| This is continued from part five of this article series. | | | | found. Nearly half (49%) of employees would prefer |
| Please read that before you read this article. | | | | a different shift. The report also found that 39% of |
| Extended office hours for the organization: | | | | respondents said employees who use flexible work |
| This is a direct benefit to the organization. If a | | | | options are less likely to get ahead in their jobs." |
| company always has some or the other employee | | | | Another report in Law Office Management & |
| working from 6:00 AM till 8:00 PM, it will project a | | | | Administration Report (2005) mentions that |
| positive image. The clients of the company could call | | | | "According to the 2002 National Study of the |
| at 7 in the morning or 7 in the evening and receive | | | | Changing Workforce conducted by the Families and |
| support or any other relevant information they desire | | | | Work Institute (New York City; although flextime is |
| immediately. | | | | available at 68% of all the organizations polled, 79% |
| Sharing of physical resources: | | | | of employees say they would like even more |
| When two employees work at the same desk and | | | | flexibility. This includes men, women, parents, |
| computer but at different times of the day, the | | | | non-parents, employees with and without elder-care |
| company saves money as it does not have to | | | | responsibilities, employees at all earning levels, and |
| allocate additional office space, furniture and | | | | workers in goods-producing and service industries. Of |
| hardware for two employees. Two years back, I | | | | employees who have access to flextime (currently |
| used to work in a small Internet data-center. There, | | | | only 43%), 68% of men and 79% of women use it." |
| a team of fifteen employees shared five computers | | | | Thus, even though companies are providing flexibility |
| and desks. This was possible only because of flexible | | | | with work timings, employees are not really using |
| working hours. The employees worked in three shifts | | | | them due to the above mentioned reasons. |
| and hence the company could provide technical | | | | Not applicable to every job: |
| support for 24 hours with just five computers. | | | | According to Robbins and Judge (2008, p.95), |
| Flextime program as an alternative work arrangement | | | | "flextime works well with clerical tasks for which an |
| has some potential drawbacks. These are reluctance | | | | employee's interaction with people outside his or her |
| from employees, flextime is not applicable to every | | | | department is limited. It is not a viable option for |
| job, supervision problems, inadequate staffing, | | | | receptionists, sales personnel in retail stores, or similar |
| coordination challenges, increased utility costs, etc. | | | | jobs for which comprehensive service demands that |
| Let us discuss each of these problems or drawbacks | | | | people be at their work stations at predetermined |
| of the flextime program. | | | | times." Back office jobs, technical jobs like |
| Increased utility costs: | | | | programming, designing, etc., manufacturing jobs can |
| The organization experiences an increase in utility | | | | also be worthy candidates for the flextime program. |
| costs like electricity bills due to the extended working | | | | But jobs where an employee is required to be |
| hours from 6:00 AM to around 7:00 PM. This adds to | | | | present in the traditional 9-5 work hours cannot |
| the overall expenses of the organization. | | | | adopt the flextime schedule. Apart from jobs listed |
| Potential drawbacks of flextime work arrangements: | | | | above, jobs in banks, stockbroker offices, |
| Reluctance from employees: | | | | newspaper offices, senior management jobs, etc., are |
| A report from HR Focus (2004) says that "Although | | | | some for which flextime is not a viable option. Please |
| flextime is more available now, many workers are | | | | read further in part seven of this article series. |
| dissatisfied with their work schedules, the report | | | | |