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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that if you work from home one day a week, you should be flexible about which day?

68 replies

MrsSchadenfreude · 25/03/2011 21:10

And not insist on doing it the same day every week, when 5 weeks out of 6, there is a meeting that you are supposed to attend and it just gets dumped on one of your colleagues? If it was someone doing a four day week, fair enough. But if you are "working", surely you should be in the office, doing your job not offloading a chunk of it onto someone else because you are "working from home."

OP posts:
compo · 25/03/2011 21:12

Well if it's because of childcare then yes it needs to be the same day each week
ie if child is with mil said day mil might not be able to swap
days at a farts notice

Original poster
MrsSchadenfreude · 25/03/2011 21:14

So if your MIL has your child, why do you have to work from home? Confused

OP posts:
CMOTdibbler · 25/03/2011 21:16

When working from home, you still need childcare. So yes, you should be flexible - and it should not clash with any meetings

Original poster
MrsSchadenfreude · 25/03/2011 21:19

It has really started to grate on me. I suggested they swap days and it went down like a cup of cold sick.

OP posts:
cocoachannel · 25/03/2011 21:20

If it's for childcare they should be off work not working from home. I used to have a boss who worked from home once a week and had two young sons with her. Needless to say she didn't get much done on that day...With a six figure salary you'd have thought she'd have forked out for help full time.

Slightly off piste there. Sorry OP.

YANBU, unless that day WFH is contracted which IME is unusual.

Original poster
MrsSchadenfreude · 25/03/2011 21:25

I said I couldn't cover this week (too much work and a clashing meeting) and they said "Well no-one else can either, so it really needs to be you." I said "No, this is your job, not mine. If you can't find anyone to cover, you need to go in and do the meeting and swap your day working from home." Not impressed!

OP posts:
beesimo · 25/03/2011 21:37

One of my nieces works in a office where 4 of the Mams 'work at home' on a Friday which leaves her a 2 other lasses covering for any extra work problems that come in on a Friday. It also means that none of the 3 childfree lasses can every have a long weekend off as there has to be at least 3 in the office, which as you can imagine leads to a rather frosty atmosphere, as its not exactly fair is it? One of the Mams manages to 'work at home' while selling Avon she is a very cheeky mare!

Whitenapteen · 25/03/2011 21:40

I worked part time and we operated a mutually flexible arrangement - most weeks the same days, but key monthly meetings and new start trainees I changed my days to suit job and if I (or indeed our CM) needed to be off on a 'normal' work day then I made arrangements. There needs to be respect on both sides and it worked really well. Our CM was also 'onside' because occasionally she needed to change the days she worked for us. YANBU to expect work colleague to be present for meeting.

fluffles · 25/03/2011 21:42

i would expect somebody who works from home has childcare that doesn't cover them for time spent commuting.. but i would imagine that if they had to come in for a few hours they could.

when i work from home during the winter, i start at 8am before breakfast and take a big lunchbreak to do the personal stuff i have to do, then work into the evening. there's no expectation when i work at home that i cover 9 to 5 so long as i do 8 hours.
going into work wouldnt' fit every week but i could do a few hours on occassion.

Bratfink · 25/03/2011 21:43

Well yes and no

I work one day a week from home. That day I pick DS up from his daycare at 5. If I were to have to go into the office I wouldn't get home until 6.30 so I would have to rearrange my childcare, which is actually quite difficult

However I am a big pushover and conscious, after years of being the chidless one in the office, that I shouldn't expect special treatment so if the particular day was proving problematic I would change it if at all possible

Violethill · 25/03/2011 21:43

YANBU

If this arrangement is impacting negatively on colleagues, then I think the colleagues need to get together and refer this matter up the line.

Everyone should be treated equally, and one person's working arrangements should not be detrimental to others.

LCarbury · 25/03/2011 21:47

I don't understand why your colleague doesn't move the regular meeting, or, if that's not possible, move the regular day working from home? It's really out of order otherwise.

beesimo · 25/03/2011 21:48

My niece wouldn't dare complain the Mams would club together and hire a Serbian hit man. Or sream and scream until they were sick!

exhausted2011 · 25/03/2011 21:49

presumably she still has to have childcare even though she is working from home. you can't work with the child/ren in the house.
you can't really expect them to change childcare at short notice?

or have I misunderstood?

