Flexible Service: Lieutenant Commander Becky Everest
Flexible Service has allowed me to temporarily serve part-time while remaining in Regular Service, so I can balance everyone’s needs when my family and I need to most.
Lieutenant Commander Becky Everest. MOD Crown Copyright.
When my husband and I had our first child, I served on a compressed working pattern. I did the same amount of work (full output) but over fewer days, so I could have 1 extra day to spend with my son each week. Now we’ve had our second son, I want to give my family more of my time, especially when our boys are still so young.
Flexible Service has allowed me to temporarily serve part-time while remaining in Regular Service, so I can balance everyone’s needs when my family and I need to most.
This balance is crucial to me because I’m committed to both my family and my career in the Royal Navy. I’ve served for 13 years in a diverse range of roles from a Warfare Officer to Human Resources management. I’m currently leading a team on a 2 year project to analyse the Royal Navy’s training needs for everyone, from our new recruits to our established service personnel. The project is also exploring how our people maintain their learning and development throughout their career. I’m proud to be part of something so important. It is, after all, the people and their skills, developed through training, that enable the military to fulfil its purpose.
I was extremely excited and pleased when the Flexible Service policy was announced. I immediately knew it was something I would apply for. While I was on a compressed working pattern I was working into the evenings between Monday and Thursday to maintain my full output. I found this exhausting and realised that it probably wouldn’t be sustainable when I returned to work with two young children.
Flexible Service is a new, modern type of flexible working arrangement for the armed forces that enables me to temporarily reduce the number of days I serve and my output to match. I applied for part-time working so I could reduce my working week by 40% (which equates to working 3 days a week) for two and a half years, to give my boys and I more time together when we need it most. Flexible Service arrangements are always temporary, from 3 months to 3 years, which maintains the ethos that Regular Service is full-time.
Flexible Service is different to other types of flexible working in the armed forces, like compressed working, remote working and variable start and finish times. It enables me to reduce the number of days I work along with my output (and pay). Applications for Flexible Service are considered against their impact on operational capability at a Service level and Flexible Service offers a greater degree of certainty than other flexible working, thanks to the law that sits behind it.
My Flexible Service arrangement is extremely important to me for my own motivation, morale and retention and I hope that others feel empowered to apply.