How to Find the Right, Adaptable Office Schedule, Pitch the Proposal and Convince your Boss to Say Yes!  

The times, they are a-changin’. A 9-to-5 schedule just doesn’t fit everyone’s life. Fortunately, many employers are becoming more open to flexible work times. There are several variations, including:

• Part-time hours: When the 40+ hour work week doesn’t leave enough time for other responsibilities
• Job-sharing: When co-workers combine hours to make up one position
• Compressed workweek: When those 40+ hours are squished into fewer than five days
• Telecommuting: When an employee works part-time or full-time from home
• Extended maternity: When a mom receives more than the standard time off for a new arrival
• Performance-based: When all that counts is getting the work done well by a certain date

And why would anyone need the options above? Reasons differ, because situations differ. People may need flexible hours because:

• Parents need to care for children when they aren’t in school, and daycare expenses take big chunks out of paychecks.
• Adult children need to care for aging parents.
• The commute is a long, long, long waste of time. Some workers want to wipe out their commute entirely, while others would rather deal with it fewer times per week, or outside of rush hour.
• Other people in the workplace are distracting: too many meetings, too many people “stopping by,” too many interruptions for assistance…just too much.

If you find yourself reading this, nodding and saying, “Yeah, that’s me,” maybe you’re a candidate for flexible work hours. Why shouldn’t you join the party?

But don’t suggest this to your boss on a whim. Instead, be prepared when presenting the idea, and you’ll be more likely to get an “OK” or at least a “let’s give it a try.” Here are tips on how to make your best case.

Find a Fit
Decide which flexible time arrangement best suits your needs. Then figure out which parts of your job — if any — are consistent with that format. Usually these are times when you’re working on a computer or phone. If you need a lot of face time with others, it might be harder to make a case for change.

Get the Flex-Time Thumbs-Up: Don’t just guess at how you spend your time; rather, keep track for a least a week. How long are you in meetings, on the phone, on the computer, with clients — you know what you do. Document where the time goes.  This is the first step in pulling together info that will help you and your boss move forward with this idea.

Find the Facts
Next, do a little digging. Has your company already established guidelines about flexible scheduling? Check your employee handbook. Do any office mates already have nonstandard hours? Pick their brains about how it came about, and how it’s working out.

Look at similar businesses. What are competitors doing? This info shouldn’t be too difficult to find. Working from home has exploded. Since 2005, work from home arrangements have increased 80 percent, becoming quite common. So find other examples, and your proposal won’t seem unconventional.

Examine the research. Studies show many benefits of flexible scheduling, such as:

• Most home-based employees worked either just as hard or harder than they had in the office, according to research from the University of Illinois.
• When Stanford University researchers examined a Chinese company, they discovered working from home increased output by more than 13 percent.
• Researchers from Purdue University discovered employee turnover decreased when flexibility scheduling was permitted. That’s probably because 74 percent of millennials say flexible work schedules are a priority in their job search.

Pinpoint the Perks
Identify the benefits of flex time. But not for you — for your employer. All bosses, even the kindest, most understanding ones, have the same bottom-line goal: a successful business.

The new arrangement can’t help just you. If there’s no upside to the company, why should they take the chance? Fortunately, you already have data for this. Remember that work inventory you just did above? Use information from there.

Get the Flex Time Thumbs-Up: List all the aspects of your job that may not be readily apparent to your manager:

• Maybe you have many conference calls outside of regular business hours.
• Perhaps a long commute limits time you’re available for meetings.
• If you’re asking for fewer hours overall, that’ll save the company money.
• Look around. Is space an issue? Will it help if you give up your spot when you work from home?
• Can you share an area with others who also have flexible schedules?

Next, add some icing to the cake. Volunteer to do a little more work as a thank-you for the flex time opportunity. Just make sure it’s something you can reasonably handle. If you’re trying to cut back your hours, don’t take on a project puts you right back where you started, with overtime a weekly necessity.

Prepare the Proposal
You’ve done the prep work. It’s time to devise a formal presentation for your boss. You’ve got the information you need. Just write it up and ask for a meeting, where you:

• Identify your flexible scheduling option.
• Describe how your new schedule fits into the workplace. Include specific timelines, coworker, client and supervisor interactions, contact information and problem-solving approaches.
• If you’ll be working from home, specify what tools and resources you’ll have in place to ensure success.
• Include any compensation changes.
• List benefits for the company.
• Propose a trial period, and recommend ways to evaluate its success.
• Remind your supervisor of your productivity by quoting previous performance reviews.

Plan for Protests
If flexible scheduling isn’t common in your workplace, be prepared for pushback. Take a deep breath, and remember that you’ve collected research to support your position. Have responses ready for common scenarios, such as:

• The fact that not everyone else will want flexible scheduling. People’s lives and work styles are different. Treating all employees fairly doesn’t mean they must all conform to one workday model.
• The reality that it’s not always necessary for everyone to be in the office at the same time. You’ll be available for meetings, but your inventory shows a lot of your work is done independently.
• The apprehension that you will be dumping your responsibilities on your coworkers. Clearly, your evaluations show that’s not your style. And your proposal has laid out, in detail, how you plan to accomplish everything.
• The concern that your priority remains that the work gets done. Yes, of course your priority is that all work is completed on time. And a flexible schedule will likely help you do that better.

Get the Flexible Work Schedule You Need

So, you’ve done the analysis, made a strong case for your position and answered all objections. Your part is over. Now you wait for your supervisor’s response.

If your boss is hesitant about any change, be prepared with a more modest proposal. Instead of changing your hours radically, suggest a modest shift. Or ask to work from home just one day a week, to start.

If the answer is “No,” don’t give up on the idea all together. Listen to the feedback you get, and recalibrate. Maybe this is the wrong time of the year for a change. Perhaps you need to prove yourself a bit more.

Take the boss’s concerns to heart. Then try, try again!