"Flexible time off"

[capitalcityguy]

My experience is probably not typical working in the utility industry, but I can tell you that it really would not work out at my office.

Here's the issue at my work: managers come to have low expectations from chronic underperformers. They accept poor performance from them, giving them average raises, etc. These same poor performers would probably take a lot of these "unlimited" paid days off, and since expectations of them are already low they will not be penalized. In my line of work, you only get fired if you are doing something against the law or you just don't come in to work at all, so becoming expendable is not a concern for poor performers.

High performers get above average raises and better promotion opportunities, but above average raises vs. average raises is probably a difference of 1-2% or so. High performers may have a better shot at getting a promotion, but promotion opportunities are limited so the top 10% performers may get those opportunities but the rest of the high performers are stuck high and dry. Promotions do come with increased pay and benefits, but also proportionate increased responsibilities.

The net result is that poor performers will essentially become validated in their poor performance. The expectations for them are low, so they will no longer be doing anything wrong by just leaving work. All they have to do is say their are getting their work done. No change there from what they have been doing before, except that it is now above board. High performers will continue to work hard, but as studies have shown they will now likely take less time off than before. Their base pay differential will be about the same as under the old system, but the gap will close because of the extra time off that poor performers will get.

My GUESS is there isn't enough competition in the utility industry to make the workplace overly competitive and thus the rewards are somewhat neutralized? In other words, it is not like there is 6 or so utility companies in town fighting for the same workforce.

 

[bringmagicback]

at the company I use to work for, flex time meant that if you work 8-5, you could work 7-4 one day or 9-6 another as long as you got your 40 hours in. It also meant that if you have something to do tomorrow at 3, you could work 8-3 that day, then just work 8-7 to make it up.

Problem was, every women would have to take kids somewhere pick kids up from somewhere sick kid today etc etc and then never make the time up. Half the staff would leave at 3 every day and never make the time up. The best was people would leave early and then say that they came in at 6 am and make the time up but really they showed up at 745. It was all on the honor system.

Time off was figured on for every so many hours you work, you earn an hour of PTO. In 3 years I accumulated something like 30 days pto and they said i had to take it or lose it. Most people would take their pto days but not report them. My direct coworker was gone so much I started keeping track, she took something like 60 days off in one year lol, never reported any of them.

 

[CySmitty]

I am so jealous if I they gave me "unlimited" I would take 6 weeks a year. Someone has to set the example.

As it is I work with a bunch of old people who have a to much vacation the book so this year we all get to take 7 days of vacation (or unpaid) in december. Thanks guys I love using half of my vacation during the holidays season when flight are six times more expensive.

 

[khardbored]

I wonder how this is going to work out with sick employees (since PFG doesn't have sick days, just PTO for everything)? Will they start giving a few sick days to salaried employees each year, or just part of the programme, if someone's sick a lot we'll "deal with it."

 

[CYdTracked]

I don't work at PFG but flex time at the company I work for means you can work whatever hours you want during the week as long as you log 40 hours total. My manager is pretty good about letting us set our own hours and making up time if you have something going on so say I have to leave for an appointment in the middle of the day I may come in an hour early or 30 minutes early for a few days to make up for the time I was gone for that appointment so I didn't have to use PTO for it. I had a manager once that didn't want you to use your lunch break for those kind of things so his policy was if you were going to be gone for over an hour or try to make it up by coming in early or staying late you need to request time off because he expected you to work the same hours every day. We aren't supposed to go over 40 hours unless working on a project that is paying for OT hours so we are to go home once we hit 40 if it's not project related or we have the option to either flex out the hours or take the OT and depending on what I have going on that week say I log 10 hours of OT early in the week I may just say I am going to flex out my hours and not work on Friday so essentially I'm kind of getting a free day off when I do that. Usually I still get some OT pay even though my actual hours are just over 40 because if you work 12 or more hours in a day which usually happens when I have to stay late for an after hours project those hours qualify for a premium pay rate.

We also don't have sick days, it's all just in 1 PTO bank which I love because (knock on wood) I have to really feel terrible to call in sick so essentially all my PTO days are personal days and I usually budget them just right so I am still able to take a full week off in the summer while taking some long weekends here and there for other things and still have enough left at the end of the year to not have to work from about Dec 22 or 23rd through the end of the year which is a nice break at a time of the year when you want to be able to spend time with extended family. Not sure if I ever had a year where I was in a pinch for not having enough PTO days left, usually I am trying to find days to get down to the max of 5 days that we can carry over to the next year.

 

[JY07]

In the last 5 years a large portion of our staff has been allowed to start working from home. I do it 2 days a week but they wouldn't say a word if I moved to 3 or 4 days a week.

They are very flexible on the hours. I go in at 6am but just in my department we have people that start work anytime between 6 and 10am. I could change this to 8am tomorrow if I wanted and I knew it wouldn't affect the products I support.

I can take off in the middle of the day if I have everything covered. I can take a 3 hour lunch if I wanted. On the other hand, I don't mind working a few hours on the weekends if I need to get something done and that's the same for my co-workers.

I work at a beautiful campus where I can sit and work wherever I want. If I want to go work for 8 hours in the international cafe I can do that. I'm just feet from our very own Starbucks.

Little perks like the ability to wear jeans year round, parking so easy that I take 20 steps to the skywalk, they let me connect my phone to the corporate wi-fi and I can stream what I want, short term disability, employee stock purchase plan, 401k matching, more woman in management than men, etc.

In the IT world at least they are very open to change. You come up with a good idea, they will research and possibly implement. I came up with an idea a few months ago that I didn't think anyone would like and just last week they told me that it would be part of an upcoming code bash.

You've just described almost every IT job in DSM (minus the skywalk part: if you aren't downtown the 20 steps gets you to the actual building door)