Favourable Work Hours

LegacyUser

Looking for some advice. I have been working for the same company for the last 6 and a half year in an office environment. They are not the easiest of people to work for. They are very "old school" and don't see how anyone would want or have a life outside of work. The office environment in general is not a very nice one but the money is good and the work is ok but still everyone here is just treated as a number. To be honest it feels more like a prison than a workplace, it's in a rural area and about 5 miles to a shop or any form of civilisation! This means that from morning until evening it is not possible to go out for lunch or go to shop as we only have a fifteen minute break & half hour lunch.

Anyway getting to the point not even a year ago a new lady started in accounts. She has 4 kids from ages 7 to 17 and they seem to be a very close family which is nice. She has mentioned a few times in passing that she found the hours tough going (8am - 5pm) one fifteen minute break at 11am and one half hour break at 2pm. This has been mentioned more regularly in the last week or so.

She came to my office today and said that the boss has agreed for her to reduce her hours to 8am to 3.30pm. As in her words its not fair on her or the kids because she is wrecked all the time etc etc. I am very surprised that he has agreed to this as he wouldnt exactly be a family man.

Now I am finding this a tough one. I start at 8.30am and finish at 6pm with the same breaks and to say the days are long is an understatement! I have often mentioned to one of the managers about shortening my hours but nothing has ever come of it.

Am I right to think that this is unfair? She is getting reduced hours because of fact that she has kids. Have I grounds to complain? Surely giving someone else in the office favourable hours because they have kids isnt fair?

Would appreciate yer thoughts!

_Brian

probsatwork wrote: »

Looking for some advice. I have been working for the same company for the last 6 and a half year in an office environment. They are not the easiest of people to work for. They are very "old school" and don't see how anyone would want or have a life outside of work. The office environment in general is not a very nice one but the money is good and the work is ok but still everyone here is just treated as a number. To be honest it feels more like a prison than a workplace, it's in a rural area and about 5 miles to a shop or any form of civilisation! This means that from morning until evening it is not possible to go out for lunch or go to shop as we only have a fifteen minute break & half hour lunch.

Anyway getting to the point not even a year ago a new lady started in accounts. She has 4 kids from ages 7 to 17 and they seem to be a very close family which is nice. She has mentioned a few times in passing that she found the hours tough going (8am - 5pm) one fifteen minute break at 11am and one half hour break at 2pm. This has been mentioned more regularly in the last week or so.

She came to my office today and said that the boss has agreed for her to reduce her hours to 8am to 3.30pm. As in her words its not fair on her or the kids because she is wrecked all the time etc etc. I am very surprised that he has agreed to this as he wouldnt exactly be a family man.

Now I am finding this a tough one. I start at 8.30am and finish at 6pm with the same breaks and to say the days are long is an understatement! I have often mentioned to one of the managers about shortening my hours but nothing has ever come of it.

Am I right to think that this is unfair? She is getting reduced hours because of fact that she has kids. Have I grounds to complain? Surely giving someone else in the office favourable hours because they have kids isnt fair?

Would appreciate yer thoughts!

While this may be the actual reason she got it, in the event of a complaint they'll more likely say it was on a first come-first served basis. Have you documented your request for shorter hours in the past, letter or e-mail? Otherwise its hear-say that you asked for it..

I've seen policy where management would assess each application on an individual basis.. this leave it open to them to choose who they want.

They would also be in their rights, even if you do apply to say one member of staff at a time and when the person currently on short hours is finished doing them, you'll be considered..

Remember, what happens doesn't need to be fair as such, as in you should have it because she has it, it doesn't work like that.

Neyite

Did you apply for reduced work hours, or did you just hint at them though?

It could be that she applied to go part-time, or offered to work from home to make up the hours, or restructured the workload so she could fit it into a shorter working week and took a pay cut thus saving the company money.

Unless you specifically applied to reduce your hours and got your application declined, then you probably have no case. I doubt that a manager made the decision to give her less hours on the same pay purely because she has kids.

LegacyUser

Thanks for the reply.

No my request for shortened hours have never been documented for the simple reason that it's not that way things are done. A request for anything would be made verbally, see what I mean about old school! So in actual fact I was there first.

Also these hours will be permanent not just while kids are off school.

I would have presumed that everyone has to be treated the same with regard to hours?

LegacyUser

Neyite wrote: »

Did you apply for reduced work hours, or did you just hint at them though?

It could be that she applied to go part-time, or offered to work from home to make up the hours, or restructured the workload so she could fit it into a shorter working week and took a pay cut thus saving the company money.

Unless you specifically applied to reduce your hours and got your application declined, then you probably have no case. I doubt that a manager made the decision to give her less hours on the same pay purely because she has kids.

No I didnt but as I said in the reply above its not really how things work here. Its more of a case that you ask verbally and they either say yes, no or ignore!

She hasn't applied to go part time or work from hone I know that from what she says. She is not going to take her half an hour for lunch to make up 2.5 hours. Don't know whether her pay is being reduced for the other few hours.

Well that is the reason she has given for wanting her hours reduced so yes his decision was made purely because of that as far as I can see!

Stheno

probsatwork wrote: »

No I didnt but as I said in the reply above its not really how things work here. Its more of a case that you ask verbally and they either say yes, no or ignore!

She hasn't applied to go part time or work from hone I know that from what she says. She is not going to take her half an hour for lunch to make up 2.5 hours. Don't know whether her pay is being reduced for the other few hours.

Well that is the reason she has given for wanting her hours reduced so yes his decision was made purely because of that as far as I can see!

So in effect she is going to do an hour less each day given that she is not taking lunch?

There's no law that says everyone has to be treated the same in relation to working hours that I am aware of, yours are already different in that she works till five and you until six.

Mrs OBumble

probsatwork wrote: »

She hasn't applied to go part time ... She is not going to take her half an hour for lunch to make up 2.5 hours.

Ahh, yes, she had applied to go part time. She will be working less than full time hours, so by definition she will be working part time.

It's not legal for her to not take lunch: if she is working for six hours, then legally they have to make her take 1/2 a hour for lunch.

If you would like to work less hours each week, and you are prepared to receive proportionately less money due to working less then:

1) talk to her more to understand exactly how she managed to convince menagement to allow this, and
2) start figuring out how the work could still get done, or be re-distributed among other people
3) Put a convincing proposal to the management.


It's absolutely not true that everyone has to be treated the same re hours-of-work - any more than that they have to be paid the same rate.

_Brian

probsatwork wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.

No my request for shortened hours have never been documented for the simple reason that it's not that way things are done. A request for anything would be made verbally, see what I mean about old school! So in actual fact I was there first.

Also these hours will be permanent not just while kids are off school.

I would have presumed that everyone has to be treated the same with regard to hours?

But companies just can't offer everyone "the same" hours, what if everybody wanted to work shorter hours..
There are many ways to spin it but essentially she got the reduced hours before you. Now you can apply/ask again but there is no compulsion on the employer to give you the same conditions as she has..

Best you can do is be more direct in stating that you want to be next if they have the capacity to let another worker have better hours...