Working hours Qestion

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There you go. So by you demonstrating that you didn't want to work work long hours and didn't want them to either, they soon changed their culture.

If SwissT clearly gets that message across they will change, it's just a culture that has been passed on from previous Managers..

I agree.

Just imagine that you had a Team of Lewis Hamiltons. How would you tell him to sling his hook after 8 hours? :rolleyes:
 
Just imagine that you had a Team of Lewis Hamiltons. How would you tell him to sling his hook after 8 hours? :rolleyes:

Is that 8 hours a month. He only works two hours every other week...
 
What about suggesting a 9 day in 14. I did this for a number of years and enjoyed the day off during the week. Kids to school, cook if you like, fix the Merc. Taking a couple of hours off the day does little for work life balance (for me).
 
Thanks for your suggestions.

My motivation is that I have moved from doing a very similar job to theirs in the past (during which I loved every waking minute and worked very long hours) to a more balanced life.
I have a legal responsibility to bring them under the 48 hour average (which I can do very easily but do not want to "break" the team as I change the culture).

I am not particularly well read on changing team and organisational culture - can you suggest where I might look?

Team Building days where we do fun things together are fine, in truth I actually need to break the team a little to bring them into line with my standards.

And to top it off, I feel that it is no coincidence that the team is male - long hours (I fear) will put off a number of female potential future team members.

Lets not beat about the bush...

Why are these guys working such long hours ?
How is the day to day work assigned to them ?
Why are they not completing their tasks within normal hours ?
Are there HSE issues to be considered ?

You need to give more about the situation.
 
Just imagine that you had a Team of Lewis Hamiltons. How would you tell him to sling his hook after 8 hours? :rolleyes:


Thats easy. They want to be the best, and to be the best requires discipline and structure. That means they must only get up at 7am, do 2 hours in the gym, have food, do another 2 hours in the gym, have food etc, until they have completed the assigned task which is structured. They can only do this 4 days out of 5, so they must have a rest on day 5. They must get 8 hours of sleep at night, be in bed by 11pm every night. They must stop gym training on wednesday before the race weekend. They can stay in the pit garage, Friday evening until 10pm and sat until 8pm. And they will do this as they get paid $8m a year.

In your case, you don't have that same team. However, the issue is, they have no choice but to work less hours, thats the law, and to allow them to work longer is not an option for you or the employer. Therefore you need to explain this to them. But you stated the problem is that these long hours are effecting their outside of work lives, not the work, or the team culture, or their motivation. So as I stated, its not a work issue.

You need to address the problem, not find a new one. Having them working less than 48hours on average is a requirement, not the problem. Preventing the working hours affecting them is the problem.

Write down all the things that you can see it affecting. Take the whole team, and write the problems for all. do not make it personal and do not single one out. Unless the reality is, its only affecting one of the team outside of work.

You have a duty of care, so you are within your rights to impose time off on them. All you want to do is have them agree to your requirements, without pissing them off.

So tell them what you need to do, and why you need to do it.

The requirmements are they can no longer work more than 48hrs a week. (Get the exact regulation wording). You want them to help you to work out how we can all acheive this?

Tell them the benefits of doing so means that you will no longer have the potential for (list the problems that you can see) and therefore its a benefit to them, and it complies with the law. Thats a win win.

If they can't see that, or they don't want to change, then tell them, as of 1st Jan, you are imposing a new work regime which means the employer is no longer breaking the law. I am sure they don't want you to break the law, so they will reluctantly agree, as its not your laws you are imposing. you have been given them from the EU. Its you job to manage that, and as an employee yourself, you cannot expose your employer to any risk of non compliance with the law. They are also required under the same acts to comform with relevant legislation.

Therefore, they have no choice.

So, do a presentation of what needs to change (long hours), what the law states (thats why it needs to change) and what the benefits are ( thats the bit they buy into) explaining its not your law but your job to manage ( that keeps them on your side as that, actually, is the reality of the situtaion)


You can do this in the office enviroment under a group discussion. Say that you have no choice, but you can't work out which way to move it forward so you are aksing them if they have any ideas you can adapt, implement, use or ignore. They will give you the answer. You must relate that fact that they have no choice so leaving things as they are, is not an option.

How does working 8 hours each, together, rather than 15 eachs,together, break up a team? Why do you need to break up the team?

You want them to work less hours a week! Thats nothing to do with team work. You want work to stop affecting their outside lives, thats nothing to do with team work. You have to comply with the law, thats nothing to do with team work.


So back to my first post. It has nothing to do with work. The problem is the long hours affecting outside of work lives. Don't try to solve that problem by creating another like breaking the team.

I think you need to write down all the problems you have seen otuside of work. Write down the law you have to comply with. Write down the options of smarter working you have identifed, how they will solve the problems you have seen, comply with the law, and the downsides. Then ask them what they think! 5 brains are better than 1, and you broach the subject, give them time to think about an answer, and you will already have shown, that at some point they have to adjust. You want them to do it willingly, but do it they will whatever.

Stick to the facts.

If you had not seen the problem outside of work, you would not have to do anything, therefore it was not a problem. Now that you have, you need to do something. Are you the top man in the industry you are in? I suspect not, so I guess there will be someone above who can advise you. Go to him/her with your ideas and discuss the problem and see if they can shed any light on it or how to tackle it. if anything else, that will inform them that a problem may be about to happen.

The team building type course away day etc, is not about motivation. Its about getting them outside of their work to solve a different set of problems to see who has what skills you have not previously identfied. It maybe about trying to educate them to see the bigger picture, it may be educating them about law they need to know and its such a boring subject you wanted to inject fun into the day by having a laugh making ball reservoirs etc.

You have a duty to train them to do the job correctly. to do that, you need to see what they can do, what they are less good at, who the natural leaders are, how they learn, what skills they have you have never seen etc.

Thats the motivation for the course, but you will need specialist course providers to suggest the days tasks, and sling in the problem just before lunch, they solve that, and think about it while eating. then end up doing tumbledowns before an early finish and a night out/night in with the family etc.

Their are management consultants who can give the same advice, for a fee, but they may come in and look at the problem, and give you several answers. This has an advantage in that they are the people who have indentified this issue, so they are the nasty ones, and much as you hate to agree with them, considering they cost you a fortune to consult for you, they have given you no choice. Again keeps the guys on your side.


The bit about females not wanting to work there is nonsense I am afraid. Thats just another problem you perceive or are trying to generate to show that this situtation needs to be addressd and a very blunt way of doing so if you don't mind me saying.

You have identified the problem, and I have highlighted it. Unless thats not the real problem.

They can't work more than 48hrs, over whatever the time scale is. end of. Focus on that, not the rest. Once that is solved, the other issues will self cure as a direct result of that.

" you want to be a family friendly employer, and you do not want people living to work"


And as its nearly Christmas, do not do anything till after it. New year, fresh start.
 
There are many different techniques for this kind of issue, but it will depend a lot on exactly what the nature of the work is. If we are talking about office based, not shifts, just long hours culture, the 9 day fortnight can be extremely effective. For other overworking satff I have on occasion used an individual technique that gave someone a couple of days off - often whole days are easier to achieve than shorter days. You could start to celebrate achievement out of work - start with your firefighter, article in the in-house journal or something - the message trickles in that this company wants its staff to be well rounded and enjoying balanced lifestyles. Also, lead by example - do you feel awkward leaving at a reasonable time? (been there myself!) - brave it - don't just slope off, wander in to them and announce 'Right, I'm off, that's enough for me for today'. etc etc etc....but it would be really helpful to know a bit more about what you team does and how they do it.
 

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