ENormaSnob · 25/03/2011 21:51

Yanbu

blueshoes · 25/03/2011 22:05

So long as it is a ft job, notwithstanding one day is from home, I would expect OP's colleague to be using ft childcare. It will be the same childcare as the childcare she has for the other 4 days she works from office.

Therefore, there should be no need to rearrange childcare to be able to swap days.

Of course employees must be flexible. If I was OP's colleague, I would be ashamed to make my colleague who is not doing my job to go in my stead. It is taking the piss and giving flexible (or NOT, as it turns out) working a bad name.

FuppyGish · 25/03/2011 22:10

working from home still means you need childcare else you wouldnt be 'working'!

If its working from home then they (the employee) should be flexible. I can do several days a week from home but if there's a meeting I need to be in for I go into the office.

I only work 4 days a week and am often asked to be flexible about working on my day off (switching it for a different day). This is difficult as I have no childcare but work will pay for an extra days nursery so when I can switch, if they need me to, I do.

FuppyGish · 25/03/2011 22:11

blueshoes - agree completely

compo · 25/03/2011 22:26

In response to your question to me: people work from home and still have child care in place

so if I work every Friday from home so my mil can have dcs 9-3 for example then I can't swap that day to Tuesday when mil is at work and dcs are in nursery 8am to 6pm which is what happens when I'm in the office

so Hmm right back at yer

Violethill · 25/03/2011 22:34

The woman the OP describes is not turning up for meetings which she is supposed to attend, and dumping it on colleagues instead.

That's clearly unfair.

She is not fulfilling the requirements of her job, whether that's down to childcare or just through being a lazy cow!

In the OPs shoes, I would definitely band together with the other colleagues and take this issue higher

piprabbit · 25/03/2011 22:38

If the woman is a key attendee at the meetings, why are they regularly scheduled for a day she is not in the office? Wouldn't it make more sense to schedule the weekly meeting for a day she is in the office? Or to make use of tele/video conferencing to allow her to attend while working at home?

It sounds as though everyone needs to get a little creative in their thinking.

MissMarjoribanks · 25/03/2011 22:45

One of the requirements of me being allowed a day working at home is that I am flexible about when it falls. It makes no odds to me really, as childcare is in place for all 4 days I am working. I wanted the day at home to save a long commute so DS could have a shorter day at nursery, but it's irrelevant which day of the week it is.

I won't be able to work from home on the days I need to cover evening meetings, for example.

I could see the issue, however, if eg grandparents covered the WFH day and weren't able to offer the same length of day as paid childcare. That's not an issue for colleagues to have to deal with though.

JaneS · 25/03/2011 22:47

YABU if that is the agreement. My friend works from home one day a week - she has a written agreement with her boss that that day she will work from home and will not attend meetings etc. in person. She gets cross when her colleagues try to make her change that arrangement because, frankly, it's their problem if they don't like what her boss has agreed, and they should take it up with him.

OTOH YANBU if your colleague has only agreed she'll work one day from home and hasn't got an agreement that ties her to one specific day.

omnishambles · 25/03/2011 22:48

It depends if her wfh day is in her contract - as mine are so I dont go into the office for meetings on those days - they are either scheduled around me if I am the key person or I dont go to them if it is a whole dept thing.

As others have said a different day would require different childcare - not easy especially if you have both nursery and school after school clubs to contend with.

Also if I go into the office on a wfh day then dh's schedule has t change as well to do the pick-ups etc.

Its not as easy as all that.

Violethill · 25/03/2011 22:48

piprabbit - I assume the meeting is scheduled on that day for a particular reason - maybe there are many other people involved, or it has to fit into a specific part of the week (maybe drawing together issues from other meetings etc)

No doubt if it could be scheduled another day it would be. It doesn't mean people aren't being creative in their thinking - it simply means that there are usually lots of other people and other factors involved in these things, and they can't all revolve around one person who wants to work at home that day