To think her childcare issues don't take priority?

[MyFairyKing]

I've been in my current role for a few years. In our team, there needs to be one senior person during opening hours. We have core hours, no shift work. I work 4 days a week and I do this due to health reasons. I applied for this flexible working request and it was accepted as I am disabled as per the Equality Act.

My fellow senior was full-time and we used to rub along well, discussing holidays and negotiating well. She's now left and my new colleague also works 4 days a week. In her previous team, she had the same non working day as me. Manager sat us down yesterday and asked us to agree between us how we work it out or they will have to make a decision for us but they want us both to be happy. I'm not very assertive in real life and I felt totally bamboozled by her and she was going on and on at me about how she arranged childcare to be like this. She wasn't being horrible by the way, just not really thinking about me. FWIW, I have a child too, so I am not unsympathetic.

In terms of contracts, we are both contracted to work X hours per week. There is nothing in our contracts that specifies our non working day.

She text me today, saying she didn't want to put me under pressure (!) but her childminder cannot take or collect her children to school on that day and she doesn't know what to do. I get that she's worried. She's not an unpleasant person at all.

I want to speak to my manager and say that I think I should get priority. I have physiotherapy on my day off and I was getting so ill but having this treatment plus a break in the working week was giving me enough time to recover and be for work when I am there,

AIBU?

ctually, it's really out of order that you were told to "discuss it" with your colleague

You are under no obligation whatsoever to discuss this adjustment arrangement with your new colleague, let alone argue your cause with her!

They are bang out of order, please nip it in the bud they should not be carrying on like this

Your colleague presumably went through a recruitment process. If she couldn't do a mid week day she will have had opportunities to discuss this prior to starting. You are being to generous of spirit here, you are assuming she's genuine, but if I had a day I simply could not do due to childhood I would have negotiated that after interview before accepting the job! It's actually more likely that she looked at your work patterns and thought "I fancy that, a little mid week break!"

I have a reasonable accommodation to my working hours also due to disability. I'm in Ireland though and work for a large company. Like you I didn't find OH that good or indeed but they recommended/agreed that a change to my current working hours was the best solution. There are periods when I would be well enough to work extra hours but I don't as 1) I don't need the money that much and 2) my union rep advised me that the longer I remain in my current fixed hours the more "right" I have to them.
Also another point worth remembering is, your colleagues child care issues will pass as her children grow older but your disability will most likely always be there, you're going to have to live with it and manage it for your life time. Any changes you make now will have far longer implications for you than they will for your colleague.
Apologies for lack of paragraphs, they don't seem to work when using the app.

Will anything change with your colleague's childcare in the new academic year meaning she could find a temporary, if not permanent, solution until then? Could she start late on a Wednesday so she can take her child to school herself? Some other sort of minor adjustment?

She has tried to move her childcare; and she can't

We dont know that she actually did.

*not perfect solution

If her childminder just does school drop off/ pick up, can't she ask to work a shorter day on a Weds, say 9.30-2.30, and make it up on another day?

I agree if you were there first you should not be expected to change, it's up to her to negotiate and it depends how much they want her for the job.

It's hard to judge - but from the sounds of it you have very legitimate & reasonable reasons to not want to change your day & the situation might be easier if you give a firm no.

If she has a childminder who her child has been with for a while, has built a relationship with and she knows well - she might be reluctant to give them up unless she 100% has to, and what she's hearing at the moment is quite possibly a maybe with lots of confusing scenarios such as trials etc.

If you say a clear no rather than trying to accommodate her and are backed by management then she knows that if she wants this job she has to find new childcare... it might be the case that it gives her some certainty, direction and enables her to move forward too.

She has tried to move her childcare; and she can't

Nah, nope. Sounds to me like she asked her existing childminder, who said no, and she hasn't looked into any other childcare providers because that would be too much of a chore…..

.. you're setting a precident that'll bite you in the bum if you don't quash this ASAP.

I think disability should trump childcare issues, especially since you've been there longer and have an established flexible working week schedule.

She will have to sort different childcare arrangements for a different day off. Stand firm.

I have pretty much the same situation and as I have no kids at home I usually concede to my colleague with children because it's a nightmare working with childcare and school holidays and I don't mind filling in but there are times when I have to say no as I have an appointment for my condition that I can't miss on my day off.
If you have an appointment you will have to say no but if you can help occasionally it makes for a good working atmosphere.

Why are people being so mean about the other candidate. She obviously took the job in good faith.
Most of the people on here have told the op not to mention her disability and then moan about the other candidate trying to have Wednesday off as if she's ignoring the disability.
I agree the Op gets the Wednesday but it's hardly the job share persons fault is it. She was told she could carry on doing the four days as she was.

So you can't have Thursday off due to the meeting (or could the meeting be changed?) Would Tuesday do? That then means you are working Wed - Friday is 3 days on the trot too exhausting for you?

Could the company pay for your colleague to find a different child minder for Wednesdays to solve the issues?

In some areas it is very hard to organise short notice change of childcare in the middle of a school year. I do have sympathy for your colleague. I'm a working mum and if work asked me to change my days off, I'd struggle to find childcare.

