Many employers are reluctant to embrace flexible working even despite the technological advances in recent years. There are many roles where bodies are required to be in situ but many roles particularly in the legal sector where you can work anywhere and anytime within reason. Over the years, I have helped many employers with their flexible working requests received but the level of open mindedness of the managers involved differed widely.
Where there is talk of flexible working for all on the cards, rather than those with children or caring responsibilities alone, perhaps it is time to have a more open mind. It of course depends on the role and to a certain degree the individual but for professionals it should not be that difficult to embrace.
How is this possible you may ask? Well the innovations we have, mean that working practices have changed vastly even over the last 2/3 years. Take my working day for example, my ipad is never switched off, I have access to my emails at any time of day and I can take it anywhere I go. I arranged a meeting with a colleague just last week as we both happened to be “on-line” at almost 11 at night. I have access to email normally during the entirety of my waking hours and similarly my iphone is never far away. I’m connected most of the time. Some of my work of course must be done during core hours but a lot of drafting etc can be done at evenings and weekends if I chose to do so given I have remote access whenever I like. By working in this way I can attend my daughter’s sports day for once and then make that time up when I chose to. So providing the client care is never compromised does it matter when and where I do the work? Especially as it is likely to lead to greater job satisfaction when we are all after the elusive work life balance so regularly mentioned but so rarely achieved in traditional roles.
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