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Original poster

Did you start working flexible hours after mat leave?

31 replies

littlepieces · 01/04/2021 08:26

After mat leave, did you return to work with flexible hours/a four day week? How did you go about asking for this? Did you have to negotiate a salary cut as a result?

Quite a few people in my office work a four day week. I asked one colleague how it worked but she was a bit standoffish about it, so I'm reluctant to ask anyone else. Is it some kind of taboo topic to talk about?!

OP posts:
dementedpixie · 01/04/2021 08:45

You need to do a flexible working request. Your employer may have their own one you can complete.

cheesebubble · 01/04/2021 08:46

Just discuss it with HR rather than your colleagues. Salary should be the same but pro rata'd unless you do compressed hours.

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SummerHouse · 01/04/2021 08:50

I would ask your boss in the first instance. Just ask what the options are. I went from full time to three days and that's been amazing. I know people who do compressed hours (four days but still full time).

angelopal · 01/04/2021 08:51

I dropped to 4 days after DC2. Pro rata salary and annual leave. If there are a lot of people already doing it then it should be approved. Complete the flexible working request and submit.

Original poster
littlepieces · 01/04/2021 09:03

Just to note I'm not having a baby, just curious about how it works at the moment, but nobody will discuss it in person. I'd like to work compressed hours.

At my work there's a flexible working policy, but what the policy says and what might be agreed to are two different things. I've just started a new role at my company in a new team. I had a salary increase request turned down due to Covid uncertainty Hmm, so don't want to look like I'm demanding.

OP posts:
otterbaby · 01/04/2021 09:03

I go back in July and have dropped to 4 days. Pro rata with salary and annual leave as mentioned above. Would have hated working 40hrs in 4 days - roughly 8am-6pm. Would barely see my baby by the time I got home after my hour commute!

otterbaby · 01/04/2021 09:04

Sorry should have said, I asked my manager and he helped me submit the request with HR.

Florencenotflo · 01/04/2021 09:05

My boss called me about 5 months into my mat leave to see how I was doing, she mentioned that I needed to let her know when I was planning to return and if I wanted to discuss flexible working.

We discussed it a few weeks later and worked it out between ourselves. She then notified HR. But this will vary depending on your organisation I would imagine. I work in quite a big department within a local govt authority.

I would start by ringing your line manager and asking what the process is. I believe all workplaces should consider flexible working, but don't have to agree it. But if it is refused it should be for business reasons.

For example, I had to refuse someone's initial application because it didn't meet business need. The person wanted to work 3 long days, this wasn't agreed because we were customer facing (answering telephone calls) and our office hours were 9-5. They wanted to do 7 - 5 over 3 days a week. It was refused because we have minimal tasks to do other than taking incoming calls, entering the data onto our data base etc.

Our phone lines are centrally managed and don't go live until 9am. If they started at 7am we would have 6 hours per week where that person wouldn't really be able to do anything. I did offer to reduce their hours to 9-5 across 3 days which they went with, and then added in a 4th day after about 9months.

Start by giving your line manager a call.

KihoBebiluPute · 01/04/2021 09:05

I had one day a week wfh - dc still went to nursery but for a half day not a whole day. So I had one morning for the various mummy & baby/mummy and toddler groups which was great. I still did my full hours by working into the evening and working longer on the 4 days in the office, so no reduction in salary. Meanwhile DH changed his hours to 90% fte spread over 4 longer days so he had 1 day fully clear, and had a 10% salary cut which was totally worth it. Remember that both parents can apply for the flexible working pattern not just you.

Todaytomorrowyesterday · 01/04/2021 09:09

I discussed it with my manager first before submitting the form. We had a discussion about work load & how it would be managed & we came to a compromise. No guarantees until I submitted the form and waited for approval.

No salary negotiations as my pay was reduced as per my hours reducing.

We have a few parents that do compressed working week with one day off so no loss in salary.

Sceptre86 · 01/04/2021 09:13

I put in a flexible working request although I don't work in an office prior to my mat leave finishing. I then reached out to my manager to give her a heads up and did a few KIT days. Thankfully she agreed from me cutting my days down from 5 to 2.5 which has been really helpful since. I have a good balance now.

Dh applied for flexible working too and wfh on my two full days at work. My half day is a Saturday where he is off on weekends anyway. I wouldn't have been able to continue working had dh not been able to wfh on those days, he does drop off and pick ups.

boatyroo · 01/04/2021 09:19

I work reduced hours. I would like to do compressed really but I don't think it would go down well - everyone I work with works longer than a full day every day just because of work load so I don't think I could justify doing the same longer days on 4 days and having a day off because of it unfortunately.

Megan2018 · 01/04/2021 09:28

I applied for statutory flexible working after mat leave, I work 30hrs over 4 days instead of full time (37hrs) and my pay and holiday was reduced pro rata. I also opted for a shorter lunch break. Financially it’s been brilliant as it puts me back into 20% tax and child benefit so the net pay difference is minimal but the impact on my welfare has been huge. I am so much happier.

