What flexible work and family arrangements has your workplace introduced?

Question

It is important to embed flexible working arrangements that assist employees to have a better balance between their work and non work responsibilities into the workplace culture.

What has your workplace done to improve work/life balance and what do you think would be a great way to improve the way your workplace operates in this area?

Federal Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations - Joe Hockey

Answer 1

My work place has some of the following and the rest are personal opinions.
1. Flexible start finish times to allow people to meet outside commitments (kids to school) or just take advantage of personalities. Earlybirds should be able to start early and the night owls start and finish later. As a night owl .. I dont go out and party but by nature I am not much of a morning person and am most aware and on the ball (whether I get up early or late) after lunch through to 11pm. I actually work 11am to 8pm.
*Flexible hours allow the business to to operate over extended hours allowing staff of 9-5 businesses to deal with us at slow times or attend to personal business without having to take time off work or loose lunchtime.
2. Flex time.. (the abilty to "bank" unpaid overtime hours and take that time off work at a later date). This is really good for covering inconveniences such as transport problems making you late for work, or people who just want to manage their personal life better by being able to take time when its needed (attend a school sports carnival, dentist appointments etc).
3. Parental leave. Women are often disadvanteged in the work place due to pregnancy and young children. Many workplaces still consider woment unreliable if they are of child bearing age for that reason. There is a definite preference for men in mangement as they are seen as being "reliable"(wont be off work for long periods of time). Long periods of leave is disruptive as the business must find a casual/short term replacement and often has to train someone. Guys shoudl be allowed the same amount of leave as women and both types should be flexible to allow periods of on and off leave so that the mother can come back early on part time basis rotating with the father who can periodically stay at home with the child. Both parent then get to enjoy the early days of the child and reamain working with a reasonable salary to reduce mortgage pressure.
4. Purchased leave. This is where people can in effect take paid unpaid leave... (What??). We do have this and (people with children & a few grandparents- use this a lot to cover holiday periods) the person can buy 2 -6 weeks of leave and their salary for that period is averaged out over a year to get a weekly amount that is deducted from their pay. Its also good for high stress jobs as you can take a month of wrk every 6 months for a bit of a break.

One complaint that I and others have had is that our and other workplaces wont train people or let them develop higher levels of skill incase they leave for a better paid job. My arguement is that skills make the workforce more flexible and better able to cover for people on leave. There have been numerous instances of people not being able to take leave because the lack of skilling meant no one could be found to cover for the person going on leave. (particularly noticeable when a lot of staff want to go on leave over school holidays the numbers are there but not the skills)

Answer 2

I am lucky to have an employer who is very understanding of my needs outside the workplace, however it is not easy for him to be highly flexible due to the nature of our workplace so together we do our best to keep each other satisfied. It's all about give and take.

To improve the way my workplace and others operate I would suggest more job sharing options - so that two people could share one job, maybe working three days a week each.
I think this is a great initiative that isn't taken advantage of enough.

Answer 3

I think you will find a lot of workplaces say they have introduced new arrangements and publicise what great employers they are (like mine).

However if you try to access any of these arrangements you run into brick walls. It is all at their discretion, so even though they say they offer it - they can easily deny you access to it. Such as work from home, Flexible hours and job sharing. I am not the only one who has tried and been knocked back on these arrangments.

It is ok to promote that you want a fair work/life balance for your employees but is false advertising if you then don't follow thru.

Answer 4

Not only does my workplace and my employer do absolutely nothing to accomodate my family arangements but they have taken away our penalty rates.
We have been told that if we don't come to work on time and if we take sick days or family leave days off we will be sacked!! One of my workmates took longer than she should have for morning tea one day last week because she had to call her mother who was babysitting to find out how her sick child was. The boss got really angry with her and he sacked her - right there on the spot!

WorkChoices and these IR Laws are THE WORST thing that has ever happened to the working people of this country. All the choice is with the employers. Those of us who have to work for a living are once again getting trodden down and used and abused. You think you can scare people into voting for you by holding up the unions as a big boogieman? I was never a union fan ........but after this experience I would welcome a union with open arms into my workplace now.

You and John Howard might pretend that most employers are kind, benevolent and reasonable people but the reality is that most, especially small to medium businesses, are scungy, money grubbing, tyrants who ONLY care about the profit margin and see the people who work for them as nothing more than an inconvienent cost.

A great way to improve the way my workplace operates would be to get rid of WorkChoices and bring back fair wages and decent unfair dismissal laws. Bring back some security and protection for working people!

WorkChoices are the reason you will lose this election. You can't do things like this to the people who put you in power in the first place and get away with it.

Answer 5

I worked casual at a large supermarket chain while I studied, and they no such balances. Whatever they said you worked, you worked. That could mean anytime between 7am and 12 am, and on any day except Good Friday and Christmas day. You had to give them 2 weeks notice, and if it was during a busy time, they would be very narky about it. They wouldn't roster me during my actual class times, but they would roster me until midnight when I had a class at 9. My boss didn't care about my studies at all, and didn't respect my needs for a work/life balance. This was the same for all the workers at this supermarket. It was so bad I had no choice but to quit.
And this was before workchoices.

