Scott Behson, PhD, is a Professor of Management at Fairleigh Dickinson University, a busy involved dad, and an overall grateful guy. Read more...
With flextime, employees still work the same amount of hours but can shift their work times earlier or later than the typical "9 to 5." For example, an employee may wish to work "7 to 3" so he/she can be home to see the children after school, or another may work better on a later "10:30-6:30" schedule. Further, some flextimers work longer hours two days a week, and shorter hours on other days. Most companies that allow flextime mandate that there be some core hours in which all employees must be at the workplace, such as Mondays through Thursdays from 10am to 2pm.
Flextime is particularly useful for managing the work-family juggle in dual-career and single-parent households, which represent the majority of US families. As such, this can be a particularly important work arrangement. Employees can benefit from flextime by arranging their work schedules around their family or other life demands and make up the work when they are more able to do so.
From the employer point of view, flextime is advantageous because it requires full-time hours at work, and, along with core hours, still allows for coworker interaction and accessibility to clients. For this reason, many employers are more amenable to flextime arrangements than telecommuting.