conference call outside of normal working hours ..

[hman]

We have a conference call every week at 7.30am.

This means that I have to pass the duty of taking young Hman to nursery to the wife- inconveniencing her in the process.

My contract says that I must work a reasonable amount of authorised (unpaid) overtime when workload and business commitments so warrant.

The call is a weekly sales / business development chat basically so nothing which is going to affect workload or business commitments.

I have asked that the call is moved to work hours so that I can be in the office, rather than be at home and therefore late into the office as I cant take a call whilst travelling according to HR.

The answer was that in hours calls "dont work" - I have other conference calls in hours which work fine.

Bit of a PITA really, so really want them mov ed to in work hours, is there any legal standpoint on this?

[whoami]

[Iain328]

hman said:

We have a conference call every week at 7.30am.

This means that I have to pass the duty of taking young Hman to nursery to the wife- inconveniencing her in the process.

My contract says that I must work a reasonable amount of authorised (unpaid) overtime when workload and business commitments so warrant.

The call is a weekly sales / business development chat basically so nothing which is going to affect workload or business commitments.

I have asked that the call is moved to work hours so that I can be in the office, rather than be at home and therefore late into the office as I cant take a call whilst travelling according to HR.

The answer was that in hours calls "dont work" - I have other conference calls in hours which work fine.

Bit of a PITA really, so really want them mov ed to in work hours, is there any legal standpoint on this?

You are clearly working for a complete kok. Macho sales bullst I'm afraid, happens everywhere.

The point being that such people generally don't change this kind of behaviour unless forced to and one person won't force them to. If you try to you will get targetted.

It would need several of the other participants to help sort this one out & make themselves unavailable before working hours. Time for a few idle chats round the coffee machine.

Nobody minds doing this kind of stuff occasionally when needs must, but to schedule something like this as a regular occurence is ridiculous.

Last options are you just live with it, or you leave.

[Deva Link]

hman said:

I have asked that the call is moved to work hours so that I can be in the office, rather than be at home and therefore late into the office as I cant take a call whilst travelling according to HR.

Couldn't you go into the office for 7.30 and join the conf call from there?

[hman]

Iain328 said:

hman said:

We have a conference call every week at 7.30am.

This means that I have to pass the duty of taking young Hman to nursery to the wife- inconveniencing her in the process.

My contract says that I must work a reasonable amount of authorised (unpaid) overtime when workload and business commitments so warrant.

The call is a weekly sales / business development chat basically so nothing which is going to affect workload or business commitments.

I have asked that the call is moved to work hours so that I can be in the office, rather than be at home and therefore late into the office as I cant take a call whilst travelling according to HR.

The answer was that in hours calls "dont work" - I have other conference calls in hours which work fine.

Bit of a PITA really, so really want them mov ed to in work hours, is there any legal standpoint on this?

You are clearly working for a complete kok. Macho sales bullst I'm afraid, happens everywhere.

The point being that such people generally don't change this kind of behaviour unless forced to and one person won't force them to. If you try to you will get targetted.

It would need several of the other participants to help sort this one out & make themselves unavailable before working hours. Time for a few idle chats round the coffee machine.

Nobody minds doing this kind of stuff occasionally when needs must, but to schedule something like this as a regular occurence is ridiculous.

Last options are you just live with it, or you leave.

Thanks for your quick answer, out of the 5 people, 3 of us want it moved, but seemingly only I have the kahunas to discuss this with senior management.

As you say, I can see myself becoming a target so whilst I have pushed for change, its been denied so without the other guys coming on board I have not much hope to get it moved.

Wondered if it was worth discussing with HR, although I dont like to resort to this and never have had to so far....

If only my line manager would change it but it seems he is happy with the arrangement as well...

[whoami]

hman said:

Iain328 said:

hman said:

We have a conference call every week at 7.30am.

This means that I have to pass the duty of taking young Hman to nursery to the wife- inconveniencing her in the process.

My contract says that I must work a reasonable amount of authorised (unpaid) overtime when workload and business commitments so warrant.

The call is a weekly sales / business development chat basically so nothing which is going to affect workload or business commitments.

I have asked that the call is moved to work hours so that I can be in the office, rather than be at home and therefore late into the office as I cant take a call whilst travelling according to HR.

The answer was that in hours calls "dont work" - I have other conference calls in hours which work fine.

Bit of a PITA really, so really want them mov ed to in work hours, is there any legal standpoint on this?

