Did you start working flexible hours after mat leave?

[littlepieces]

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?!

I put in a flex work request at an old employer that was rejected due to business need, however my manager let slip to the person who sat next to me that as her employer wasn't flexible with her when her kids were born (some 20 years prior) then there is no reason why she should be with me.

Needless to say I walked from that job. My next employer allowed compressed hours from the off, 4 longer days and one half day

Request flexible working formally through HR but make sure you are fully aware of all the small print if your contract changes. I work full time compressed hours, so work 9 days across a two week period. This means I get every other Friday as a non working day.

However, although I retained the same pay, my employer reduced my annual leave allocation. This is because they consider my ‘long weekends’ as hours that are particularly allocated as leave.

I hadn’t realized this and it has directly impacted in my ability to cover school holidays and costs me more in child care and holiday clubs as a result.

Partially, not particularly.

I was already working flexible hours as a Civil Servant, after ML I returned working 18 hours over 3 days, 6 hours per day which is the longest you can work without a lunch break. When ds was about to start school I applied to work term time only, 18 hours a week.

Your company will have a flexible working policy. Look at that. When you submit a request it will go to your manager. Your manager will have to be on board and agree that your request doesn't impact on the business.

I work in a support department in HE. When I returned from maternity leave in 2017 I asked to drop a day but due to being in a management position it wasn't agreed, I was offered a compressed working week (37 hours over 4 days) but like pp I would hardly have seen my daughter in the evenings due to a late finish so that didn't work for me. It was then agreed I could do my role as a 0.5 job share if they could fill the other half, which they did.

I don't really enjoy the job share but the time off with my daughter has been very important. My salary decreased by half accordingly, but I pay less tax now. My DP does a lot of over time and we have cut back on spending to accommodate this. I drop DD off at nursery on my work days and DP picks her up as he finishes earlier then I do.

Something to note is most companies only allow one flexible working request a year per individual. So you can't ask to do compressed hours then six months later reduce this further to a part time role. And most places don't allow you to go back to full hours if you have gone p/t as they have recruited to those hours if they need the cover.