Merits of flexi working hours

the dam there was always a gentleman who would always start fishing earlier than us and leave the dam later than everyone else too.
He always said that he started fishing at 4am and finish at 7pm. His argument is that a fisherman should always experience fishing at different times of the day.

In most cases he would catch more than we would. We usually start fishing at 10am and finish at 6pm. This is not to say that people catch more if they spent more time in the dam but there are some patterns that emerge if you stay longer in the water.
This particular fisherman does his fishing in the early hours of the morning, disappears only to appear again around 4pm to resume fishing.

This pattern continued for some time before I realised that this behaviour was common in days when there was a full moon and discontinued when there was a new moon.
When there was new moon the same fisherman would be in the dam for the whole day.
The hours we shared were between 4pm and 6pm. This can be defined as core period. (The period when both of us have to fish)
I did a desktop research on the implication of full moon on fishing fortunes as a way of investigating the unique behaviour of this fisherman.

The research revealed that when there is a full moon, most fish feed throughout the whole night and early morning.
The research also says that by daybreak most of the fish would be satisfied and start feeding again around 4pm into the night.
This in itself implies that a fisherman who starts at 10am and finish at 4pm will have only two hours of prime fishing as opposed to about six hours of prime fishing.

However, this behaviour will be disrupted if the night before was overcast and moreso if there was thunder and lightning.
Thunder and lightning affect fish feeding patterns. The business environment is faced with a dilemma on how it can bring more convenience to its customers.
Two approaches have been suggested, that is, extending business hours or introducing flexi time. Extending business hours will inevitably result in the introduction of shifts so as to cut on overtime rates on pay which are a bit expensive. Alternatively, the organisation has to agree on standard or core hours that all employees must work as well as flexible working hours where employees come and go as they please.

The core hours are between 10am and 4pm. (http//borer.co.uk)
The other hours are optional to suit particular employee’s needs.
Flexi time can take the following methods:

The employer and employee can agree on annualised hours. This entails that the employee can work the agreed hours over a fewer days.

The employer and employee can agree to stagger hours. The employees working for the same company can organise their work schedules with different starting, break and finishing times.

Alternatively two employees can share a job designed for one person.

Employees can also agree to work on part-time basis. This practice used to be common in Zimbabwe before the year 2000. This was a practice where an employee agrees to work less than normal hours perhaps working fewer days per week. (www.direct.gov.uk)

What are the potential benefits of introducing flexi time or extending business hours to Zimbabwe?
With flexi hours concept, it is relatively easier to respond to workload peaks and troughs.
During workload peaks more labour will be deployed and during troughs less labour will be needed.

During peak hours all staff will be required to be at work. Depending on the industry peak periods will be defined as core hours.
In off peak periods employees have flexibility to attend to their personal issues such as visiting the doctor/dentist at their own time.
It is important to note that the time an employee takes to visit the doctor is not at the employer’s ratable time.

This entails that the employee can attend to his or her personal affairs without taking time off. Some companies are overburdened with costs accruing from overtime expenses.
Overtime is calculated at one and half rate of the normal charges of an employee.
In addition, overtime employees are given food allowance and additional transport allowance.

Some of the overtime can be reduced if companies adopt flexi hours. Flexi hours enables companies to even out unproductive and productive hours which results in reduction of overtime expenses and unproductive time.

Flexi hours decongest our business environment. On an individual basis it allows a person to organise his or her travel time to avoid congestion.
Looking closely at Zimbabwe’s environment there is serious traffic congestion during morning rush hour, lunch hour, and immediately after work.
Do all people need to start and finish work at the same time?

At times we experience serious traffic jams and there will be no police to help during these times because they will be also queuing to go home at around 4.30pm.
With the exception of those going to colleges everyone will be rushing home. Is this correct?

What is the opportunity costs of this kind of work programme?
What is the effect of extending our business hours to 2200 hours?

With flexi hours people have more time to attend to personal needs such scheduling your day to pick up your children, going to the bank, and shopping.
Flexi time enables staff to be relieved of more pressing issues which reduces the stress level of employees.
This reduces the likelihood of employee absenteeism. Employees become more responsible. Responsible employees take ownership of what they are doing. This in long run increases employee moral,

co-ordination and productivity. People enjoy working where they are given freedom to choose suitable time to fulfil their obligations hence employee retention is higher where flexi time operates.
In flexi environments employees have an incentive to complete tasks instead of being carried forward to the next day as extra hours worked count towards the final target. This enables companies to meet their production deadlines.