8 simple rules for negotiating flex work

Just because you'd like to set your own hours or work from home doesn't mean your employer will share the sentiment. Employers don't want to hear that you need a career makeover (or makeunder); they just want to know what's in it for them. To talk to the higher-ups at work about going flex, check out these recommendations from Cynthia Shapiro, author of Corporate Confidential: 50 Secrets Your Company Doesn't Want You to Know -- And What to Do About Them.

1. Pay your dues
Asking for a flex-work schedule after six to 12 months with a company is pushing it. You first have to prove yourself dependable, hardworking and indispensable. Better to request flex work once you have three solid years under your belt -- and have proven you can do your job backward, forward, blindfolded and straitjacketed.

2. Win over your boss
Make her look successful every step of the way, as if you're in business for yourself and she's your biggest client. Without her on your side, your bid for flex work won't get far. If you do score a flex arrangement, it's crucial that your boss support it 100 per cent. Otherwise, you could drop your weekly hours from 40 to 24 but still find yourself saddled with a full-time workload -- only for less pay.

3. Be a company cheerleader
Drink the Kool-Aid (or at least pretend to): If you plan to ask for the moon, resist the urge to publicly bad-mouth your employer. Sing the company's praises instead, especially in the office, where Big Brother really is watching.

4. Study the culture
To predict how your employer will react to your request for flex, don't just study the policies in your employee manual -- pay attention to the company's actions, too. "Look at what they truly reward and truly punish," Shapiro says. Is anyone else in your department working flexible hours, part-time, or from home? Have any of your coworkers successfully negotiated flex work? Or was their request denied, or, worse, were they mysteriously let go?

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Excerpted from The Anti 9 to 5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube by Michelle Goodman. Copyright 2007 by Michelle Goodman. Excerpted by permission of Seal Press, an Imprint of Avalon Publishing Group, Inc., distributed by Publishers Group Canada. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced except with permission in writing from the publisher.