MORE WORK, MORE PAY?

Research background to the debate
As the pressures of working life have increased, and so too the hours we spend at work, employers have increasingly given staff the chance of taking time off, instead of paid overtime.

According to a survey last year by EU agency the European Foundation for the Improvement of Working and Living Conditions, more than half of all businesses with more than 10 employees now offer some kind of flexitime.

Almost 40% allow time to be banked so workers can take surplus accrued time off at a later date – most accept whole days off in lieu. But the recession and ongoing economic slump have increased the demands of the workplace, with managers under growing pressure to achieve more for less, and staff bearing the brunt of this through increased workload and working hours.

Although the European Working Time Directive states that employees should not be made to work more than 48 hours a week without prior written agreement, the giving of time off in lieu is still a matter of discretion for individual companies. Because of this, there can be no guarantee for employees that they will be rewarded with extra time off for the additional hours they work.

“YES, MANAGERS SHOULD REWARD EXTRA HOURS IN THE SLUMP”

James Sleater, co-founder of bespoke tailoring service Cad & The Dandy

Like most businesses, ours is of a cyclical nature, and customers tend to come in like buses. There’s no explanation for it: you can have a quiet week where there’s not so much work to be done, when you’ve caught up on everything and you’re sitting there twiddling your thumbs. Then, conversely, it can be ridiculously busy and you’ve got countless deadlines to meet, whether it be making a suit or some other business.

During these times, if we can call on our staff to work a bit harder and bit longer, so we don’t let people down, and if we can keep all of those customers happy, they’re going to come back, and we’ll grow as a business. And if staff can take time off in lieu, that’s good compensation for their working harder in busy periods.

Time off in lieu is one of those things that is quite normal in our industry. A lot of people in this business are self-employed and get paid on a piecework basis. Because of this, they’re quite savvy about working hard during the good times, and then taking a day or two off when things are quieter.

Our staff are about 50-50 employed/self employed, and we tend to treat our permanent staff as though they were self-employed. So, if you’re busy, like anyone who’s self-employed, you’re going to work a bit harder; when you’re quiet, you take your foot off the gas a little bit. So we encourage our staff to treat the business as their own, to put in that extra work when it’s needed knowing that when it’s quieter, we don’t mind them taking a day off.

Giving time off in lieu is even more important when times are tough, because it forces you to look a lot more at your own business: how can you improve things, not just for the customer but for your employees? In tough times, it’s crucial that you retain your staff – so that customers receive a good level of service and are not dealing with a different person every time they come in.

Good staffing policies have a direct knock-on effect on how businesses operate: if you’ve got happy employees, it stands to reason their happiness translates to the customer. Offering flexible working hours keeps employees happy and enables a business to grow.

“NO, MANAGERS SHOULD NOT REWARD EXTRA HOURS IN THE SLUMP”

Alex Smith, Co-founder of MuleBar, makers of Fairtrade organic energy bars

In the hard times we’re in, whether or not you give staff time off in lieu can swing either way. But, in general, it comes down to the fact that you’ve got a job, you’re getting paid, and, as a consequence, you may have to put a little bit more time in. Going through an economic downturn changes your viewpoint on everything when you realise that things aren’t rocking and rolling: every supplier up the chain and every customer down the chain is having problems.

The only way you could argue for time off in lieu is that – because times are hard and everyone has got to work a lot harder to be successful – maybe it’s a time when you should be flexible; if someone is working really hard and you’re getting results, then you really should be giving them some time off. But on the other hand, it’s so impractical and tricky to manage, and you would hope people would be prepared to put a little extra time in anyway.

With the kind of company we’re running, it’s not a nine-to-five thing; it’s about getting the job done. i like the people who work for me to be rewarded for what they do, but there are other ways that that can happen, such as extra cash, discounted prices, or some kind of ownership of the company where you put in the long hard hours on the premise that you’re going to get some part or percentage of the company.

Of course, when you’re having this debate you need to bear in mind what company you’re talking about, as it will be different for different kinds of company; a fully established company with a long trading history is more likely to have a hard and fast policy on time in lieu. But with our kind of company – that isn’t turning a profit yet – you are looking for people who regard the work they do as a lifestyle choice and are prepared to roll their sleeves up and do whatever is necessary to help everyone get there.

Hopefully the reward will be that you may well get some ownership as a result. But the traditional idea of time off in lieu is an old concept: it’s redundant.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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