reduced hours???

[QueenB14]

Anyone go back from mat leave on reduced hours?

Was this easily negotiated with work? How many hours/days are you on now?

[SASASI]

Seems to vary & ultimately depends on your employer.

I know a few people who have managed compressed hours ie 4 days work instead of 5 days.

My employer is very much job share as opposed to having any actual part time jobs if that makes sense.

They are letter templates on goggle for flexible working requests. You need to think of the obstacles for your employer and how they can be overcome & put your solutions to them.

Good luck!

[nottheOP]

I did a request for flexible working which work approved. Reduced my hours to 30 from 35. I do 4 * 7.5 days by only taking a 30 minute lunch

[QueenB14]

Thank you

At what point in mat leave did you put in your request?

[nottheOP]

I think he was 4 months old or so and I went back when he was 6 5 months old.

As I remember it the assumption is that you back full time after 12 months and if you want to vary that you give a minimum of 8 weeks notice.

[AnythingNotEverything]

I'm temporarily on reduced hours (30 rather than 35) due to large scale organisational change.

Your only right is to request flexible working - you have no right to reduce your hours, and your employer canreasonablyrefuse almost anything on business reasons. I would start discussing t as soon as possible, putting in a formal request as soon as you know what you want. You have sell it to them.

It's tricky with childcare to arrange and budgets to do, and I found the period of not knowing quite stressful.

[IpsyUpsyDaisyDo]

About a month before I returned to work (in 2013) I met up with my line manager and his boss to confirm arrangements - I felt it was better to discuss with them directly what I had in mind, rather than go through HR from the beginning, but it depends on your relationship with your boss whether that would be appropriate for you.

I requested that I drop 1 hour a day, shift my core working hours earlier (I do nursery pick-up), and also use accrued leave to do a phased return. All were agreed, so my salary dropped 15% (didn't like that bit!) and I spent the first 9 weeks back at work increasing from 2 to 5 days a week. I really appreciated the phased return, worked really well settling both myself and DD into the work/nursery routine.

At the end of last year I also put in a flexible working request to work one day a week from home, which was also accepted. My firm was under no obligation to accept any of my requests. I think the best approach is to work out first what you would like ideally (and have in mind what you'd be prepared to be flexible / compromise on) before any meetings with anyone. If you can discuss it first with your boss and get support from him/her, it will smooth the progress of your flexible working request.

[QueenB14]

Thanks all, I will put in a request ASAP
Not due back until summer but would prefer to have a poa so can arrange childcare etc. Think they will be fairly reasonable (fingers crossed anyway) I hadn't thought of doing phased return, definitely worth thinking about

[cheminotte]

I would definitely recommend a phased return. You will have accumulated annual leave while on mat leave.

[Kelly1814]

I did.

But beware! They cut my salary by 25% to reflect my shorter hours...in actuality I worked full time hours and more.

I went back full time 8 months later as I figured I might aswell get paid for the time I was working...