You are clearly working for a complete kok. Macho sales bullst I'm afraid, happens everywhere.

The point being that such people generally don't change this kind of behaviour unless forced to and one person won't force them to. If you try to you will get targetted.

It would need several of the other participants to help sort this one out & make themselves unavailable before working hours. Time for a few idle chats round the coffee machine.

Nobody minds doing this kind of stuff occasionally when needs must, but to schedule something like this as a regular occurence is ridiculous.

Last options are you just live with it, or you leave.

Thanks for your quick answer, out of the 5 people, 3 of us want it moved, but seemingly only I have the kahunas to discuss this with senior management.

As you say, I can see myself becoming a target so whilst I have pushed for change, its been denied so without the other guys coming on board I have not much hope to get it moved.

Wondered if it was worth discussing with HR, although I dont like to resort to this and never have had to so far....

If only my line manager would change it but it seems he is happy with the arrangement as well...

May I ask how "senior" you are in the organisation?

[hman]

Deva Link said:

hman said:

I have asked that the call is moved to work hours so that I can be in the office, rather than be at home and therefore late into the office as I cant take a call whilst travelling according to HR.

Couldn't you go into the office for 7.30 and join the conf call from there?

How does that help with preventing the call from affecting my out of work hours commitments???

The office is an hour and a half away, so up at 5am to get there for 7.30am, but excessive when it could easily be moved wouldnt you say, normally leave at 7am to get there 15mins before work starts.

[hman]

whoami said:

hman said:

Iain328 said:

hman said:

We have a conference call every week at 7.30am.

This means that I have to pass the duty of taking young Hman to nursery to the wife- inconveniencing her in the process.

My contract says that I must work a reasonable amount of authorised (unpaid) overtime when workload and business commitments so warrant.

The call is a weekly sales / business development chat basically so nothing which is going to affect workload or business commitments.

I have asked that the call is moved to work hours so that I can be in the office, rather than be at home and therefore late into the office as I cant take a call whilst travelling according to HR.

The answer was that in hours calls "dont work" - I have other conference calls in hours which work fine.

Bit of a PITA really, so really want them mov ed to in work hours, is there any legal standpoint on this?

You are clearly working for a complete kok. Macho sales bullst I'm afraid, happens everywhere.

The point being that such people generally don't change this kind of behaviour unless forced to and one person won't force them to. If you try to you will get targetted.

It would need several of the other participants to help sort this one out & make themselves unavailable before working hours. Time for a few idle chats round the coffee machine.

Nobody minds doing this kind of stuff occasionally when needs must, but to schedule something like this as a regular occurence is ridiculous.

Last options are you just live with it, or you leave.

Thanks for your quick answer, out of the 5 people, 3 of us want it moved, but seemingly only I have the kahunas to discuss this with senior management.

As you say, I can see myself becoming a target so whilst I have pushed for change, its been denied so without the other guys coming on board I have not much hope to get it moved.

Wondered if it was worth discussing with HR, although I dont like to resort to this and never have had to so far....

If only my line manager would change it but it seems he is happy with the arrangement as well...

May I ask how "senior" you are in the organisation?

BDM

[ClaphamGT3]

Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Its onl once a week and, if I've read your post right, it means you actually get an extra half an hour on that morning that you don't normally

[jazzybee]

Are there any people on the call outside the UK? I work for an american company and often have calls out of hours all the way upto 1 am sometimes, luckily these are not on a regular basis. If you have guys in Europe or further East on the call I can understand the want to have an early call.

[whoami]

ClaphamGT3 said:

Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Its onl once a week and, if I've read your post right, it means you actually get an extra half an hour on that morning that you don't normally

[Deva Link]

hman said:

Deva Link said:

hman said:

I have asked that the call is moved to work hours so that I can be in the office, rather than be at home and therefore late into the office as I cant take a call whilst travelling according to HR.

Couldn't you go into the office for 7.30 and join the conf call from there?

How does that help with preventing the call from affecting my out of work hours commitments???

The office is an hour and a half away, so up at 5am to get there for 7.30am, but excessive when it could easily be moved wouldnt you say, normally leave at 7am to get there 15mins before work starts.

Couldn't you and wifey share the domestic commitments?

I used to get up at 4AM twice a week to be in the office (160 miles away) for 7.30.

One advantage is that if your hour and a half is by car then it'll take a lot less time if you're aiming for 7.30.

