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Critical Points For Negotiating Flexible Working With A Stubborn Boss

By blogger | March 11, 2010

There is little to match the exuberance or ecstatic feelings that you and your whole family share when a new arrival is on the way. You will be beside yourself with joy as an expectant mother and you can be sure that this will be one of the finest moments of your family’s life.

Friends and acquaintances will also be over the moon and will all look forward to the big day with much anticipation.

As your feelings of happiness know no bounds, you would be forgiven for thinking that all the World would be happy for you as well and while this is largely the case, certain elements of negativity may, however, still arise.

Surely, your boss is happy for you, but he or she may not be on quite the same level as everyone else and be particularly concerned with the operation of the business. You may soon come to realise that the business is classified squarely in first position in the eyes of your boss and if you want to consider flexible working hours as you go forward, you are going to have to be really persuasive.

You may come to find that your boss is really a dinosaur and can be very inflexible, unfortunately, so you will have to call on all your powers of creativity and persuasiveness.

If you have a friend and co-worker who has been in your position before, now is the time to have a down-to-earth chat and to see whether she was able to achieve any two-way communication with the boss and how she handled the situation. Now is the time to do a lot of research and to find what solutions could be available to you, according to other friends or acquaintances in other professions or industries.

This is the time to be very creative and forward thinking and consider telecommuting or working from home. As companies around the World realise that they need to save on their overheads, this concept is becoming more and more acceptable. If the type of work that you do can be handled in this way, this may well be an option for you.

Don’t forget, that you must work out what would be the ideal situation for you, first and foremost. Be sure of what you are doing, as after all, remember that you must be careful what you wish for!

At the top of your list should be an ideal scenario, but you should also have options available in a less-than-perfect situation. Above all else, look at your home situation and understand what you will be able to accommodate before asking.

Be strategic, yet careful when you discuss ideas and options with colleagues. If you all collectively share a workload, see how you could come up with ideas to divide the work accordingly, giving you a more flexible schedule. You must be more than willing to pull your weight, of course, and before you consider approaching others or your boss with the idea, be fully confident that it will be a win/win/win position for everybody.

Some of us have jobs that expect us to complete certain tasks as part of a “job and finish” approach, regardless of the time that it takes and as part of your new schedule idea, contemplate whether you will be able to achieve this goal during your personal time.

The more you can show your boss that you would be equally as productive, if not more productive by working a flexible schedule, the more the dinosaur is likely to stop chewing the vegetation and listen to you!

Contemplate online life coaching as a valuable source of research. Luckily, coaching for women can generally help by suggesting various options for a variety of situations. This is far from being the private domain of executives or sports players and you should turn to professional coaching, as well!

Amanda Alexander is the Director of Coaching Mums and a widely renowned ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums across the globe who long for more time, balance and fulfilment in their busy lives. Download our free eBook especially for working mums with 5 easy ways to achieve balance.

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