End of Mat Leave and WFH

The one issue with the nature of the work point is that it could be considered more or less permanent.

Now to REALLY complicate things I actually have an OH report stating that I'm better off WFH where possible :D

I know I could just "lean on" that, but it feels dishonest, given it's not the issue!

Yes, I used FWR.

If I'd anticipated better, I'd have put the start date of the compressed hours in from January, and have used holiday to do 4 days per week phased return. But as I didn't, I'd like to offer a temporary and informal arrangement up until January.

The one risk I don't want to run is to not show up at the office until Jan and have to make up the 40% attendance in a massive block.

I think that's definitely a more viable option. I'm also happy to be permanently moved there if they want (people in my team are automatically put on the London office with London weighting regardless of where they live in the country unless they actively state a preference for the nearer office... It would save them and me money and time to put me on the more local office!)

Thank you for your advice on this. As I said, I like to be honest, and part of the request is about the convenience to me/phased return.

However, do you genuinely think I ought to stick to the business grounds?

I have worked on the other side of this myself in the past from HR/WFH management etc, and I always appreciated the honesty and clarity of what people wanted.

(The org has entirely obvious issues with WFH which I won't go into here, so part of this comes from me really wanting to give them some pointers about how to make it ACTUALLY work...)

Oh, and the new, very confidential workload was totally unforeseeable. I'm working in a silo of one on that. Only four people in a company of 500+ are aware of it even, and I don't need to collaborate with anyone for it (quite the opposite, I need to knuckle down and do it!).

Thanks for your response.

In response to the "foreseeable" part - I'm a first time working parent, so yes, to a certain extent I underestimated this.

But it was also masked by the fact that 1) our company offices were shut when I returned and have only just reopened and 2) my husband was caring for my son until a fortnight ago. So he is only now settling into nursery, with all the accompanying bugs etc, and we're finding a routine as a working family.

(If I could do it again, I'd want a longer phase into nursery and I'd use leave to return more slowly, but that's moot now because I can't change the fact that I underestimated the need to phase my return - I've ranted at myself for this aplenty!).

I believe the 40% will be well achievable as above (if not always the best use of my time, but that's by the by, I'm not querying that), however, not yet.

My plan is that we'll night wean around Christmas when I'm off work, then I'll do one long day in one office, and one short day in the closer one. I planned to do that sooner but a) my current workload is confidential and better done at home and b) the aforementioned issues with breastfeeding/lack of phased return to work.

I do worry that I'm going to ruin it for everyone by diligently querying this, because as I say, my team are probably the lowest attending team in the company!

I think there's a tacit acceptance of this because in most other similar roles in other companies it's 100% WFH, and it's hard to attract the right talent without accepting that.

Other teams naturally work at 80% both because the staff are inclined that way and so is the work.

No offence, but this kind of comment is really common in my workplace, and it's almost ALWAYS accompanied by really prejudiced and offensive comments about women on maternity leave or pregnant.

I hope you're not like that in real life, because if so HR should probably have a word.

Thanks - I think the big thing for me is honesty.

I don't like to lie to my employer, or to think that I'm making excuses. I have been honest without making a big deal of things from the start, and I think my line manager appreciates that (they certainly have more than their fair share of childcare issues).

I wouldn't like to go to them only saying "my workload is confidential" or "I feel the need to be closer to my baby whilst he settles into nursery/still feeding frequently", when I would be hiding half of the reason for my request.

We could afford reduced hours in the short term, but I'm not sure work could. There is valuable and necessary work to fit into my day job in the hours I do, they were desperate to have me back and struggled to find someone adequate to the task over my leave (my cover is a nice guy and very empathetic, he has worked from home the entire time I've been off!).

@Beekeepingmum - yes, compressed hours plus a long commute is part of the issue. But I think it's a short term one.

My son is breastfeeding for comfort as much as for food, but I think that's as valid a reason as food? Regardless, WFH means I can give him a quick feed before he departs at 8 and again when I pick him up at 4.