I know this should probably go in the jobs section, but I would appreciate a range of views on this...
I work in a pretty small company managing a team of 2 employees. Both women, both doing the same job on a scared caseload sort of arrangement. Without giving too much away, it is following up on leads which come in, so some days are busy, others are quieter, depending on what has been passed to them by other people. They can't generate their own work when it is quiet or duck it when it is busy, if that makes sense.
Colleague A has a 3 year old daughter and when she came back to work after ML wanted to work 1 day a week from home, which she does.
We are all aware that she doesn't get much work done on that day, but her work is generally done each week, so no one minds too much.
B doesn't have any children, but has come to me to ask if she can have the same arrangement - working 1 set day a week from home. My initial reaction was 'no', but she has challenged me on it.
Her argument is quite simple - if there is no impact on the business by A working from home, then there should be no impact on her working from home as well.
Or if there is an impact, she should get a payrise to reflect that she does more work.
I'm stumped! We have a one-man band HR here, but she is more admin for things like payroll so I won't get anything more than her opinion.
How do I respond to this? I think she has made a good point, but I don't want this to blow up into something bigger, and am worried it is indicative of a bigger issue between A&B.
Help!