So a friend is an experienced “old” manager in a small to medium company, 50-100 employees, in Europe.They don’t make a lot of money, times are tough. The culture is apparently pretty good, but the business owners, who are a family and certainly not “hard” capitalists, are a bit traditional and only reluctantly embrace flexible working – they are concerned about the business have to lay people off because times are tough. They openly require most staff in the office 3-4 days a week, working standard 9-5 hours. They pay well over the average wage for the area, at all levels, but more recently are finding a some younger staff are being very relaxed over their hours, coming in late or leaving early. When they
raise it with them (having checked for caring responsibilities etc.) they keep saying they need more flex. The bosses, reluctantly, think my friend should fire someone to show that flexibility is a privilege not a right. How should my friend deal with this issue sensitively with the individuals involved, and get a positive change? Or should he just go ahead a fire someone?