Some of my colleagues work compressed hours to work a 9 day fortnight and retain full pay and holiday but that didn’t work for me.
We also have a few that work 37hrs over 4 days but not many as it doesn't work for most departments.

Original poster
littlepieces · 01/04/2021 10:15

Thanks everyone who have responded so far, really useful and interesting.

OP posts:
TravellingJack · 01/04/2021 10:59

@angelopal

I dropped to 4 days after DC2. Pro rata salary and annual leave. If there are a lot of people already doing it then it should be approved. Complete the flexible working request and submit.
Just be aware that if there are a lot of people already doing it, there may be a business reason for it to not be approved, unfortunately. I worked at an organisation where so many people in the team were on condensed or reduced hours already that the manager pretty much rejected all new requests out of hand due to needing enough people present in the office. It made things difficult and people got very resentful, but you could see their point - if everyone in the team was off at least one day a week, then even if the days were evenly spread across the team (they weren't in ours - most people had Fridays or Mondays off) it would be very difficult to have a day when the full team was available for meetings.

There were a lot of piss-takers in that team though, people who randomly didn't show up because they had decided to 'work at home' so even when you expected them to be in to cover phones etc, they weren't... on more than one occasion there would be end up being only one person in, so they were covering 30 phone lines (people refused to forward them to their home phones) whilst trying to do their own work and get a drink/eat lunch/go to the toilet!

Not sure how they've been getting on over the last year now everyone works from home by default Confused

TravellingJack · 01/04/2021 11:02

Also, the manager accidentally let slip that the reason one colleague who had requested condensed hours was turned down wasn't actually due to the 'cover in the office' reason that was given, but because she didn't have children, so 'I couldn't justify giving her a day off because she doesn't really need it'!!

Wasn't a very nice place to work!

Scotinoz · 01/04/2021 11:45

I originally worked 3 days after going back post kids, and now it’s 4. It was just a discussion with directors and HR.

My husband changed his hours through flexible working to suit school run. Again, it was a discussion and form filling exercise.

I have my salary pro-rated for the reduced hours, his is the same (he works the same hours per week, just slightly different ones).

Suppose it’s approval just depends on ‘business needs’

cheesebubble · 01/04/2021 11:49

@boatyroo that's the same for me! Everyone works 10h days anyway, so how could I work a 10h day and expect to get a day off for it when nobody else does.

wendz86 · 01/04/2021 12:07

Yes i went back to work 9 years ago after my first child. I put a letter into work to request a 4 day week. I work 80% of full time hours so get 80% salary.
I just said the reasons i believed i could still do my job in that many days etc. There was no issue for me though.

tisonlymeagain · 01/04/2021 12:12

I just asked to drop to 4 days and it was accepted, and my contract updated, I didn't need to do any official flexible working requests etc. My salary is pro-rated, as is annual leave. I asked to have a 3 month review period on it to see if it was working for both of us.

Toottoot20202 · 01/04/2021 12:17

OP, don’t feel apologetic about asking for what you want or looking demanding. Think like a man and as long as your request is reasonable and fact based you should have no reason to feel sheepish.

As a manager I really respect line reports who know their value, are upfront about what they want and understand that it needs to align with the requirements of the job. So much better than people feeling hard done by and simmering with resentment.

Alarae · 01/04/2021 12:27

I had a candid conversation with my manager before I went on maternity leave, as I proposed the idea of compressing my hours. She said this would be a non-starter as it had been tried in the past and people burnt out (fair enough).

As I'm the higher earner, I couldn't afford a drop in salary so I've returned full time. Luckily with covid though and our office moving I will pretty much be WFH full time, with perhaps one day a fortnight in the office to meet up with colleagues.

As my DH finishes at 3pm and picks our DD up it means I can still work while watching DD have a play (and have a few sneaky cuddles on work time). We can flex our hours as we like so while I am generally online 7:30am - 5pm, it means I can disappear to drop her off at the childminder or have a longer lunch as long as I meet my total hours for the week.

Forcing my company to realise flexible working really works is one of the only good things to come out of covid.

SquigglePigs · 01/04/2021 13:01

I followed our company flexible working policy in terms of the actual application to HR but I'd had a chat to my line manager to make sure he was happy with the plan before I submitted it - e.g. which day of the week I had off worked for both me and the business. Did the same in the middle of this year to cut my hours even more.

Actually, I have a good relationship with him and he had young children so long before I had kids we'd talked about how having two full time working parents with small children was really hard so he knew once I was pregnant that I was planning to reduce my hours and he was supportive. Salary is just an automatic pro-rata as is annual leave.

Nordicwannabe · 01/04/2021 13:02

A friend who doesn't have children changed to working 4 days per week, with salary and holiday pro-rata. You don't have to have kids to do it: there are lots of reasons to want to change your hours. (He wanted to do more cycling)

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