to refuse to work on days outside of agreed ones - just because someone wants days off?

[yum03creameggs]

I have been working full-time covering maternity leave, and since she has extended her maternity leave my contract has been renewed for a month. But as it was being renewed I requested to go part-time. The boss agreed to me working monday,tuesday and wednesday each week as that was their busiest times.

As soon as the boss left the room the other member of staff immediately states "of course you will have to be flexible, you need to work on friday x due to me being off that day, you can take off the monday or wednesday that week - which do you want?", then proceeded to railroad me into agreeing which days for the following two weeks after that too. She had booked off three fridays in a row and expected me to fill in.

One of the weeks is a bank holiday week so I have the monday off and working the tueday and then forced to take the wednesday off, so that I can cover the friday.

Am I being unreasonable, especially considering my having to re-arrange childcare for these days?

Should I go in on Tuesday and just tell the boss I am refusing to work those fridays - or is that too extreme?

your hours have nothing to do with the other memeber of staff.... if there is a problem with cover it should go via the boss!!!!
If this was a permanent post i would say its nice to be flexible sometimes but not a pushover....

Is there any reason why you didn't call your boss back in or tell the other woman to discuss it with your boss?

I suspect that your boss doesn't know that the other woman has done this, so I would go in on Tuesday and tell him what she has done. Also point out that you are only working another month and 3 of those approx 4 weeks are not what was agreed if you have to work Fridays. I would hint strongly that it's not worth your while doing the extra month if you have to keep shifting your childcare around.

You may find that your boss is actually quite reasonable about it, which is probably why the other member of staff waited for him/her to leave first.

pushover is the right word really if you agree to this.
Now if this were a situation where perhaps she had asked you as a favour and it was a day you could and wouldnt mind to do then there is nothing wrong with that on either side.
They are just taking advantage. Let the boss know asap and let them know that if you can't do then you won't, there was a reason behind going part time in the first place.
Things like this make me

Thank you for responding so quickly, your replies have reinforced my thoughts that I should not allow this to happen without highlighting it to the boss.

I just wanted to check that it was not just me - a small part of the reason I decided to go part-time (other than I want more time with my children!) is that the other member of staff has been quite off in her manner with me, and I now can't stand working with her. She refuses to talk to me except when absolutely necessary, she takes work from me and treats me like a servant - this is probrably because I am more experienced at the job than she is and she feels threatened and is trying to assert her authority. It makes me that she feels she can boss me around, but I am just a temporary member of staff and she is permanent, so she obviously feels that justifies her attitude towards me.

Now I just need to work out how to talk to the boss about keeping the agreed hours without letting my feelings about this other girls attitude affect me. - any suggestions as to how I could word it with the boss?

I'd just say factually what happened after they left the room, but that it's not possible for you to work the Fridays after all. S/he's the boss it's his/her problem not yours

i would be temptd to go to yuor boss and say. " i understand there is a problem with cover when x is on holiday" Say that you are sorry but had you been awaree of it earlier you may have been able to be flexible about changing days.. however it would be really difficult at this short notice" ha ha, i am sure the boss has absolutely no idea of the issue and would be cross about not knowing about cover problems and another staff member usurping his/her authority.....and re-arranging things behind their back