Studio 24 handbook

Hybrid and flexible working

You can choose where you are most effective to work from.

Our default is to work remotely, with the office or co-working spaces available to work in if you want to.

We do come together to collaborate and meet in-person. If you are based near Cambridge, we encourage the team to do this occasionally though there is no minimum expectation of office working.

Some roles will be required to attend client meetings in-person, however, the majority of client meetings are virtual.

VPN access

All staff need to ensure they are able to work from home. All staff are allowed to take their laptops home and must ensure they can access the office network via VPN. If you need any help with this ask the Support Team.

Also see home office for details on how we support you working from home.

Working hours

Normal office hours are 9:00am to 5:30pm Monday to Friday, excluding Bank Holidays and a period over Christmas when we close.

We support flexible working hours for all staff. This means your start and end times are flexible, as long as:

  • You are able to complete your work in a productive manner

  • We expect all staff to be working during our core hours of 10am to 4:30pm

  • The normal working day is a 7.5-hour day with one hour for lunch

  • This means you can start between 8am and 10am, and you can finish between 4:30pm and 6:30pm

  • If any meetings or project deadlines are scheduled, please ensure you are available to work to meet these obligations

  • At least one developer is working between 9am and 5:30pm to cover technical support (UK time)

We don't want flexible working to encourage clock-watching and we don't keep a record of exactly when you arrive and leave (and we don't want to). Flexible working is based on trust.

We expect staff to be able to get their work done in a working week. If this takes a bit longer sometimes, that should be OK. Similarly, if you need a bit more flexibility one day we'll be understanding.

Please keep your normal working hours up to date on the intranet and in your calendar, so the team knows when you are working each day (in Google Calendar see Settings > Working hours).

Studio 24 reserves the right to rearrange working hours and working patterns in order to meet the requirements of the business.

You can find out more about other flexible working arrangements.

Lunch breaks

Everyone is encouraged to take a one-hour lunch break each day, though the minimum lunch break you must have is half an hour. Take a break, have a walk outside.

Moving your hours around

It's OK to move your hours around within a single week if you need additional flexibility. For example, you may have to work a shorter day and then make the time up another day.

If you need to do this, just make your team and PM aware for the projects you are working on and be aware of any meetings commitments you have.

Overtime

It is Studio 24's policy to minimise additional working hours as much as is practicable, since we recognise everyone needs a healthy work-life balance to be productive at work.

Overtime is not normally paid for any extra hours during your normal working week.

If you do work outside of your normal working week, this is paid as overtime at your standard rate and must be agreed in advance with your line manager. The exception is out-of-hours support which is detailed below.

Time in lieu for training and conferences

If you attend a conference on a weekend, we will give you one day holiday in lieu.

Out-of-hours tech support

If you are on call for our out-of-hours support service you may have to respond to support issues out of Studio 24's normal working hours (Monday to Friday 9-5:30pm excluding bank holidays).

If you work on an out-of-hours support incident we pay £100 per hour, with a minimum of 1 hour paid (even if you only work for 15 minutes).

If you can't make it in

If you are unable to make it into work due to illness you are expected to phone in and inform your line manager as soon as possible, and by 10am at the latest.