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We must keep the flexitime option, especially through these tough times
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown22 Oct 2008
AS the recession bites, all but the most shrewd businessmen and politicians panic and make hasty statements they will rue. One such is Business Secretary Peter Mandelson's suggestion that plans to introduce flexible working rights and better maternity leave, expected to be implemented next May, could be shelved until this crisis subsides. Companies must not be "burdened" further, critics of the measures say. Not a good time to breed for working men and women, perhaps even unpatriotic, in a nation of small shopkeepers.
Policy experts have worked for decades to get us in line with progressive European nations where these rights are taken for granted. Now they are told to put up or shut up.
But those complaining fail to understand that what they reject may save us all from the worst effects of the downturn. They are locked into a 19th-century management ethos, still think in sepia in the age of the internet, cannot unchain themselves from masculine employment practices that demonstrably reduce worker's job satisfaction and therefore commitment.
It is good that Yvette Cooper, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and Patricia Hewitt, who ran the Department for Trade and Industry, have come out for the extended rights. They point out that workers could be offered reduced hours instead of redundancy to ride the recession. Accommodating employees' needs brings qualitative gain. And that applies to men as well as women.
Sullen employees do not do their best, enforced labour is wilfully unproductive. Given some control over their lives, people work massively better. Obvious, that. With small businesses some of the proposed statutory changes will be a pain but I still say that willing and open employers will get high returns.
I decided long ago never to work set times in a workplace under rigid, often senseless rules. I wanted to be a parent, lover, daughter and friend - plus take a nap in the afternoon if I fancied. It isn't easy because I don't count the hours I put in, work through the night if necessary. But I am happy and ultra-professional. I give my employers my best and they treat me with respect. Everyone wins. Which is why we must keep the flexitime option, especially through these tough times.
Reader views (6)
As a man who has missed large parts of his childrens early years because of crap managers who didn't see why "the little wife" couldn't do parents evening without me, or a multitude of other things I missed out on, I would welcome more flexibility for both women and men in working hours.
I put in hours of unpaid "time in lieu" work which somehow got forgotten if I was 5 minutes late the next day.
I now work for myself, and when my business grows to require extra staff I will make damn sure they can work around their family life, with todays technology they can put in their hours without having to "show their face" in some meaningless office unless it's absolutely needed.
Society has to outgrow the old fashioned victorian work ethic and realise people want to work, but when it suits their lives, I find most people offered such flexibility are happier, more productive, and actually spend less time doing the work as they put the effort in because they feel more loyal to a company that treats them right.
- Pete, Brynmawr, Wales, 30/10/2008 00:25
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The problem with the real world are that "senseless rules" are often there for a reason. Shops have opening times and for some reason customers expect them to keep to these times. I worked in a large company but in an area where there were small specialised units of 3/4 people. The only way that the sort of flexibility YAB refers to is by reducing the flexibility of the other people in the team and this did cause resentment.
- Dave, London England, 22/10/2008 18:15
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When this woman has ruined this country with her mad campaign for 'human rights' in almost every walk of life, perhaps she would like to move to a country that genuinely needs a 'human rights' consultant and do her interfering so called 'good work' there. She is always harping on about 'rights' and freedoms yet we are one of the most progressive, free countries in the world. Perhaps she could return to the country of her birth as they are very much in need of some human rights guidance. She talks in riddles; I guess she's very confused and insecure.
- David H, London, 22/10/2008 16:44
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As a small business, I will be forced to make unpopular decsions when it comes to recruitment. Do I want someone here full time, every day, working hard for my business, or someone who only comes in when he/she can, in between school plays, dentist appointments, school runs and frequent bouts of sickness. Hmmm, let me see....
- Maya, middlesex, 22/10/2008 15:57
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The rights about which she speaks, we as a nation can no longer afford.
- Jeremy E, London, 22/10/2008 13:41
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Hopefully, when she wakes up from her afternnon nap, she will join us in the real world.
"But I am happy and ultra-professional"
Utter contradiction of terms from a Socialist.
- Chris, London, 22/10/2008 11:31
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