AIBU to refuse to come into work on a scheduled day off?

[Hails86]

1st time poster so please be gentle....

I work Tuesdays and wednesdays and pay £55 per day to have my child in Nursery on those days. In november my work are implementing a new system and are telling me i have to come in on the Monday and i can have Wednesday off, no extra pay, however i cannot swap my childs nursery days which mean that week i will have to pay for him to attend nursery on monday, tuesday and wednesday that week but recieving only the same amount of pay that week as im still only working 2 days. Am i being unreasonable to refuse to go into work on the monday and tell them they will have to organise seperate training for me?

YABU.I work part time. I agree with others that if you are flexible then work are more likely to be flexible with you. I would let them know it is costing you, they may pay the childcare for you.

OP I have the same issue with my work, I have to do 2 mandatory training days a year, they are always on Mondays and I work wed-Fri. It wouldn't be so bad if it was in addition to my usual working hours, but it is instead of one of my days, so I have to pay for a day's childcare which I don't use, plus sort out alternative childcare for the Monday. dd goes to a childminder and they can't be flexible with days as they are full.
It is annoying but my work have been quite flexible in allowing me to come back part time and work hours which fit in with childcare, so I just accept that I'm going to end up out of pocket

I love that you should move hell and high water to go in on this day but your DP should just "call in sick".

Imagine you run a business. You are a reasonable employer and are happy for employees to work flexibly and part time. You are implementing a new system in the workplace - its a one-off, and you have organised everyone to be trained on a monday. You offer part timers who don't work Monday a day off in lieu. They tell you it's not convenient for them

As the employer, what do you do? Arrange separate, 1:1 training for anyone who doesn't work Monday? But that will cost more. Pay people who don't normally work Monday to come in then as extra? But that costs more too. If you have job sharers you'll be doubling up on the costs of one full timer.

It's very easy as an employee to overlook the problems facing the employer in a case like this. At the end of the day, if having part timers in the workforce is going to incur greater costs, and be a less effective system, it will discourage employers from having part timers. Yet very often women say they want part time, flexible work! If you want flexibility from your employer, it pays to be flexible back. These things work both ways

When my DS was in nursery, my childcare options were me, my DH or nursery and 2 months notice would not have altered that fact.

I think for the sake of one extra day, I may agree to coming in however I would speak to my boss and explain about the impact it would have in terms of finances and childcare. When I first went back after maternity leave, I was very accommodating. I arranged and paid for for additional childcare and when I got to work the training was cancelled.

I think if you are being expected to change your working pattern it is as much your employers problem as it is yours. However if you refuse to be accommodating, they could do the same. I would make sure they knew what a pain in the arse it all was.

OP what is your employer's childcare policy, if they have one? If I incur additional childcare costs because of mandatory training I can claim some money back... I hope you can find a solution!

well the plot did thicken ... briefly. Turns out my manager had got it wrong that it was just one day and they wanted me the whole week. So i compromised and said as its not in my contract to do anything other than scheduled hours (thanks for the advice) and i couldnt afford to pay for more than 1 day of extra childcare then i would do the monday only but simply couldnt do the others which they have now conceded so im not really sure if ive won or not lol