Not being allowed to take flexi-time/not being paid overtime

Your only option is work the hours you are paid for and no more. Doesn't matter that it may leave them short. You are not getting paid for extra work done. At the end of the work day, switch off your phone, go home and enjoy your day.

Sharp practice my management to camoflague not having enough staff. Management try this in some workplaces to see how weak the staff are and can they get them to work extra hours for free.

You should contact youir Union asap.

If this is the civil service then you can seek to end it before the scheduled end if it's within the first 6 months.

This is the nail on the head. Clearance comes late then you pick it up the next working day. Fuss gets kicked up about stuff not getting done then the blame lies with those signing off. They're the bottleneck not you.

What exactly could they do if you leave on time.

Rubbish.

The problem isn't the OP isn't suitable to be an AO, the problem is his boss is an asshole, and most likely a spoofer.

OP, you are not the problem here.

Please ignore the non-civil servants on the thread who always seem to think they know more about the civil service than actual civil servants do.

There is more than one of them on this thread.

Why should the OP have to drag out their lunchtime for 2 hours every day then work until 7pm every evening to suit someone else who is clearly not doing their job in a timely manner?

Nonsense.

OP, you're not obliged to work a minute more than your contracted 35 hours per week, or to stay until 7pm every evening. I presume you have a life / family outside of work! Remember, you also have a statutory right to "disconnect" from work outside of normal working hours. Close of Business is 5:30pm.

If decisions don't come in until 5pm, they get dealt with by COB or first thing the next working day.

If you're not being paid for your time, and you're not being allowed to take any flexi you accrue, then you're out the door at COB, or when your hours are done, (whichever comes first) and gone back to your parent dept as soon as the secondment is over, if sooner is not possible.

And make sure you roast your manager's attitude and the Dept's "culture" in the exit interview.

Good luck to them in retaining staff if this is how they treat them.

Send an email to your line manager asking for clarification regarding Flexi time and overtime.

If they don't respond or try fob it off then send the email thread to HR and query it.

Until you get a satisfactory answer,do your 7 hours a day and not a minute more.

This is about as far removed from a TDs job description as its possible to get, and that expectation that they should focus on minor crap,is why nothing larger scale for the improrovement of the country at large gets done.

Mental for people in the private sector to read these sorts of threads.

If they want the AO to work like an AP, they need to pay them as an AP. Flexibility is important, and we can all be flexible to cover unusual situations, but this appears to be a requirement for regular, routine work outside of normal hours.

Specifically "AO is a HEO position"

If the were the same, they would be called ghe same. They aren't, cos they aren't.

An AO role is for someone with aspirations.

If the OP has aspirations, they need to weight these up against their current issue.

If they don't, then they need to get into an HEO role, and stop blocking the pathway.

Completely irrelevant to this thread, which is about flexi time in the civil service - not a local authority - and the OP not being allowed to use the hours they've already worked up.

No one is the CS is allowed accrue more than 11.5 hours flexi per four week period, or take more than 1.5 days flexi leave, per flexi period.

Flexi hours built up, must be taken as flexi leave within the following 4 weeks period. You cannot build up another 11.5 hours, to accrue more flexi days, until what is already built up is taken as any balance over 11.5 hours at the end of a flexi period is automatically lost.

Please leave your anecdotes at the door, or at least ensure they are relevant to the case in hand.

Private company I worked for had a similar arrangement with one person. In late after dropping to creche then long lunch to move them to after school. But then we worked often worked late for deadlines. Of course someone complained. So then all local arrangements stopped. But then all working extra and late for free for deadlines stopped. Flexibility works both ways.

Amazing how local verbal "habits" and "culture" seem to evaporate once you put them in writing.

Email vs Chat https://workchronicles.com/email-vs-chat/

Traditionally AOs were specifically put in areas regarding research and policy but Ive noticed there is certainly a bit of a new trend of appointing AOs as a cheaper alternative to HEOs

AO was usually graduates and allso a 'fast track' to AP but to say because you went from EO to HEO because of lack of aspiration is a joke. Having aspirations means sweet fa when its competency based interviews anyway.

Regarding the OP. Just because its 'culture' doesnt mean its right. By pass the managers go straight to HR.

Had a similar issue years ago. Line manager was a 10am start and worked til 6 or later, I started at 8 and finished at 4. They liked to do majority of their work after 4 as it was quieter and suggested I do the same. The word "No" is a complete sentence. My career proespects nor aspirations were never affected by it 🙄

It's generally a good mix within a team to have some who start early and some who work late.

I suspect most people have had a similar experience a few times in their careers.

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For years now Depts. have been using AOs as a means of filling HEO posts cheaply, HEO duties at EO rate of pay. This isn't fair on the AOs and, tbh, on the staff they're managing either. (I used to be one, before anyone complains!)

I never said that HEOs were not successful.

But AO as you correctly state is a graduate recruitment grade. Someone who is of a mind to be whingey about the hours required for a particular position is not likely to be successful on a fast track path into management.

They need to get info a role which is a better fit for their aspirations. Or they need to decide to see the bigger picture and do what's required to achieve their aspirations.

It really comes down to the OPs goals.

But accruing flexi is not an entitlement. And it's not worth getting fond of if you have management aspirations, because APs don't get it.