to wait until I get offered the job before I tell prospective employers that I want to work 2 days a week from home

[Froggio]

I'm currently covering a position that became vacant a couple of weeks ago. It's a promotion for me and I'm chuffed to have been asked to cover the job whilst they look to recruit for a permanent person to cover it. It's in one of our offices that takes me around 2 to 2.5 hours to drive to. So I have 4 or 5 hours drive a day. The drive makes my days very long and tiring and my worklife balance will suffer if I have to do that everyday. My husband is very supportive and can do most of the school runs, dinner etc as he works from home but it'll soon wear thin.

I'm loving the job and want to go for the permanent position as I have a good chance of getting it but I'm worried that if I suggest I would like to work from home twice a week it may put them off offering it to me. No-one else works from home that regularly but it is a job that I believe could be done from home twice a week.

So I'm thinking of going for it and if they offer it to me to then negotiate terms including working from home. Is that reasonable or is it underhand?

I waited until I was offered a full time job to say that I wanted to work 4 days a week. It was a temporary contract and they later made me full time as they were so impressed

It's a bit underhand and they may feel manipulated.

Well it could massively backfire in that they could say no, and then you're stuck in a job with a crazy commute. Much better to be upfront - if you make a good case re why you could do 2 days from home then you're up with a chance.

i suppose you would have to be prepared for then to say no, and if so, you might be stuck in a job with a 5 hour commute.

I think it's fairly normal to negotiate terms after being offered a job. You wouldn't negotiate pay etc until after you were offered a job

Agree you'd negotiate terms at offerring. You wouldn't Becci be stuck with a job with a 5 HR commute as assume you could always decline?

Jeez, I don't know. I may broach the subject of working from home tomorrow and gauge their reaction........

Yes I could always decline but I don't think they'd be impressed and probably wouldn't ever give me a chance again!

Your negotiating power is at its strongest when you have the offer. You can decline the offer if your request is refused.

In the meantime, work on building a rock solid case as to how your working from home will benefit the business. Start with your contribution to date and how you see that continuing - what areas you have identified for improvement and how you will implement that. Then, from the company's point of view, how will your working from home benefit them.

I'm a big fan of staff working from home. It can be so effective -usually people start earlier, so reports etc appear earlier, and the lack of interruptions etc can mean outputs are better.

My concerns are mainly around communication. This has to be two way - the employee informing me and the team of activity and progress, and also being kept informed on what's going on back at base. There also has to be a bit of willingness to be a bit flexible - i.e. if there's a client or team meeting on a wfh day I'd want the employee to try to make that happen.

YANBU at all.That is what you do!

Is even 3 days a week driving 5 hours a day sustainable in the long term?

Thanks OllyBJolly, that's really useful. I feel my case would be saving 8-10 hours driving per week which is a whole working day! The amount of work I could do in a day! I do usually start earlier and finish later than I would do in the office, I am more productive due to less interupptions and my worklife balance would be better therefore I'd be happier and more motivated. So the company would benefit. I would be flexible and work the days around face to face meetings, client visits etc.

YANBU. Nowadays it's a perfectly normal request and there's no reason why it should be seen as underhand. Why would you negotiate terms and conditions before you've been offered the position.

Perfectly normal and acceptable approach in my book. There's no point in you laying out plans if they don't offer you the job. You're in much stronger position after you've been offered the job. We should all be thinking about flexible working these days although some employers are better than others. Give it a shot, what have you got to lose? Fx for you!

Thank you all!

Well you can try it but I think you'd have to accept that they are likely to say no and they are within their rights to refuse the request.
You can ask but they don't have to say yes.

Presumably they know about your current commute. I'd be surprised if they haven't already given it some thought as they are human as well as employers. Can you afford the travel costs?

I agree that flexible working should be much more on the agenda nowadays. With ipads, iphones, remote access, email etc there really is no reason why every job should involve sitting in an office from 9 to 6 every day. Employers need to be far more willing to allow employees to work from home where it suits. I work from home a couple of days a week, but I still feel like it's a big favour, even though my work involves minimal interaction with colleagues and it is very obvious what I am producing when I am at home.

Could you move closer as a plan b if they can't accommodate it but you still want the job?

I've a similar intention when I go back to work in September which is to offer a well run dedicated argument to working at home 1 day a week. Previously I've worked with a lot of staff for BT who are.actively encouraged to work at home FT!