However, that's not your problem and your need definitely trumps hers. You know your working pattern works for you and your health. Stick to your guns and don't agree to change.

I changed my mind about what I would do!

I would send an e-mail to management stating you have wednesday off as the reasonable adjustment required under the equality act. It is essential to your health and your job performance that you continue to get wednesdays off. You will therefore not be discussing your colleagues working arrangements as they are nothing to do with you.

Reply to your colleague and say you're not sure why you have been involved in this discussion as your day off is not negotiable for health reasons. Refer her to management for any further discussions and finish off by wishing her well and hoping she and management can come to a satisfactory arrangement.

Very tough. Neither of you are BU. She took the job from what I understand, thinking she would be able to have the same day off as you. Then the boss said realised you both had the same day off and asked you to work it out together? That's not on at all. They should never have offered her the job without specifying which day(s) she could have as her day off during the week.

To all those saying she can 'just find other childcare'- ridiculous. Good childcare is hard to find and her child is presumably happy and settled- why should she cxhange her childcare when she took a job under the impression this wouldn't be an issue?!

Equally OP you clearly need this day off in the middle and certainly shouldn't have to give it up.

Bad management!

Your manager should be handling this, it's not appropriate for them to pass the responsibility for a decision on to both of you, or to expect you to problem solve for the other person. It also suggests a lax approach to confidentiality - presumably they have either had to share information with you about the other person or they have asked to you to negotiate without relevant information - either way is wrong.

I agree with pp's - remind your manager of the reasons behind your arrangement, and say that you do not think it appropriate that you are asked to renegotiate with another colleague.

Depending on the size of the company and whether it normally aims for good practice in such things they should be looking to support both needs not to pit them against each other - for example getting another senior to support wednesdays, or getting another team member to act up for that day etc.

I think your manager is BU to make you sort it out between yourselves. Child care can be difficult but so can hospital appointments, I know because both are an issue for me, especially childcare to cover hospital appointments! I don't know what the answer is but I don't think that either take priority over the other.

NOCARBORSUGAR, I don't think anyone is been uncaring about the other employee just advising the op that it's not her responsibility to accommodate her colleagues previous working arrangement in a different company.
The colleague should not be contacting the op, she should respect the existing working arrangement and discuss her issues with management. There is an existing work pattern in place for the op, regardless of disability it is very high handed that the new colleague thinks it's acceptable that a working pattern in existence for two years should be changed to suit her child care. She should accept no graciously and should not be need to be made privy to confidential information to understand that her needs can't be met this time.

I changed jobs recently, within the same organisation. As soon as they offered me the new post, I flagged my existing work pattern (facilitates childcare) and that I wanted to maintain this. New people were absolutely fine about it (even offered more flexibility beyond what I asked for!) - if they hadn't, I would have had to think long and hard about whether or not I wanted to actually accept the post. I don't really understand why your colleague seems not to have checked this too.

I really sympathise with the childcare issue - and I think it's much more than just the inconvenience of having to find an additional arrangement and coordinate things; I don't think stability for a (young?) child is a minor detail. In my case, DS (5) is out of the home 10 hours every weekday. He's still knackered by school, in spite of having plenty of practice at nursery. It is invaluable to me that he has a consistent, nurturing and undemanding after-school environment. I would sacrifice a lot to maintain that.

All that said, I certainly don't think this trumps your need for Wednesday (and the fact that you were there first!). I hope a solution presents itself which works for everybody, but I think even trialling a dodgy change for you would be a kind but unwise thing to do.

I understand that you empathise with her situation but if you try to be flexible with this you could make yourself ill and potentially unable to continue in the role so you need to stick to your day off.

Has there been a time between your former senior leaving and someone new being appointed, if so, who covered Wednesday? Could they continue? If not, could someone else 'act up' as a senior on Wednesdays?

nocarb - I don't think the other person is wrong to ask. I certainly would if I was in that position. However, management are obviously pretty incompetent given they gave the job to someone who couldn't do it and then tried to guilt the OP into solving the problem they created.

It also depends on how the job came about. If the other person applied, then it was up to them and management to ensure they could fulfil the requirements before offering/taking the job. You can't take a job that is based on particular work pattern and then announce you want to work a different pattern and expect that to be implemented.

If they were transferred without a choice then it is up to management to figure out how to continue with the arrangement in place. Either way, it is not the OPs problem.

If i were you op I wouldn't give in. She knew the hours when she applied for the role, why should you be affected. Changing your p/t if on the NHS is near impossible and you need that break for the good of your health not just because you want that day off. Once you start agreeing to changes I think they will see your disability as minor and keep asking you to change when the next person comes along with child care issues etc.

I think you should phone ACAS and also ask for this thread to be moved to Employment Issues (where there are posters who are very clued up on this type of thing.)

I don't think they can just change your hours like this especially if you've been doing the same hours for an established period of time. However I really think you need proper advice on your rights here.

Is the other key employee a single mum? If not, perhaps her partner could help with their children's childcare arrangements.....

Could you do slightly longer hours spread over 3 days instead.
So monday tuesday and a friday.