Working Hours at Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade

The work life balance is great, and hours are good.

Work hours are flexible and dependent on what is expected of the day so its pretty good. As long as you get your work done that's important.

I'm happy with the amount of hours I work as I don't have much to do. I would be happy to work occasionally if I was busy and that meant I had a sense of purpose

Managers are flexible with work hours so long as the work gets done. Work hours can vary depending on a division's involvement in different events that might be taking place in New Zealand or overseas (where NZ is involved).

Work hours and relatively inflexible due to meeting and the necessity of interacting with others as part of the job. Working from home is possible and accepted, but this depends on your role, responsibilities, and team culture.

Pretty flexible, I am able to come and go pretty much when I like, as long as I am getting my work done. Also able to work from home, although I prefer being in the office.

The company has highly flexible working arrangements, including working from home. I choose to come into the office every day, 9 to 5, and that suits me well. Others who have families, pets, or live further away seem to get by fine with remote working arrangements, without it is impacting their work. I also like to be firm in having a boundary between work and home, including muting my work phone, and leaving my work laptop at the office outside of my regular hours. However, I notice that many other people either choose, or feel the pressure of busy workloads, to be attentive to their phones and take work home.

MFAT is very flexible when it comes to work hours and working from home. However, I have been through periods of a week or two where I haven't finished on time once. When it is busy, it is hard to spend just the required hours in the office.

I generally work 9-5 however, this can change depending on work priorities and travel.

Work hours are 9-5 although time pressures may increase these depending on work load. Working from Home is available although there is an expectation that majority of your time is spent in the office at the beginning.

Outside of travel, working hours are pretty good. Flexibility is pretty good, although there is room for improvement as some managers are more accommodating than others. Working hours while travelling, however, are far too intense and detrimental to wellbeing.

some divisions are good... mine is not I work over my hours every day

Flexible working is encouraged. Long hours are expected to complete high workloads.

Very flexible when it comes to WFH etc., however there is very much a tone of "if you can't do your work in the 40h it must be bad time management/bad organisation/inefficient work", which is a problem in my area where I'm being assigned work from multiple people and there's little oversight as to net workload.

Already working 130% of hrs on contract

Some days its 9-5 and other days its more 9-7. it fluctuates. Occasionally I work through the night, but make sure to keep track and take that time off elsewhere. you can very much set your own workplace boundaries.

Flexible working is available but dependent on your team.

Quite flexible with working from home when needed, although there is a preference to be in office when you first start to get to meet people/see how it all works. You usually work 9-5ish although can start an hour earlier/later if need be.

Very - sometimes work requires a bit more, but that's fine.

My experience is that it varies across the Ministry depending on your team. My current team/role does not have major things pop up that require you to work late. We all work very consistent hours. My manager is flexible, if you have an appointment or need to leave early on day, you can make the hours up elsewhere. Other parts of the Ministry are more impacted by events so staff may need to work late or extra hours. Some teams work requires them to join meetings in the middle of the night to suit others time zones etc.