To only work very part time?

You’ve honestly said that about a dozen times now, minimum. You could abbreviate to G&B by now, you’ve used it that many times. You’re like a robot.

Great response from @FWSsupporter hopefully you will take some of their advice.

But in your point about you have enough stress in your life, how do you know they don't have lots of stress in their lives and increased workload is now adding to their stress!

They won’t stop though just because you complain. They’ll just do it quieter to each other. And possibly then start making official complaints about their issues which may well then come back to you in other ways as other people have pointed out.

It’s very possible some of your colleagues have much stress in their lives. And now they have the extra stress of added work. So as others have said, just be careful the people up top don’t start listening to their worries and they retract their flexible working agreement.

The gossiping is unprofessional, cruel and hurtful but I'm also surprised that you are not addressing the workload issue. A role titled global head suggests seniority. At the least a line manager, budget holder and someone with departmental objectives to achieve?

You speak of the fact your managers were the ones who agreed this, which is correct, but you are a manager too which comes with responsibilities of controlling resources to get work completed.

When you made your flexible working request, what was your proposal around how the three days work would be covered? Is the reality different from the expected? What have you proposed to your line managers to bring things back on track? There's obviously been a saving through your reduction in hours. Where has this money gone? Would recruiting a more junior person on 4 days a week rather than a direct replacement for your three days give more capacity?

I lead an organisation with a lot of different work patterns (I'm on one myself ). Unfortunately, in many cases thought wasn't given to how things would work in practice and people have varying levels of efficiency. I've changed this and, whilst we are still open to flexibility, I want heads to confirm how workload will be managed and they can propose creative ways to do so, as long as within budget.

I can imagine life changed for you a lot. You are wonderful giving four children a home. Your colleagues and especially managers are wankers for gossiping but I believe you have more agency with addressing the workload than you think.

Well if you want to be hated and shunned by your whole team and to accelerate the process of being managed out do go ahead. They will at least stop talking about you where you can hear them.

@OneJadeSheep you are perfectly entitled to work part time, it is legally permitted by legislation and contractually permitted by your employer. What they are doing is bullying.

You said your job is Global Head of Accessibility and that this is a Global business. Use your position wisely.

Realistically going from 5 days of 7.5 hours for 46 weeks a year to 2 days of 6 hours for 30 ish weeks a year is a big change. No one can do a full time job in part time part year hours. The ideal position is to make the role a job share.

I would tackle this strategically short, medium and long term.

Short Term: Talk to a relatively senior trusted HR colleague - one who’s pragmatic and ask about the bullying and harassment policy. https://www.acas.org.uk/bullying-at-work Explain what is happening and use the policy to formulate a plan to address this.
As managers are involved I would do a training session on bullying and harassment using a number of examples and including a scenario similar to yours. Explain they have a responsibility to address bullying and harassment by them and their staff. At the same meeting explain your long term plan of a business proposal to increase flexibility as part of accessibility strategy including job share - this is the carrot!

Short to Medium term: Realistically you cannot do your full time job part time part year, no one can; but there is clearly a business need for someone to do specific parts of your role on your non-working days. Targeted delegation is the only way to address this. You need to build a structure to allow the business to continue when you are not there. Sell it as a development opportunity - yes everyone knows this is bullshit for more work but it’s the only option you have.
Note: If you work 37.5 hours 46 weeks after BH and leave it’s 1747 hours a year 12 hours a week for 30 weeks is 360 hours the missing 1387 hours have to be covered some other way. Being honest about it doesn’t stop it being shit for everyone but acknowledging it may help.

Long term:You have said your employer works on headcount rather than Full Time Equivalent so won’t agree to job share. Strategically as Global Head of Accessibility you are in the prime position to put forward a business proposal that flexible working, including job share, is a reasonable adjustment for disabled employees and can benefit the business. A barrier is the organisations approach to headcount rather than FTE. Using FTE does have a cost to the business and you need to include those costs in your business plan but there are also savings like retaining knowledge, loyalty etc.
Is it feasible you could delegate this?

I really admire what you are taking on an keeping working is important but your employer needs to be fair to your colleagues too.

Because you’re the one that caused the problem. Or because you’re the one that currently has the issue. They’ve chosen not to, it’s now your call.

of course, you could raise a formal grievance about their behaviour. I’m sure that would help 🙄 /s

It is difficult for colleagues working with someone very part time in some jobs. They often have to leave half completed work half way through that would have been easier for colleagues to do the whole thing. It's difficult to include them in training, meetings etc because of limited hours of availability. Continuity is really hard, when they're in they spend most of the time catching up on stuff they've missed.

That's not to say that these colleagues are right to bitch and moan - its up to the company to sort any issues that arise out of very part time working, when that part time working is agreed. And they should be putting a stop to employees saying nasty things about colleagues, and putting in place extra resource to replace the hours that you dropped.

I applied to reduce my hours after my first child. I went from full time to 3 days in the office. It was perfect for me. Someone was employed part time to cover my 2 days off. We shared a desk and it worked out great. One colleague who is generally quite rude kept commenting on my part time hours. Saying, “is there any point you coming in?!” And my favourite, “oh you’re going home now?!” I started replying with a smile, “yes because I’m only paid for these hours! “ She started to realise that I’m paid less than her and just stopped saying anything! People are strange sometimes! I left after my second child as it was a long commute and I had school to consider. I ended up taking a part time job working from home which is lovely! My advice is to ignore them but if they say anything to your face, tell them you get paid a lot less to reflect your part time hours!

But @OneJadeSheep as you keep saying your colleagues should complain to managers and HR but this could be detrimental to your FWR, as it can be reviewed and changed. If colleagues all start complaining, rather than employing someone else your company may just say 'OneJade' this isn't working for us or the team. Therefore it is likely beneficial to you and your job (if you want to stay), to speak with other managers and help manage this before HR steps in.

You're a manager, and this is impacting your team. Isn't dealing with issues part of what you're paid for?

I'm baffled by your attitude.

But they don’t want to be marked as difficult or complaining or they’ll be first on the list at the next redundancy round rather than you. People know there’s a significant downside to raising an issue formally

You’re not the same person in the other threads who is also a global head of a department and who also has kinship of 4 children (was 3 but then was taking on another one) and who was asking in a thread what to do about wanting to drop to 2 days a week as was struggling with 4? But was worried because work originally said no as they normally don’t allow 2 days a week only? That’s quite a coincidence then if you’re not them.

So given this, why are you being so obtuse about what the issue is? Your choice is significantly impacting them. They know further recruiting won’t happen so they have no choice but to get on with it or find another job which isn’t always easy

I’m going to bet you’ll be gone by March. You need a plan B. ASAP.

So if you have no sickness you’re at work for around 70 days a year in reality rather than the 232 of a full timer. And you do t see why this is causing issues?

This.

Assuming your holiday entitlement is taken up by the term time only bit, you’re there 33% of the time of a full timer. If your company has headcount limits (rather than FTE limits) it is highly likely that the complaints of others will see this role remove and replaced by a full timer “different enough” role and you’ll be made redundant.

I have no idea why your employers thought this arrangement was a good idea, but they are allowed to change their minds and they aren’t required to accommodate your life choices to the detriment of everyone else.