Reading Reading and Use of English - Part 7 Gapped text 41 You will read an article about today's public sector working hours. Before you read, discuss the following in pairs. 1) What do you think are the advantages. and/or disadvantages of the following aspects of working hours for 2) employees? 1b) employers? ‘long hours * overtime #9105 « early starts * working from home + inflexble/igid working times + flei-time a four-day week irregular hours * part-time work « time off 2 Look at the ttle ofthe arco. why might employees today need to ‘geta lif’? Geiting a Life Matthew Brown on how one council solved its staff tumover problem by giving workers control over their hours. ‘Six months ago, Carol Wyatt was on the verge of leaving her job as an inquiry officer in the housing benefit department of Merton council, south London. it wasn't that she didn’t tke it; she had even taken a salary cut to take the post in November last year. But the journey to work was taking its tl 7 Normal flexi-time did not apply to the job and Wyatt told her line manager she wanted to leave. She was not the only one. As the authority's assistant chief executive, Keith Davis, readily admits, the council was hardly what they call an employer of choice. and when they need it to meet other commitments as long as they make it up and mest their targets. Now as little 2s half an hour can be taken, even at short notice. Previously, everyone had to book a half day's leave in advance. a (Other people arrive later in the moming after taking thei children to school, or take time out when they hav appointments; some people like to work late, when it i Guieter; and others work at home some days so that they ‘can be there when the plumber calls, or the new sofa is delivered. 5 2 Prompted by the public services union Unison, Merton applied for — and won ~ £50,000 from the government's challenge fund to pilot @ ‘work-life belance’ scheme in three departments, including housing and council benefits. A programme was devised after a series of focus groups, run by consultancy Briony Group, in which ‘employees were asked to say how they would like to ‘work in an ideal world. Staff raised concerns about rigid ‘working tines and inflexible core hours and came up with suggestions for a four-day week and homeworking 3 So what changed? Office hours were extended, so that people can now work any time between 7 am and 7 pm, and core hours were abolished. Staff can take time off as, Davis is adamant that the scheme is not a backhanded way of improving council services and extending working hours. He says: “Of course, there are some basic rules mainly, that the service comes first. People have to ‘commit to that. But we're finding that staff are working together to cover each other. They come up with the arrangements themselves. There's a lot of self-rostering.” 6 Far from taking it away, Davis is now extending the ‘scheme across the authority, introducing six-month trials In three more departments this month. He is even looking at ways of introducing a nine-day fortnight. “Now we're asking: ‘Why can’t it work?" rather than just saying: ‘It ‘can't work.’ The only thing that could stile itis lack of imagination.‘According to deputy benefits manager Rebecca Strang, it was clear ‘within two weeks that the new system was going to work well for all concemed. "It made all our lives easier," she says. "The staff ‘were happier, team morale went up, and there was more incentive to finish workloads. If the new system was taken away now, there'd bbe World War lin my office." ‘She had to be in for 9 am, when the phones started ringing, but that ‘meant caring for her elderly mother (and her dog) every morning before braving the rush hour traffic. "| used to get quite stressed sitting on the bus, hardly moving, knowing there was nothing | ‘could do about it,” she says. “I don't handle that sort of thing too well” Although not all ideas were taken up, the pilot has been an unqualified success: sickness levels in the housing benefit section have dropped by half, productivity is up, a backlog of cases has been dealt with - and Wyatt is still there. Merton was recently held up by the government as a model of good practice for public ‘sector employers, and has published a national guide to work-life balance, funded jointly with Unison, ‘Asurvey published last month rams this point home. It reveals that half the employees interviewed were unaware of the job options (on offer to make their Ives easier. Managers also confided that while they sympathised with workers’ needs, it was diffcutt to agree to requests for flexible working hours or unpaid leave when staff were often already stretched to the limit. “We had recruitment problems, high levels of sickness and high staff turnover,” he says. "And there was a general feeling that staff morale was low. We felt we needed to do something pro- active." ‘The cynic may think itis all a good management ploy to increase working hours and produce a flexible workforce, but that's not how the union sees it. “The main thing i that it empowers staf,” says Sean Cunnisse, Unison’s branch secretary at the authority. "Although a manager can sill say ‘No’, now they have to justify their decision, rather than staff having to justify why they should be allowed time off.” Wyatt now goes to work early, arriving well before 9 am to avoid ‘the moming traffic, and leaves mid-aftemoon. “It has made all the difference,” she says. “It really does make you feel you've got more control over your life. tt gives me a chance to organise my working time around my other needs.”