Bosses Make Flexi-Work Possible for Deskless Staff

Pick your shift and workload? Sectors such as healthcare, cleaning and F&B make flexibility a win-win option

- Sharon Salim

The deskless workforce—such as those in healthcare, construction, and cleaning and food services, among others—do not have the luxury of working from home.

But such workers can still have flexible work arrangements (FWAs).

With the new Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement Requests—in effect since Dec 1—both office and non-office staff can formally submit flexi-work requests.

Under the guidelines, companies must set up an internal process for workers to create requests for FWAs, comprising flexi-time, flexi-load, and flexi-place. And employers must fairly consider these requests.

Global recruitment firm Randstad said 42 per cent of blue-collar workers consider job flexibility to be as important as their remuneration package, or even more so, according to 2023 data studying more than 7,500 workers in five markets.

Close to two in five non-office workers also said that while their jobs can be flexible, their bosses were not "trying hard enough to accommodate their needs".

The Straits Times looks at how some local workers and bosses in deskless fields are making flexibility a win-win situation.

HEALTHCARE

When senior physiotherapist Yee Zhi Rong started working at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) a decade ago, it was the norm to work six to seven consecutive days in a week.

In addition to working from Monday to Friday and alternate Saturdays, she was also occasionally rostered on Sundays and public holidays, too.

"Working on alternate Saturdays was very taxing, and it was easy to experience burnout due to the lack of time for rest," she said.

When she started a family, she wanted to spend more time with her two young children and have family outings.

In 2018, flexi-time was introduced to the team's work schedule, allowing her to take more or fewer weekend duties as she preferred.