, there are days when I know I can take the dog for a long walk in the morning and then work a little later, or days I can leave early to meet up with some friends and then make the hours up the next day.”

Valerie Bantos, a New York-based HR consultant who has worked at IBM and Xerox, says flexible hours work if employees are honest about their time away from the office. “If someone is coming in every day at 10:30 because he wants to sleep in, and then leaves at five with his colleagues, that’s not flextime. That’s just taking advantage of the system,” Bantos says. “If used correctly, flexible schedules can be great for both employee and employer, but if used incorrectly, they can be a real problem.”

The waiting game

Bantos says the No. 1 complaint she hears about flexible schedules is inaccessibility. “If you are involved in a project with someone who is working from 11 to 7, or working from home on Mondays and Wednesdays, you can adjust your schedule,” says Bantos. “The problems begin when the person who is supposed to begin at 11 doesn’t show up for work until 1 in the afternoon or the person who works from home on Mondays and Wednesdays decides to add a Tuesday or Thursday in there without prior warning.”

Richard Young, an attorney in Los Angeles who specializes in copyright law, says he often has trouble connecting with clients who work a non-typical schedule. “If I leave you a message at 8:30 in the morning and tell you I need some information by noon, I expect that information by noon,” says Young. “The problem is that some people, although they’re working from home, don’t check their email until later in the day. I’m not judging what they do or questioning their hours, but if you say you’re working, then you’re working. No one sits in an office and ignores emails for six hours, but it’s easier to do when you’re working in a different environment or working different hours.”

Make it official

Bantos says it’s important to establish a clear set of rules when offering flexible hours or work-from-home options. “I’ve seen some companies go as far as making employees log into a timestamp system online,” she says. “It’s a little Big Brother for my taste, but I do think it’s important to have some way to track when your employees are working and when they are not.”

Bantos likens it to an unspoken rule she followed when working at IBM. “We had this chair thing that we all used [in order] to say when we were at lunch or when we left for the day,” she says. “If you weren’t going to be at your desk for more than 30 minutes, you turned your chair facing outward. It sounds simplistic, but it was a great visual for us. You didn’t have to wait at someone’s desk for 10 minutes if something was urgent.”

If companies offer flexible hours, they can outline specific guidelines, including posted hours for each person and alternative phone numbers. Also, Bantos says it’s helpful to establish one or two days each week when everyone is in the office at the same time. “Face-to-face contact is still necessary,” she says.

Rebecca Fischer, a programmer in Chicago, says she just left a job in which seven of the nine members of her team worked from home. “It was never a problem because we kept a Chrome browser open all day and chatted with each other to get our work done,” she says. “If you stepped away, you indicated you were leaving and the green dot by your name would go away, and we knew not to loop you into real-time discussions.”

Bantos says she likes the idea of co-workers keeping contact with each other online, but says it’s essential for each person to be honest with themselves and their co-workers. “Some people just need a schedule,” she says. “They need a set time and a place to show up to work. You give them some options to expand the norm, and they just can’t adjust.”