Forced resignation

[LATP]

Hello. First time on mumsnet so not sure what to expect but I would really appreciate your advices and thoughts as I am really upset and feel totally let down and to be honest my confidence and self belief is in pieces. During my maternity leave with my second child I requested - in accordance with my company’s flexible working policy - to work 1 hour less a day, effectively reducing my full time job of 35 hours a week to 30 hours a week. I requested to work 1 hour less a day in order to collect my eldest child from after school club. My eldest had started school whilst I was on maternity leave and I needed my company to support me in this change of circumstances and restriction of hours that starting school brings versus nursery which closes at 18.30. As the primary carer of my children I honestly thought this wouldn’t be a problem as working 1 hour less a day was a reasonable request and an actual necessity on my part to be able to pick my children up. My initial request and appeal were rejected. I was given no explanation apart from a plain cut and paste of the list of permitted reasons to decline a flexible working request from the ACAS website. I wasn’t even offered a trial period. As a result I was forced to resign from my job as my company was preventing me picking up my children by not allowing me to work 1 hour less a day. Is this normal? Has anyone else experienced this?

I wouldn't say it was normal. But they do not have to give you flexible or reduced working hours if they feel the job can't be done in this time frame, or it will have a negative impact on others, ie everyone will request it.

I'm not sure what answer you're looking for but they are within their rights to decline your request, I'm sorry.

Op, from my understanding (I’m not a lawyer or employment specialist ), flexible working requests are requests. Companies don’t have to agree to them, but they must give reasons why not e.g needs of the business, adversely affects other staff.
It’s your choice to change your hours so you may need to consider different type of work.

What about your partner could they not do after school club collections?

Was there a way to make up your hours or share the school pick up?

I do appreciate it’s not easy.

Did they follow their policy?

Yes, my request to change my hours was declined. We struggled through for a year, and then I quit.
They dont have to grant a request, unfortunately. Is there no other way to collect the kids? What hours does their Dad work? Would work let you start an hour earlier, so you kept your hours the same, but had them shifted?
It's not forcing you to quit. Its requesting you continue to work the current hours. You could equally say the childcare is forcing you to quit because they wont stay open longer for your child.

Yes this can be normal. Flexible working isn’t legally guaranteed. Your best bet is to get a full time job that allows work from home and share pick ups and drop offs with your DH.

The law says you have the right to request part time or flexible hours, but your employer is under no obligation to grant your request.

Consider it, yes. Grant it, no.

Yes it’s normal. It’s a request, they don’t have to grant it, and your childcare issues are not their problem.

You aren't guaranteed flexible working, just the right to ask. Asking for 5 hours less may not be feasible as how can they employ someone for 5 hours a week to cover you? If you had asked for an earlier start time (by 45 mins plus 15 mins less at lunch) then turning you down may have been easier to prove as discrimination.

If you had asked for an earlier start time (by 45 mins plus 15 mins less at lunch) then turning you down may have been easier to prove as discrimination.

WTF?

If a reception desk needs covering from, day 9-5, then someone wanting to come in at 8:15 and leave at 4pm isn’t going to work whoever they are!

If other people at the company are permitted to work different or shorter hours but they refused your request, then it could be viewed as constructive dismissal and/or sex discrimination.

As a result I was forced to resign from my job as my company was preventing me picking up my children by not allowing me to work 1 hour less a day

This is not the right way to look at it op. It's your role to find childcare to fit round your working hours. Be it child minder, nanny, au pair, whatever. If nursery wasn't suitable then another option should have been found.

Your company wasn't preventing you picking up Your kids. It's more your child care did not fit with your working hours.

Did you try to find more suitable child car before you resigned?

Did they force you to resign? Or did they just mean you had to look for after school care?

You chose to resign as they could not meet your request. Did you partner make a similar request? Pay a childminder to do pick up/asc? What is you query?

Yes, the company haven’t done anything wrong unless perhaps other people have had similar requests agreed to, and even then it might not matter, because it is dependent on business need.

If other people at the company are permitted to work different or shorter hours but they refused your request, then it could be viewed as constructive dismissal and/or sex discrimination.

No it wouldn’t. They just asked first!

Also depends on the job they do. Maybe the cleaner can work different hours to the receptionist.

You chose to resign OP, the company didn't force you. You could have picked different after-school childcare because (as many have already said) they don't have to grant your request unfortunately. I know it is disappointing.

This is one of many threads recently where people have resigned rat'her than return from maternity leave, have a look in the 'back to work' section.

This is completely normal- I probably decline 50% of flexible working requests as they mean the business will suffer in some way. I know this is a hard pill to swallow but how you arrange your childcare isn’t really their concern- they just need staff to perform roles. Maybe you were forced to resign because you couldn’t work their anymore and meet your child care commitments but that isn’t their fault, it’s a result of your circumstances

working 1 hour less a day was a reasonable request
You don’t get to decide what they deem to be reasonable, I’m afraid. It was reasonable for you, but not for them.

Did you explain in your request how it would be compatible with business need? If you couldn't evidence that they would have every right to refuse.

Are there no childminders who could do the pickup? Have other people had similar requests granted?

My request (to go from 5 full days down to 4 full days) was initially refused but did work out in the end, but only because of a business change that meant they needed a new part time member of staff. It's gutting when you get told no, but they can and do say no often.

Completely normal. From the business perspective, it could be that a request like this might be quite difficult to allow whilst maintaining your team's output. IME, part-time requests are harder to grant than flexible hours requests for this reason.

Ultimately, childcare is your responsibility and not the responsibility of the business.

If other people at the company are permitted to work different or shorter hours but they refused your request, then it could be viewed as constructive dismissal and/or sex discrimination.

Extremely unlikely. Why do requests on here for employment advice attract such a huge amount of misinformation?

Does my head in.

Doesn’t help when posts go into chat rather than employment issues.