Our work-week policy changed drastically. It used to be a perk. How to let them know I'm unhappy?

Question

My company used to have an amazing work week schedule. We worked 4 x 10 hour days instead of 5 x 8 hour days. This was amazing, and definitely a deciding factor when me and my wife were deciding where to move. We had every Friday off. They skimped our vacation time allotment because they argued that we got a vacation day every week. At the end of the year last year they gave us less than a month notice that the policy was changing.

At the first of the year the change happened, I had to take vacation days for planned travel. Where I normally would have had the benefit of Friday off and not had to take days, or only take a Thursday off and have a 4 day weekend. So now I've burned almost a 1/4 of my vacation time for the year.

We also suffer from terrible traffic because now we get out right during the traffic rush from the rest of the city.

Lastly, I feel it destroyed the culture of the company. This used to be the thing that we had - Fridays off. Now we have nothing special.

Sure I'm still grateful to have a job, but at this point I can just get another job. How do I let them know I'm unhappy? I want to ask for them to allow a work from home day once a month, or give us a few extra vacation days. I don't know. They took without giving and I kinda want to just leave but still would like to give them a chance to make it right. How to proceed?

UPDATE:

Almost a year and half later I have found a new job. I tried airing my grievances but to no avail. I've found a company that lets me work remotely full-time, work the hours I want, and to top it all off, unlimited vacation/sick time. Thanks to the community for all your help, ideas, and support!

Answer 1

How do I let them know I'm unhappy? I want to ask for them to allow a work from home day once a month, or give us a few extra vacation days. Idk. They took without giving and I kinda want to just leave but still would like to give them a chance to make it right? How to proceed.

First, separate the "let them know I'm unhappy" from "permission to work from home". They are two different things.

If you just want to express your unhappiness in order to vent, then sit down with your boss and say something like "I'm unhappy with the new policy." And as @DJClayworth indicates, explain to them why you are unhappy. Explain what benefit it had to you. Explain that it was a significant reason you took the job.

If you want permission to work from home once per month, then sit down with your boss and say something like "I'd like permission to work from home once per month. How can I make that happen?"

You could choose to view it as they "took" something away from you, or you could choose to view it as you had something unusual/special for a while, and now you are back to the more normal situation.

It's unlikely that you expressing your unhappiness will revert the policy that was changed at the start of the year, but one never knows. Perhaps if enough employees feel similarly, you can all get together and express your unhappiness at the same time. The company could presumably rethink the policy change (although it's unfortunate that these feelings weren't expressed during the few weeks notice at the end of last year).

Before you talk with your boss, get it straight in your own mind what you really want to happen here. Going in with "idk" isn't going to help you be very effective.

And if you have already concluded that you must leave, then don't bother venting or asking for anything. Just find a new job (that presumably permits a 4-day work week, or something else that you consider "special"), give your notice, and leave.

Benefits and perks are typically reviewed annually by most companies. While it may be disappointing that this one perk you liked was changed, you should expect that in business things do tend to change over time. You need to decide which perks are significant for you, and which are not. It's understandable that this one was very significant.

(A few years back, Yahoo stopped allowing employees from working from home. Later that year, HP did the same. It was a very controversial perk change at the time and bothered many of their employees. Some decided it was time to leave. Most stayed.)

Answer 2

If you like working for this company I would just let them know it is a deal breaker for you.

The fact is, it wasn't a perk. Your work schedule is your job not a perk. So you were employed to work 4x10 and that changed to 5x8. They in effect changed the job that you thought you had. A lot of time when this happens it is negligible. Not so in your case. Not even factoring in the vacation time.

I would simply have a talk with your boss and say that one of the biggest reasons that you haven't looked for another job is because you like the company and the 4x10 work week. Tell him that you have found the traffic/commute exhausting and let him know it is a big factor in looking for another job.

I would be perfectly fine with this as a manager. It is a huge thing that you lost. As a manager you have to accept that you will lose the employee or compensate them somehow. They have done nothing for you.

