Status: LIVE

Flexitime Policy (Overtime)

Working overtime is welcomed in many companies, and if you don't do it, you are often looked at critically. Some companies even have all-in contracts where these extra hours aren’t compensated at all. This is crazy.

In our opinion, it is important for the long-term health and happiness of all of us to keep our work and private lives in balance. We’re not in an easy business, and we have to look after ourselves. So first things first: overtime should always be voluntary, and everyone should feel free to say no to it without feeling bad or any fears. If you say no to overtime, and this isn’t respected, then please speak to your Team or School Lead, or the CEO. There is a case where the company might legitimately require you to work overtime, but this should be extremely rare (see below). Basically, we want everyone to work for the contractually agreed time (e.g. 38.5 hours).

But, if you want to work a little more, then that’s fine (emphasis on “you want”). So in practice, it happens that in some weeks you work more (e.g. you want to finish something), and therefore in others, you can work less (the sun is shining, or you’re just not feeling it). This is our “flexitime” principle. And that’s totally fine as long as:

1. this is what you want and comes from your free will (i.e. isn’t imposed upon you by someone), and

2. on a rolling average, you maintain your normal workload (=your overtimes and undertimes are balanced).

So if you say work 4 hours extra in a given week, then you can work 4 hours less in the future. How you spend your overtime hours is totally up to you. You can spread it over a few days and end up with a week with some shorter days, or you can take them off in a batch and take full days, or any combination thereof, it’s up to you.

We typically don’t pay out these overtime hours as money, and by default always compensate overtime as extra time off. Because it’s voluntary, there are also no special overtime rates that apply – working on a Saturday for example doesn’t pay more than working on a Monday. There are some exceptions, as described below.

In total, the overtime credit, or deficit, should never exceed +-160h.

When you work is up to you. Early bird or night-owl… we don’t really care. We also don’t really have “core business hours”. The only thing that’s important is that you communicate your availability to your team members (especially if you will be taking part in meetings), and that you stick to these commitments.

Special cases:

• Someone leaves the company
  If someone leaves the company and there is no longer the possibility to compensate the overtime via compensatory time, it will be paid out (1:1).

• Someone wants to work overtime to earn some extra money or some extra time off
  This is possible but has to be approved in advance by your Team and School Leads. I want to emphasise that this is a rare case, and you have to have a strong case for it to get approved. It depends on how long you plan to do this for, at what intensity, and how stressful your workload was in the recent past. In general, we may approve this if: a) this does not pose a risk to your work-life balance, AND b) the request is coming from you (as opposed to a PM). You can choose whether you would prefer this as money, or as extra time off. No special rates apply if, for example, you work weekends (it’s voluntary, and you decide when you do it).

• 9Y demands that someone works overtime because, for example, a client needs something done on a Sunday.
  Let’s be clear, this is a fail, and should never happen. It is not “normal” and it’s certainly not expected. This should be an extremely rare occurrence; less than once per year per employee. However, if it does happen, then we should be fair about the compensation, and in such cases, the employee can choose whether they prefer this overtime to be compensated as extra time off or as money. And special overtime rates do apply in this case, 65% compensation – we do this according to the relevant collective bargaining agreement.