During the pandemic, more and more people have had changes made to have a flexible work schedules. They’ve had to adapt to different work environments, changes in their children’s schooling, and more that means the regular 9-5 doesn’t work for them anymore.
If you’re one of those people, then you can start negotiating for a more flexible work schedule. There are so many benefits to not working the same schedule every day, and your employer may not even be aware of them. Here’s how you can negotiate for a schedule that suits you better.
Think about the impact of a flexible schedule on your work
Before you do anything, you should think about whether a flex schedule would work for you. In many roles, you can easily get everything done no matter when you work. In other roles though, the work needs to be done in a specific time frame.
Consider your work role. If you were on a flexible schedule, how would that impact your work? If you’re not in the office at a certain time, are you going to miss important things? For example, if you’re not in the office at 9am, are you going to miss important meetings?
Also, think about the effect a flexible schedule would have on your colleagues. Can you still handle all your work, or would they have to pick up the slack?
If you can do your job on a flexible work schedule while still being in the loop in the office, then you can proceed to the next step.
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Check your company policy on flexible work schedule
Before you even approach your management team, get a company of your company policy. You need to see if there’s a policy on flexible working schedules that are already written out. If so, that’s going to make negotiating a lot easier for you as it’s already in the policy.
Even if there isn’t, that doesn’t mean you should give up. It just means you’ll have to convince the team that there really should be a policy on the matter.
Also, if you can, ask other colleagues about their experiences with flex working. You’ll get some more info on how it’s perceived in the company. For example, if you find out someone was able to get permission to work from home, but had to take a pay cut to do so, that’s valuable information to have.
Test your chosen schedule
You obviously can’t try flex working for real at this point, but you can stress test it and see whether you can find any problems in it. For example, think about what would happen if you were in a time zone behind your colleagues. Would there be any issues in communication? How would you attend meetings if you aren’t physically there?
If you can pinpoint the problems now, you can come up with solutions when it’s time to start negotiating.
Be flexible in your negotiations
If you’re negotiating for a flexible schedule, you should be flexible yourself in the meeting with your management. They may have questions that you hadn’t thought of, and there may be issues that hadn’t occurred to you. Listen to the team and be ready to change up your plan so everyone is happy.
Use COVID-19 as a case study
The pandemic has shown a lot of workers that it’s easier than they’d think to work flexibly. You can use this as an example when you’re bargaining with management. Share examples of how your work improved during the lockdown as you had to adapt to a new working style. Did your management improve, or were you more productive?
Having some solid numbers and evidence here will go a long way towards convincing your management that flex working is right for you. If you can show that it will benefit the company at large, then you’ll have a lot to work with.
As you can see, if you plan ahead and have evidence backing you up, then you can easily negotiate for the flexible working schedule that you want. You may find that your management is more receptive than you’d think, thanks to COVID-19 too. Use these strategies to get a schedule that works for you and your needs.
Author’s bio: Kendra Beckley works with Research paper writing services as a business development manager and editor. Her work focuses on helping businesses expand their reach and finds new markets. She also writes articles on various topics for the service.