On a side note, offer the boss an alternative. I had 8 guys who were engineers that I put on 4x10 - they loved it so much that many of them passed over promotions to keep it (so I know the drug you were on and now you have been cut off). We had coverage issues on Fridays. I am thinking your boss has gone through coverage issues. I sat them down and told them if you want to do the 4x10 that is fine, but under no circumstance will we have less than 4 guys in on Fridays - even accounting for sick/vacation days. So they worked out a scheduling system where they basically bumped their day off every week. Not saying it would work for your workplace but I am sure there might be alternatives.

Answer 3

First of all, the excuse that "you get Friday's off, so you get less vacation" seems fundamentally flawed to me. You put in the same number of work hours as a Monday to Friday employee.

That aside, however, it sounds to me like these guys got burned by the four day work week arrangement.

The way they handled the situation clearly leaves a lot to be desired, however there's nothing to be gained by complaining, or "showing dissatisfaction". What's done is done, and your opinion is not going to change their minds - although it could get you in trouble.

At this point I'd start looking for a new job. These guys are clearly running into some kind of difficulties (probably of a financial nature, since their change of policy was so extreme), and you're unhappy about the new nature of the job anyway.

Start looking for a new job which offers more generous vacation packages, or the opportunity to work from home!

Answer 4

It's sad, but many employers simply don't want to be "given a chance to make it right". Other than any negotiation when you first join, they want to dictate the terms and then they want you to take it or leave it. Most employer do not want your conditions of employment to be a conversation or a negotiation, and by sticking this change on you without consultation they've acted precisely in order to avoid it becoming one. This is a strong indicator that your employer holds to that approach.

Only if your employer genuinely doesn't realise that you care, and wrongly thinks it was an insignificant change for you, is raising the issue likely to result in them hustling to make it right. If they knew in advance they were making it wrong, then most likely they're already braced for impact.

If your employer is expecting dissent, then literally the only meaningful way for you to express that you're unhappy with the change is to leave (at least, I assume you aren't unionized or you'd mention it: if you were then collective bargaining provides alternative strategies). You can explain to your boss, or anyone else you like, that you now consider the job+conditions+benefits is less good than the job+conditions+benefits used to be. But it won't signify anything because it's the only job they're offering.

If you feel that for some reason your employer is open to negotiating over whether you leave or not, they you could go to them and say "I don't like this, either fix it (and here's my proposal of what I would consider a fix) or else this job is no longer a good one for me and I will leave". But not many employers want to get into this with employees, so unless you know something we don't, the likelihood is that they'll respond, "that's fine, leave". Apart from any other concerns, once they negotiate with you they'll have to negotiate with everyone.

And if they're going to tell you to leave if you can't accept the change, many employers believe that they might well sack you on the spot. So your basic situation (and this is your employer's choice to make it your situation, by doing this without consulting you), is that there's no point bringing it up until you have a new job offer in hand. And once you have a new job offer in hand there's usually no point bringing it up because you're almost always better off just taking the new job than asking them to beat your new offer.

Still, if you're confident that you can get another job, and you don't mind risking a period of unemployment while you look for it, there might be no real harm in giving them a chance. Tell your boss that you're having difficulty with the new arrangements, explain that some extra days vacation or remote-working (or whatever it takes) would solve your difficulty, and see where the conversation goes. Best case they pleasantly surprise you, either by seeing that they've made a mistake or by seeing that you're serious and acting to keep you. Worst case they escort you from the building.

Answer 5

Business needs change. I got to work that schedule for awhile too. It was great for me personally, but the organization had trouble with people not being available when they were needed (it was really only 1-2 teams who didn't plan correctly) and so they stopped it with no notice at all. These things happen. Benefits are always changeable. I'd rather have this change than the one where they dumped our good health insurance for a one with a high deductible (that has happened to me as well).

If this is important to you, then look for another job as it is unlikely this policy is changing back. You can tell them that it is the reason why you left in your exit interview. You can also bring it up to your boss right now but really what are you going to gain from that? There is roughly a 0% chance they will change this. They knew when they made the decision that people would be unhappy, they are simply betting that they won't be unhappy enough to leave or that the change will fix whatever problem the 4-day schedule was causing (generally things like this don't change unless there is a problem).

I would separate the working from home request as far from any discussion of your unhappiness as possible. The reason why is it would appear that you want to use the work from home option as a way to slack off on those Fridays you are working if you tie it to the discussion about losing the Fridays off. That would seriously reduce the chances of getting it approved.