To think flexible working requests after maternity leave are very rarely granted?

[NotAnotherNewNappy]

I work for the civil service and went back to work three days per week after DD1 was born. This has worked out really well, both proffessionally and personally, and I've always encouraged my friends to at least try to work moreflexibly after having a family.

However, it seems impossible in almost every other sector. All three of my friends who have made requests have had them refused:one works for a police force, one for a charity and one for a major British luxury fashion brand. I am fuming on their behalf. Is it really so bleak out there for working mothers?

I got mine. (3 days a week.) I am an actuary for a large insurance company.

I think approval is getting more and more common. My friend is a solicitor at a magic circle form and was offered 1,2 or 4 days or all mornings or afternoons. I work school hours 4 days per week; DH works from home 2 days per week.

I don't know anyone who has a request refused.

mine was granted in 2006 after alot of discussions

I used to work full time and came back after mat leave on 30 hours condensed into 3 days. My employer was great- basically said I could work whatever hours I wanted over whatever days= very lucky i know. I work as a community nurse for the NHS.

You can say ' please can I work 3 dad so I can look after my baby'

Or you can say 'I propose working three days for the mutual benefit to the business and to myself and my family. I propose working xxxxx and xxxxx

The benefit to the business is retaining a fully qualified and experienced hard working staff member and thus saves you money, also by working xxx day and xxx day it means I have good presence
In the office and maintain a good relationship with colleagues. another benefit to the business is xxxxxx

The benefit to me is xxx

I think it depends on how
You approach things in a professional capacity

The poster who was annoyed that they had to put their request in in writing as it was considered an informal request til then... Sorry but that's down to you.

I'm also an actuary. I've had flexible working requests agreed twice, once after maternity leave. I don't know of anyone at either of the places I have worked that had a flexible working request denied after maternity or any other time.

I guess it depends a lot on the nature of the business.

We (small private sector company) were very positive about people returning to work part time, until clients began to complain. They wanted to know that if there was a problem, there was one specific person there to sort it out who was the same person they had spoken to last time, and who would know all the ins and outs.

It wasn't down to me actually. I put my request in in writing 3 times prior to the final one.

They were basically trying to cover their arses because they hadn't followed correct procedure.

They were very careful to make sure I had no idea. HR were not impressed when they found out what had happened.

This is a major Bank btw.

I got mine. It's being reviewed tomorrow after a three month trial though so fingers crossed

I don't know anyone to be refused flexible working.

In my team of 15 staff there is only 6 full time staff. The rest of us are all part-time/term time work.

Currently work in the private sector (Finance)

I work in the public sector. I asked for 3 days, and was offered 2.5 (half time) or full time, and the 2.5 would be the exact first half of the week. I accepted. In a year's time, my first born will be off to school and my manager has "in principle" agreed to moving those hours to 3 shorter days (to make school runs easier), but still Monday to Wednesday and no more hours.

Mine was refused.

Large US company that had been streamlining and shifting some work overseas to save money. I hopeful they would see the cost saving on my salary as beneficial and one of my team was progressing through exams so able to take more responsibility.
They already had my equivalent job in the US done as a jobshare. They refused point blank any reduction in hours or any requirement to travel long haul with less than 48 hours notice or a jobshare.
They offered an alternative role that was full time (40 hours a week rather than the 50+ in my prev role) and only short haul travel twice a month.
I left.
My maternity cover left and wasn't replaced.
18 months later they shifted all the work to US so I think basically it was to save paying redundancy.

only person i know was able to worked for the nhs

i think it very much depends on the area you work in

lots of my friends who work in the city have not been able to reduce their hours at all or work from home and given a much harder time than the men they work with if they need carers time off

When I worked for the Civil Service, every - and I mean EVERY - request from a woman returning from maternity leave for flexible / part-time working was granted, and I was there for ten years. It got to the point where part-time staff in my department substantially outnumbered full-timers. They may not have always got the specific days off they wanted but they were always allowed to reduce their hours. I applied for compressed hours (full-time hours worked over four days) twice to have more time caring for my disabled husband and was knocked back both times.

I now work in the private sector and my compressed hours request was granted at the first time of asking. I'm not aware of any maternity-returners who have been knocked back but there are far fewer than in my old CS job.

Mine was granted and I've even managed a promotion whilst retaining 75% hours.

I'm private sector too.

I got mine but had to take a completely different role(previous role impossible to do in less than 60 hours a week)

In my NCT group of 6, 5 of us are returning part time (me - corporate finance, a management consutlant, a 'something in logistics', an engineer and a nurse) and the 6th is not going back

I'm a manager in local government and until last year, I always worked job-share. Last year I realised the "right to job-share" had been replaced by the "right to request to work flexibly"... An irritating erosion of good employment practice, imo.

However, luckily, managers in our service know that staff who are given flexibility are happier and more productive. Every single member of our team (11 people) works flexible hours each week. All requests made for greater flexibility have been granted: one person has reduced their hours as part of a phased retirement; several people work at home one day per week; one person returning from maternity leave dropped her working days from full-time to 3 days per week, and will shortly be increasing her time to 4 days again... I work half-time with flexible hours, by agreement, and so does my 'other half'... Some people do some work at night, for instance if they have a sick child or a deadline...

It's win-win. The earliest person in our team comes in about 7:20am, and the latest person leaves about 6:30pm, so we are able to operate much more than standard 'office hours'. And if we need someone to work on a Saturday or an evening, we rarely have a problem finding a volunteer :)

I was refused in July. I'm in, that is WAS in, further education.

I had mine agreed, from full-time to 3 slightly longer days a week. However, I did have to compromise on the days I worked (Mon, Wed & Fri) and did have to agree to slightly longer days. Obviously I would have loved to have worked Tues, Wed, Thurs but that would have been refused.

Also, I was flexible on being able to work extra days when needed etc.

I put a fair bit of work into my flexible working proposal though and tried to cover off everything that might crop up.

A few people in my team do four day weeks. I figure we'll get as much out of them by saying yes and being flexible as we would saying no and forcing them to do five days.

But it does impact on the rest of the team and I would prefer they did five days.

In defence of those saying no to flex hours - we aren't running a charity. You signed up to five days. It's perfectly reasonable to be expected to do five days.

AFAIK all flexible working requests for childcare reasons in my company have been granted. A colleague in another team does f/t hours over 4 days, which works quite well as she covers both late clinics.

However the two members of my team would be the first to say how difficult it is. They were offered a jobshare initially but refused. One works Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and the other Wednesday, thursday and Friday. However even though they have a reduced caseload it's stressful for them and they have trouble keeping up with vulnerable clients who won't necessarily have their crises, prison releases and appointments on days their worker is in. Our Ops Director doesn't think p/t works very well in our line of work and I think he's right.

I had mine accepted, but would have to change roles. In the end I refused it and resigned. However, I'm a journalism, an area were lots of people work flexibly.

Got mine, so did DH, both private sector.

I've never known anyone refused either I work in retail