[ClaphamGT3]

Agree with Deva Link - harsh as it may sound, your employer can't be expected to run their business around your wife's convenience. Couldn't you even drop Junior off at normal time (presume around 7.00) and do the con:call from the car in the nursery car park?

[hman]

ClaphamGT3 said:

Agree with Deva Link - harsh as it may sound, your employer can't be expected to run their business around your wife's convenience. Couldn't you even drop Junior off at normal time (presume around 7.00) and do the con:call from the car in the nursery car park?

What I really want to know is if there is a requirement for me to do this call out of work hours or not, if I am not obliged (by law) to do the call at this time then I wont be doing it.

So does anyone know the answer, I dont really need opinions on what you would do, just the facts as to whether I am obliged to do this or not.

Many thanks in advance.

[whoami]

hman said:

ClaphamGT3 said:

Agree with Deva Link - harsh as it may sound, your employer can't be expected to run their business around your wife's convenience. Couldn't you even drop Junior off at normal time (presume around 7.00) and do the con:call from the car in the nursery car park?

What I really want to know is if there is a requirement for me to do this call out of work hours or not, if I am not obliged (by law) to do the call at this time then I wont be doing it.

So does anyone know the answer, I dont really need opinions on what you would do, just the facts as to whether I am obliged to do this or not.

Many thanks in advance.

Oh dear

[ClaphamGT3]

Well m friend, I'll leave this by sharing this fact with you; being seen to be unwilling to pu in the hard yards around sales and business development is a VERY dangerous place to be. If you're technically very good at your job and/or clients really like you, you MIGHT win the battle but you'll sure-as-hell lose the war.

[hman]

whoami said:

hman said:

ClaphamGT3 said:

Agree with Deva Link - harsh as it may sound, your employer can't be expected to run their business around your wife's convenience. Couldn't you even drop Junior off at normal time (presume around 7.00) and do the con:call from the car in the nursery car park?

What I really want to know is if there is a requirement for me to do this call out of work hours or not, if I am not obliged (by law) to do the call at this time then I wont be doing it.

So does anyone know the answer, I dont really need opinions on what you would do, just the facts as to whether I am obliged to do this or not.

Many thanks in advance.

Oh dear

So far from you:-

A roll eyes,
An irrelevant question about what position I am in the hierachy of the company,
An I agree with him nodding emoticon
and wait for it ....








an oh dear.



Not exactly giving me the answer to the legality of this requirement are you?.


I'd appreciate it if you would uncheck the notify me about this thread option in your "my stuff" and take yourself to another thread (to probably make more inane comments) as you clearly dont know whether or not I am obliged to go on this call at this time or not.


Many thanks in advance.

[hman]

ClaphamGT3 said:

Well m friend, I'll leave this by sharing this fact with you; being seen to be unwilling to pu in the hard yards around sales and business development is a VERY dangerous place to be. If you're technically very good at your job and/or clients really like you, you MIGHT win the battle but you'll sure-as-hell lose the war.

Ok, thanks for your input, at least its factual, the comment was aimed collectively, not just at you- dont feel like I was ungrateful for your input please.

Edited to add: Chartered Surveyor or Charterd Surveyor, check your profile

Edited by hman on Saturday 3rd April 23:21

[Deva Link]

hman said:

What I really want to know is if there is a requirement for me to do this call out of work hours or not, if I am not obliged (by law) to do the call at this time then I wont be doing it.

So does anyone know the answer, I dont really need opinions on what you would do, just the facts as to whether I am obliged to do this or not.

No-one can make you do anything you don't want to do.

However you may need to take a job elsewhere in order to exercise that fundamental right.

[ymwoods]

If your contract states that you may be required to work reasonable unpaid overtime then from what you say about the times etc you would have to proove that this is unreasonable for you to do it every week. They way you work would see it is that, yes, your working from 7:30am until the end of the call but this also means you not into the office until later so you are getting the time back (Ie, not actually working any extra hours, just different ones)

In terms of taking your son to school, is this because you take him when you normally leave and drop him off?

If this is the case then you could put forward that its unreasonable to you because of this, but to be honest mate, I would agree with the above. Being seen as not willing to give and take a little will make you a target, especially from someone like your Line Manager. For example, the time of the call could be benfiting him in some way. He may see it as being able to lay down on the sofa whilst talking, before having to go sit behind a desk.