How do you manage work/DC hospital appointments?

[edenfizz]

How the hell do you do it?

I am looking at returning to work, after Several years as a SAHM.
So I think I will have to take whatever work I can get, so it's probably not going to be an understanding employer.

I am in such a panic about how I will be able to manage to keep up with DC regular outpatient appointments.

I have 4 to attend in the next 2 weeks, for example. It has to be me who attends, as I am the one most involved in their care.

Any suggestions or advice would be most welcome.
Thank you

I took annual leave. We have Flexi where I work so could sometimes take that, but would depend how much notice I had. If they were AM appointments I tended to take Flexi, annual leave for pm ones. I'm lucky that my boss is great and I've had a few freebies.

Tbh that is why I became a sahm - I didn’t see how any employer would be happy.

I don't have kids, but for my own medical appointments I just work flexibly around it. I work from home, attend the appointment, and make up the time so that my hours balance at the required 40 on my timesheet at the end of the week. If I couldn't do this flexible working approach, I'd use annual leave.

Working from home would be the dream. I can see how that would work well.
Do employers have to let you take the time for appointments A/L, holiday, or otherwise.
It just feels like a really bad way to start off and I don't want to be seen as a pain in the arse or difficult

I couldn’t. Ds has way too many appointments to consider it sadly. I tried and it made me ill.

I make up the time in lieu and my employer is happy with this.

Sirzy, it's a shame there isn't some kind of protection for parents of disabled/ chronically ill children. There really is no support, it's crap.
I also have a disability myself and dread asking for adjustments for myself then the appointment stuff.

I work flexibly around appointments. I probably get more flexibility than my current boss would like, but as his office is 125 miles from mine and I work around the time and get the job done, I suspect he isn’t aware of quite how flexible he is!

I deliberately look for flexibility in an employer and will mention work from home during the interview. Has worked in my favour because I tend to work from home to cope with appointments. I also ask for 7 or 8am appointments - they often aren’t available to book but as consultants are often there anyway at that time many will rearrange so they can finish earlier!

You need to get the right employer/ boss. And it needs to be give and take.

Working from home won't necessarily make it easier - you may still have fixed hours.

There's no law saying they have to give you the time off, or if they do that you can take it unpaid/ leave/ whatever.

You need to get the right employer/ boss. And it needs to be give and take.

^ This is it, and they are like gold dust so hard to find, but keep trying.

Mine is great and allows me to WFH and/or flexibly when needed for ds but I need it more for my elderly mum if she needs help or has an appointment with on of the many consultants she regularly sees (renal, haematology, maxillofacial, oncology) not to mention GP and dentist appointments too!

I am fortunate I was in the role and had built up goodwill for a couple of years before I really needed the flexibility and my boss also has an elderly mum so knows the challenges it brings.

I work well over my contracted 35hr week every week, sometimes when not convenient to me. dh covers school drop offs as I am in work before they are even out of their beds, and we share pickups.