Working Patterns

• Full time
  • 40 hours per week
  • Employee:
    • Company loyalty, committed and hard-working
    • Less motivated and flexibility
  • Employer:
    • More control over time and effort
    • Employees loyal, committed and higher skilled
• Part time
  • Work 1000hrs or less in a 12 month period
  • Employee:
    • Potential for flexibility
    • More motivated
    • Less loyalty
  • Employer
    • Less cost
    • Employees highly motivated
    • Employees may leave when offerred full-time employment

• Working from Home
  • Employees
    • Savings on things such as travel, childcare and professional wardrobes
    • Flexibility in time and environment
    • Less distractions and stress
    • Proximity to home and family: better work/life balance
    • Alienated from daily company developments
    • Isolation and removal from supervision
    • Distractions: Need for high self-discipline
    • Bad work/life balance
    • No end to work
  • Employers
    • Improved employee retention and motivation: productivity gains
    • Wider pool of applicants to recruit e.g. disabled
    • Savings on office space and facilities
    • Locate sales staff near clients
    • Difficult to manage performance and maintain team spirit: isolation among home workers
    • Possible deterioration in work quality
    • Increased telecommunication costs

• Dividing a single full time job between two people
• Employees
  • Complementary skills and experience
  • Continuity if a sharer leaves or is absent
  • Option for employees who don't want to work full time
  • Greater freedom/better work/life balance
  • Challenges in communication: difficult or confusing for subordinates
  • May feel inadequately paid
• Employers
  • Recruit employees who are skilled + experienced who may not be able to work full time
  • Enhance output
  • Continuity if one sharer leaves or is absent
  • Additional administrative and training costs
  • Extra time spent on communication and supervision
  • Scheduling challenges for training and meetings

Temporary Contracts

• For a fixed period 
  • Can be renewed at the end of the contract
• Easier for staff to adjust number of staff employed without paying redundancy money
• Often paid more than full-time staff: attractive to some
• Less job security
  • More difficult to get loans or a mortgage

Self Employment

• Run their own business and take their income out of the profits
• Since 1980s more enterprise culture
• Some firms re-hire redundant staff as freelancers
• 1980s-90s redundancy money used to set up own businesses (happened again in 2009)

• Employee
  • Greater freedom/ better work/life balance
  • Easier travel (avoiding rush-hour)
  • Improved morale, reducing absence and lateness
  • Reduction in overtime and less lost in time
  • Difficult for those who need direction if unsupervised
  • Productivity may decrease
  • Communication and team working may worsen
• Employer
  • Wider talent pool 
  • Improved morale, reducing absence and lateness
  • Increasing commitment and productivity
  • Perhaps extended opening hours
  • Costly- heating and lighting when premises open longer
  • Not suitable for organisation where continuous cover is needed