What Your Boss Wants You to Know About Flextime

Aren't we all tired of highfalutin' consultants preaching flextime to us from their leather-upholstered chairs? Hey, if my job consisted of telling other people how to work, I could work from home, too.

Wait...that's what I actually do. And I do manage my virtual team from home. But I've put in my time in the trenches, and I grew up with a mom who worked the graveyard shift as an intensive care nurse, so I've got an inkling as to what flextime means beyond the ivory tower.

That's why I was delighted to make the acquaintance of Ellen Kossek, a professor of human resources and labor relations at Michigan State University. She studies flexwork from the ground up, not from the executive suite down. She figures out the disconnects between bosses and staff that prevent everyone from making the most of this powerful, popular but underutilized productivity tool.

Employees love the idea of flexwork, but they're not always on board with the gritty details. If you're trying to cajole your boss onto the flexwork bandwagon, here are three things Kossek says you need to know.

1. Emergencies do not equate to flexwork. It's a cold-hearted boss who won't release an employee for a family emergency. Sick kids, flooded basements, car accidents, lost Blackberries: bosses get it. They do. But emergencies are, by definition, exceptions. Getting a few hours or a few days to deal with the genuinely unexpected is within the scope of human decency. That becomes a problem when the emergencies become a routine. Then you're taking advantage of your boss, and she won't appreciate that. So when she cracks down on emergency abuse, don't think she's against flexwork. She's against manipulation.
2. A flextime worker needs to adapt to management's needs, too. What looks like a reasonable arrangement today may not be tomorrow, if a deadline changes or two key employees quit. Flexwork has to flex upwards, not just towards the employees. Employees need to understand what matters most," says Kossek.
3. Don't ask for under the table special arrangements. Your boss tries not to play favorites. If you ask for special, off-the-books arrangements, you are most definitely not acting like a team player. You put your boss in a lose-lose situation. Others will inevitably find out about your special deal - after all, you'll be enjoying hours they aren't - and they'll ask for their own special deals. Your boss will soon have on his hands exactly the mess that made him fear flexwork to begin with: an uncoordinated jumble of conflicting schedules impossible to track and rife with petty jealousies. Here's how to avoid that, advises Kossek: propose that flexwork plans be developed as a group exercise. Your point of flex might mesh with your co-worker's can't-bend. See where your trade offs balance amongst your team. Be the solutions to each other's problems. In a couple of days I'll tell you more about how to achieve this state of flex nirvana.