I have been on the search for a job ever since, and the bosses seem to be even worse. You have to be available for them, even if you only work a few hours per week. Ever since workchoices has been introduced the small amount of penalty rates we used to get have all disappeared. The truth, is, it is almost impossible to find an un-qualified casual job that allows you to balance work, studies and life.

Mr. Hockey, if you want Australia to have fliexible workplaces that allow for a strong work/life balance, you have to tear up workchoices. The fairness test has so far been a disaster, as the department just aren't checking them. Businesses also think they can get away with anything, and people think they have no rights anymore, no matter how many ads you run.

The thing is, there will always be businesses that do the wrong thing. Before they were not allowed to, now they are. When they run their business that way, it forces their competitors to follow. It's fine if you're skilled, but if you aren't, it's a nightmare finding a fair job. Please, if you are re-elected, review workchoices thoroughly and introduce a system that encourages the work/life balance. Remember who you are supposed to represent: the people, not the businesses.

Answer 6

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ... hold on a second while I pick myself up off the ground from laughing,

I work for a small firm (5 people), the office hours are 8:30 - 5:00 with lunch 1:00 - 2:00. I usually get to the office between 7-7:30am but that doesn't mean I ever get to leave early or take a longer lunch. I don't get paid overtime or time in lieu.

I once was planning a trip up the coast and wanted to avoid traffic so I organised with work that I would leave at 3pm. I arrived at work that day at 6am but on my pay slip the next week it still had 2 hours leave deducted!!! When I asked why I was told that it didn't matter how many hours I worked, just whether I was at the office during the standard hours :)

Luckily I am old enough to know my value for the firm & said that if that was how they saw it I would start work at 8:30am from then on & they backfooted & gave me my two hours back, but I still need to ask permission from the boss to leave 10 minutes early even if I have been in the office since crack of dawn & all my work is finished for the day.

Still I needed cheering up today & your question has given me a chuckle.

Oh how I miss my days as a public servant with flexitime & a standard 35 hour week.

Answer 7

Joe If I may call you that, thanks for the Question.

As a servant of the state I am happy to report that there is an ongoing review of leave including introduction of further maternity and paternity leave.

Unfortunetly I am aware that this is not the case across the board.

Especially with Queensland not having compulsury paid maternity leave for all mothers leaving the workplace.

I think it is disgusting in this day and age that mothers can take maternity leave for 12 months and a company expects the mother to survive on the baby bonus alone.

This happened to a close friend of mine and well as i said i am disgusted. The baby bonus would barely cover the expenses from the hospital let alone leave any money to help pay the ever looming bills that you incur in any household.

anyway broaching the subject keep up the good work joe, I think you are a facinating human being and well bring some reality to the sometimes aloof world of politics. (the fly antics yesterday cracked me up by the way)

Anyway if you can address this issue at your convienence that would be appreciated.

Answer 8

I've just finished working on a cattle station. We had a great choice: We could start work when the boss said (usually 5am, but sometimes as early as 3am), work until it was too dark to do any more (with daylight saving it ended up being about 7pm), get paid buggerall for an 8 hour day (and not complain), or:
we could leave.
I sometimes wonder if we'd be better off emigrating to another third world country. It's time for change I think.
Judging from most people I know, it's Industrial relations that's going to bring your government down.

Answer 9

I am not working at the moment, I have given up looking for work, because I have a very elderly father who needs care, and I could not find a job where I could work just two or three full days a week so I could spend more time with him.
Lots of companies give concessions to married people with kids, but I am a mature-aged,single person with only an old man to care for so I don't rate any special assistance whatsoever. It stinks.

Answer 10

None since AWAs were introduced by you and the federal government. We're worse off under our AWA. Its all good for federal ministers on huge pay packets - why would you need to genuinely care about or be in touch with average working Australians?

I'll be voting for a Rudd government that will get rid of unfair AWAs. I don't think you've done a good job at all as Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations.

Be honest do you really care about average working Australians? You wouldnt have a clue about them and clearly do not care about them.

The image you try to portray in the media is not fooling the Australian people. They can tell a genuine politician when they see one and can see through your act.

Answer 11

Joe I work as a security Guard if you wanted a good example of the opposite then have a look into this industry. We work 24hr 7 days this is our current rates. Day shift 12 hours award rate only $15.68 per hour.
Night shift add 20% 12 hours.Saturday day or night time&half.Sunday double time day or night.Not able to go home sick if cant be replaced or if you do termination.I am on an AWA and we do not get above the award rate as a trade off for extra time worked.eg i have worked many times 60 to 72 hrs in a week on the above rates no higher rate here mate.This industry needs help we all get in to it for one reason or another but are greatly misled.I am and my fellow workers are in charge of looking after a mutimillion dollar supply chain yet our responsabilitise are overlooked and the risk factor tell me would you do this work for this pay?these are as per the award.I would not expect a reply because eveyone i have spoken to puts it in the to hard bin. E-Mail [e-mail]