We're all flex time here and it's awesome. After seven years now I'm not sure I could go back to a fixed schedule again.

Most software companies work that way these days. They're just now figuring this out? If I didn't have that, I wouldn't be able to work. Especially when the kids were littler.

It's kind of funny you put this up. This morning I came in at 10:15 because of a dr's appointment, and here in about an hour when I'm done with this test pass I'm going to be going home to work for the rest of the afternoon on the other project we've got going because my laptop has a better setup for it. Everyone has their own "schedule" - one customer service comes in at oh dark hundred because she likes it and it lets her cover the east coast people. Another gal comes in later and stays later to handle the westies until closing time so she can get her kids off to school. The dev staff usually comes in even later and stays later because we do our live builds after everyone else is home and the servers are on lower load. We all clock in whenever we come in just so their dinosaur accounting and payroll system can cope, and any in/out stuff is kept track of just so people can find you on a piece of paper on the receptionist's desk. No paperwork, no BS, and no concerns by anyone.

A lot of the success of this comes from hiring. If you don't hire people with personal responsibility, you get problems. If you hire people who can handle the concept of working based on the job getting done, you won't have anything to worry about.

I see this is only their corporate headquarters - are they going to slip the leash on their store staff too? I didn't see from the article.

When I put in 5 hours of awesome a week, that about comes out to anyone else's 40. So I just hang out a lot and make jokes and read forums.

I'll get that last 4 hours in during the office Christmas party this weekend.

Where the hell is my resume!?

I am efficient enough that I can do twice the high-quality work that most of the coworkers I've had do in the same timeframe. Obviously, those who put out low-quality work can easily rival my productivity.

I would LOVE to work somewhere where the demand was for what I could accomplish, not how long I sat at a desk. I'd only have to spend ~75% of the time I currently do and still feel that I am providing the company their money's worth.

However, when I get my RN license and become a nurse, obviously time is the resource they need most. Can't really decrease how much time I need to be at the hospital just by being more efficient.

"Meanwhile, Jack, who works at a BestBuy in New Jersey, got reprimanded because he got a flat tire on the way to his scheduled 8hr shift, earning $7.00 an hour. He only works 37.5 hours, God forbid they schedule him for 40."

I guess we sort of have flex-time, but since there is so much to get accomplished in a day (and I am salaried), I just end up working 8AM-6PM every week-day, and bits of time on the weekend. That's if I'm lucky. If not, I work 8AM-midnight or longer.

Yipee.

This would never fly in any retail environment, I think.

No way in hell. They might as well close the stores on Black Friday, Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends, the 4th of July, nice summer days, days when it snows, during College finals week(s), Superbowl Sunday, and Mondays they could open around noon.

Good luck finding enough people to train all these part timer tools if the management crew is in and out at will. Sounds like an HR nightmare. Best Buy will crumble... they must... just like all the giants have... *I shall not fear. Fear is the little death...*

OK, when is this coming to Best Buy Canada?! My managers already don't like me, but if we brought in that uber-flex system...oooooooohhhhhhhh boy.

None of you guys work flex-time do you? It doesn't work like that. You're more free to work your schedule, but it works around what actually has to be done. I still work 8+ hours a day at that job. It's just that I get to pick which 8 of the 24 available in a day that I spend in my little gray box.

You don't have an HR nightmare because you don't keep track of all the micromanage crap that goes on now. They don't care anymore that you took a break from 12:07 to 12:23 instead of 12 to 12:15. In fact, they don't care that you took a break from 12:00-12:45, as long as you got the four aisles that are your domain properly faced and wiped, and got that big shipment counted, read into inventory, and stored.

So if someone needs training and you're the one whose job it is to do it, you don't take off until you've got the job done.

That's why I asked if they were going to do this on the sales floor. If I make my schedule milestones and handle my customer service and project management duties, my boss knows it's all good. It's going to be harder to find meaningful and enforcable milestones with a red shirt down on the floor.

Hiring is the key to this success. If you don't have people with the personal discipline to get the farking work done on time then it fails.

Well, it is hard when peoples' schedules diverge too much - if some people come in late, while others leave early to pick up kids from school, that leaves less overlapping time to set up meetings or otherwise sync up. It makes communication more difficult than necessary.

We have a flex system, and it's pretty much exactly like momgamer describes. I still end up working 9-5ish, but I COULD work any hours I wanted, so long as I get my stuff done. I've worked weekends to take the a four-day weekend the following week, for example.