RibenaBerry please kindly help - thanks

[jaabaar]

Hi RibenaBerry,
Thanks again for your help. Have thought about your very good advise and rephrased point A) and B) of application for flex working as per below. I would so very much appreciated if you could have a look if it sounds logical.... . Thank you ever so much.

"I think this change in my working pattern will affect my employer and colleagues as follows:
There will be day to day work (e.g. emails, phone calls) etc which will have to be dealt with on my absent days. This will put an additional work load onto my colleagues.

I think the effect on the business and my colleagues can be dealt with as follows:
During the additional time I work per day I could take over work from my colleagues which does not have a day to day deadline (e.g. Commission invoicing etc) and those colleague in turn could use that freed up time to deal with my day to day work on my absent days.

At my last visit you briefly mentioned that the company will restructure the way it works. All employees will be trained to deal with all of the work/products. This restructuring would protect the business from longer or unexpected absences of employees. It also increases the flexibility to reorganise work among existing stuff. I think that the restructuring is a good time to explore options to accommodate my flexible working request whilst benefiting the business."

[RibenaBerry]

Do you know how your colleagues are likely to feel about swapping the work around. Is there any way you can sell this as good for them too?

Sorry, bit of a hurry. Happy to comment more later if you can answer the question above.

[jaabaar]

Hi RibenaBerry,

Thank you for having picked up my post - really do appreciate very much. You have helped me a lot.

Plainly and unfortunately it is like this in our office: In our company there is no consideration on we "feel". Whatever boss decides goes, even if you nearly die over it etc etc. I nearly got ill at work. During my maternity leave a new person was appointed plus two other have taken over part of my job and half of the work had to be cancelled as they were not able to cope.

However to reply to the question: I would take over a lot of work which no one really loves doing and would give interesting work back to do over those two days to my colleagues.

Further I believe that once my contacts know I am absent on those two days, not as many would contact me and therefore the two days i am absent would not be as busy.

I hope my reply is not too long...

Thank you again for sharing your knowledge, many blessings to you.

[RibenaBerry]

oooh, that's good stuff. Add it to your application. Make the point that you think your colleagues would view those changes as a positive change to their workload, since you would be able to relieve them of more popular/interesting tasks. Also flag that clients would likely concentrate their requests to you on the days you were in, minimising the need to rejig duties in the first place.

The overall aim is to make your proposal look good for everyone, not just good for you, so if you think your colleagues will actually like the changes, that really helps.

[RibenaBerry]

Sorry, also meant to say, sorry about your horrid experience before you went off and happy to try and help!

[RibenaBerry]

Argh, what I am doing this morning? In my first post I obviously meant to say that you would be able to pass them more popular/interesting tasks and relieve them of more routine tasks...

[jaabaar]

Good morning RibenaBerry!
Thank you so much. Do you think how I phrased is good? E.g. you understand what point I want to make?

I start work in 15 weeks (e.g. the last 28 days are my accured holidays). Is that a reasonable time to send it off or late?

Thanks again, have a lovely good morning.

My husband is convinced you are a good lawyer, because of your excellent writing and avdvise! I do appreciate very much as having to write this part time application nearly makes me sick!

THANKS!

[RibenaBerry]

Aw, shucks . Happy to help where I can.

I'd say get the application in as soon as possible but no, that's not too late.

If I was being really picky I might tweak your wording slightly, but I think it's really good overall. I've put my things in caps below.

"I think this change in my working pattern will affect my employer and colleagues as follows:
There will be day to day work (e.g. emails, phone calls) etc which will have to be dealt with on my absent days. This will NEED TO BE COVERED BY my colleagues. (I'd change this from saying extra work, because I think you are saying that you can balance out the net result by covering their stuff, so you don't want to give the impression that they would end up overloaded).

I think the effect on the business and my colleagues can be dealt with as follows:
During the additional time I work per day I could take over work from my colleagues which does not have a day to day deadline (e.g. Commission invoicing etc) and those colleague in turn could use that freed up time to deal with my day to day work on my absent days. THIS WILL MEAN THAT THERE SHOULD BE NO OVERALL INCREASE IN THEIR WORKLOAD TO COVER MY ABSENCE. ALSO, SINCE THE TASKS I COULD RELIEVE THEM OF TEND TO BE SOME OF THE MORE ROUTINE/LESS INTERESTING TASKS, I THINK THAT MY COLLEAGUES WOULD FIND THIS A POSITIVE CHANGE FOR THEM TOO. I ALSO CONSIDER THAT THE NEED FOR COVER WOULD BE REDUCED BY THE FACT THAT MANY CLIENTS WHO WORK WITH ME MAY CHOOSE TO TIME THEIR REQUESTS FOR MY WORKING DAYS.

or something like that. I wouldn't change the last bit at all. Try not to feel sick. You do your very best on the application and you see what happens .

[jaabaar]

Hi RibenaBerry!
Thank you so much. Very good, clever points you have made! I have integrated all.

Have JUST now sent application by email! Tummy turning!

I really appreciate that you have taken the time to go through it and give such good replies. I would not have been able to present such a good application.

May many good things come to you!!!

x

[RibenaBerry]

Fingers crossed and glad I could help.

It's really all about the presentation - you had all the ideas yourself, it just sometimes takes an outsider to help you present them in the best light.

Let us know what happens.