Balancing Flex Time and Face Time
— Candice Shah
Today's mounting pressures, constant demands of both professional and personal life, and increasing commute cycles, call for flex time. Flex time refers to flexible hours that full-time employees are occasionally allowed to work from home, or work remotely.
With blurring gender-specific roles, both men and women have and share family commitments outside of work. With the right job, the right profile, and the right boss, there's no reason to not be able to do justice to work at both office and home. Preset, inflexible working conditions do not work for them, and they may give up lucrative opportunities that are too rigid in favor of workable, balanced job profiles.
The argument for flex time and why flex time can work well for writers
Some companies value and insist on almost total face time. The benefit of this varies and depends on the roles that people play. In profiles that demand high interaction with others in the workplace, or where your physical presence is important to coordinate, assign tasks, or troubleshoot, flex time may not always be an efficient option. This is simply because hashing out issues may be faster in person In general, companies that insist on face time and don't offer any flex, don't really benefit, because just mandating that an employee should be at his or her desk all day doesn't guarantee high productivity. Companies should hold writers responsible for deliverables rather than face time, and offer them some flexibility, or maybe even controlled flexibility. The bottom line is that the work should get done. Whether you sit at your desk or elsewhere to do it shouldn't really count, within reasonable limits of course.
Eventually, it's all down to productivity levels. As writers, it's fair to say that a good portion of our work can be done independently – typically, after the collection of information from developers and other sources and before the detailed reviews and finalization. Of course this is not a hard and fast rule. You need to be able to make crucial judgments on when physical presence is required, and what stages in your project lifecycle call for personal interaction and meetings with others.
Cultural and individual connotations of flex time
In India, flex time is not common in many industries outside of IT. Many may not think that you are actually working when you are away from office and are working from home. People have pre-conceived notions of how you’re supposed to look when you’re working – slouched over your desk, deeply engrossed in your monitor, and exhibiting that for all to see. Relaxing at home while you get the job done, and avoiding the commute while you’re at it doesn’t always fit the picture. You may be the target of snide remarks by other employees who may not be offered such flexibility, and are not convinced that the concept really works. Not everyone gets offered flex time, it depends on your role, the company policy, and often it depends on your manager and whether he/she has had successful prior experience in getting flex time to work. Try to make light of coworkers' negativity – let them make judgments on how you spend your time while you let your results speak for you.
Staying connected when working from home
When working from home, there are some things you can do to minimize the impact of your physical absence and ensure you stay connected with your colleagues. First, don’t expect your teams to remember your work-from-home days. Alert them with a simple email so they know how to reach you on days you’re working from home. Be sure to inform your manager and others you may be functionally working with. Provide a phone number where you can be reached, and ensure that you check your official email regularly so that you don’t miss out on anything. If your company uses some form of instant messenger, use it and be available online so that others can reach you. Don’t expect your team members to plan meetings and schedules around you – be flexible to come to office if need be, even if you had planned to work from home. Reliable broadband Internet connectivity is imperative. Ensure that you can efficiently access office resources like servers, networks, version control systems, and corporate email so that working from home does not handicap you. Finally, be sure to provide (before being asked) an account of what you accomplished at home. Accountability is key and if you proactively provide status, you leave no room for doubt.
Managing and controlling your flex time
In order to make the occasional work from home successful, you need to manage your time and plan well. Try and get a clear idea of what you intend to accomplish on a work from home day. Get material and documents on the previous day from office, where you can take advantage of high Internet connectivity.
Working from home may sound great on paper, but there could be downsides. You need to be mature and responsible enough to ensure that you get at least as much work done on a work from home day as on a regular work day. Even if that means getting some work done at night when the rest of your family goes to bed. You may need to educate friends and family (people at home, extra-social neighbors, and friends who feel free to drop by at will) about the work-from-home concept and that you’re actually working and not available for long chat sessions. Otherwise, there is scope for an endless circle of distractions. With limited distractions at home, you may actually end up doing more focused work, and could potentially (quantitatively or qualitatively) achieve even more than on a regular work day.
Possible downsides of flex time
On the flip side, your manager could end up expecting even more from you just because you’re working from home – sort of like keeping you on an electronic leash and expecting output from you possibly at odd hours, just because you’re ’working from home’. Also, some companies may be turned off by the whole work from home concept just because of prior bad experiences. It’s important that organizations and managers view such instances on a case-by-case basis. One bad experience or one inefficient writer does not mean that other writers won’t be able to make a success of flex time. With well-defined work, a good tracking system, and reasonable limits, mature managers and writers should be able to make flex time work.
So what really works?
From experience, I would say that the work from home concept works best if utilized no more than once or twice a week. This ensures a good balance for both you and your employer. All said and done, face time in the office is crucial so you can physically contribute to brainstorming sessions, attend important meetings, and develop a bond with your team which typically only happens with personal interaction. You can also pick up valuable cues on what’s going on with the rest of your team.
Finding the right balance
The whole thing about flex time is a fine balancing act. In order for flex time to work, there has to be some win-win for both the employee and the employer. By offering some flexibility tied to deliverables, an employer is essentially saying, this is what you need to accomplish in x days - you make the judgment on how this can be done. By giving you this leeway, your employer or boss is giving you freedom, and with that freedom comes the responsibility to ensure that you meet or exceed expectations. As a writer, you should also be aware that there are low load and high load periods in the project lifecycle. You should put in more time and effort at crucial milestones without being asked, irrespective of whether you are working from home or office. This kind of attitude will go a long way in managers allowing you flex because they know you will give that extra bit at the required time.
Even though flexibility involves relaxed coming and going timings or working from home, when you do come into the office, make punctuality a priority. Ensure you always reach meetings on time (or five minutes earlier), so no one has the opportunity to complain. Prepare yourself for meetings by reviewing any material or source documents ahead of time, so you can contribute to the discussions. Flex time may not be openly stated as a company policy, and maybe that’s a good thing because it needs to be flexible to accommodate the needs of different groups. Most managers today are evolved enough to not tie you to a very rigid structure. Ask your manager for a workable solution for both of you. And if you ensure that you consistently deliver well, and on time, whether you come to office or not won’t end up being much of an issue.
Candice Shah currently works as a senior writer with TIBCO Software. She has over 12 years of experience spanning diverse areas ranging from working with 3D architectural perspectives, to graphic design (she designed skins that won her the second place in a worldwide contest organized by Robohelp - now owned by Adobe - and her skins ship with Robohelp), to marketing management (she worked as Marketing Manager for E-Lock Technologies), to content writing. You can reach her at candiceshah@yahoo.com. This article was written with inputs from the TIBCO India techpubs team who have managed to successfully incorporate some flex and occasional work from home in their schedules.
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