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I have mixed views on this article.

I support a form of flexible working as long as it does not damage clients, the employer or fellow employees. My colleagues and I run our firm as a form of 'Chambers', on the dreaded zero-hours contracts. The more we bill/work, the more we take home in dosh. Our clients are our own and we have no restrictive covenants in our contracts. We can work 7 days a week if we please, or work part time. We start and finish when we want, or rather when our workload/client requirements permit. Our clients have our personal mobile numbers and are always welcome to call us when we are not in the office - but we WILL pay them for those calls and work leading from them. We check our emails and texts daily when on holiday, and the holiday home I use abroad has an internet phone meaning I can (and do) frequently call clients on urgent matters whilst I am in my swimming trunks about to get in the pool! (Not a sight for the squeamish!). Our clients are the reason we get paid, and we need to service them to the best of our availabilities. If that means starting before 8am and staying till gone 7pm, so be it!

Most forms of flexible working are, in my experience, the privilege of those in large law firms, in the public sector or in central government. Most SME-sized firms just don't have the resources to enable them to permit such practices, and/or afford such practices, or service the clients correctly with such practices.

I was a civil servant before I took my Law degree (I know, the shame!). There, flexi-hours were the norm, with only compulsory attendance/work between 10am and midday, and 2pm and 4pm. One can imagine how frustrating, annoying and unacceptable such availability would be to most law firm clients!

These ideas may seem wonderful and progressive to 'Cosmopolitan', LDN types, but they are just pipe dreams to most of us 'at the coalface'.

NB I feel for the author, since my wife and I are on our second round of IVF, after a miscarriage, and the stress, time and energy medical appointments take up is enormous.

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