Requesting Monday as a non working day and Friday working from home?

[lisloom]

Looking to go part time after baby is born however would love to have a Monday off, and work from home on a Friday, working Tues-Thurs in between. I work in a fairly big office and already work from home every other Friday so it's not as though there's no resilience (it's never been an issue). It would help hugely and means I would be able to visit my family more regularly who live the other side of the country, whilst also doing school run round the corner for DSD on the Friday (this is really important!).

If you were a manager, and your member of staff asked to work compressed/part time hours, Tues to Thurs full time and half a day on a Friday from home, would you think they were trying their luck?

I'm nervous to ask and feel like they're going to tell me to sod off and take time off on say a Tuesday/Wednesday, which would make our lives really difficult.

Trying to do what's best for family/finances etc. DP has already dropped as many hours as he can to do school runs for his DD (he just can't do it on a friday). This childcare malarkey is so tough!

Presumably you'll have childcare for your baby on the Fridays?

@IToldYouIWasFreaky yes we would put them in nursery for half a day whilst I worked from home (nursery is a 1 minute walk from the house!)

Do you have childcare in place for the entirely of your working hours on a Friday? I'm pretty flexible about allowing WFH, but it does have to be actual working. I'd never allow it long term for someone who didn't have childcare in place for that day.

@Parkrunner25 baby would be in nursery. We would put them in for half a day so I could work from home.

I mean childcare for DSD after school. Who would have the baby for the other half of the day.

If you have childcare in place (and can prove it) then I don't see a problem, you can request whatever hours you like. However your work is under no obligation to say yes.

@Parkrunner25 I would be compressing my hours, so I would work less hours on a Friday between school pick ups and make up the rest in the week (which is what I do currently every other week and it's no problem at all).

I work for a large company and for women returning from maternity leave, dropping to working 3 or 4 days a week is fairly common and Mondays/Friday are the most common days to not work. So, it's not as if you are asking for anything too out of the ordinary.

They can push back if there's a business case to do so though - do you think there might be?

Very much depends on your boss and company. I am not allowed a set working from home day as I may have client meetings that I need to be in for. If you needed to go in for one off meetings on a Friday would you be able to? If so then I don't see how your company could begrudge you that. My team would think I was sat at home in my pjs so I would make an effort to be super active on phone and email whenever I worked at home (but I work in a presenteeism office).

With regards to the Monday off I used to work 4 days and was so self conscious about being seen to put in the effort I probably ended up working 4.5 days over 4 days factoring in working through lunch and sometimes at home in the evening. My boss quite openly admits he found it a bargain as paid me for 80% but probably got 90% output.

You already have a degree of flexibility so it wouldn't hurt to ask. If a member of staff asked I would be happy to trial it, sounds ideal for your circumstances and from an employer point of view you will be in the office the bulk of the week with no gap and then available Fri morning.

If you don't ask, you don't get.

If baby is only in nursery half a day and you’ll have DSD after school, are you only working a half day on Fridays?

It depends on your workload as to whether it’s likely to be a problem. Although I work in a role where Monday is our busiest day by far but there’s still several people (large office) who have Mondays as their day off while doing compressed hours, so not impossible.

@IToldYouIWasFreaky I don't think so. We have a member of staff in the room opposite (different team) who has Monday off and works from home on a Tuesday. It works for her and her team which is smaller than ours. We only have one person in a team of 20 at the moment who doesn't work a Monday. I just didn't know how normal it was to ask for an alternative working pattern on a Monday and a Friday combined or whether I would be seen to be taking the Michael!

It totally depends on a) the rhythm of the office and b) what days other people work. Fridays are a bit of a pain because people tend to take Fridays off for a long weekend, so you can quickly be left short staffed. And in my office we have several important meetings on Mondays - Though that's more habit than anything else, we could shift them. I'd also want to know that you had childcare in place for your working hours on Fridays.

@Glumglowworm yes but I wouldn't be working full time hours. I would do Tues to Thurs 10 hours a day as DP can do pick ups, then 5 hours from home on a Friday, with Monday off. This is a drop from my 42 hours that I'm currently contracted to.

I would be able to prove any childcare. Baby would never be at home with me when I was working.

How much physical cover is requested in the office? For example we always have to have 2 people at work, on certain days 3. No WFH unless it is an emergency like traffic cancellation, snow etc.

Therefore I was only allowed to choose one day away, I work Mon-Wed as otherwise a long weekend would have been impossible for staff to take if anybody else from our 4 people team was off.

If childcare was in place for all of your working hours, and as long as your job doesn't need someone to physically be on site (and therefore mean I need to find cover) then I would try to allow it. I would need you to be flexible though - if you were needed in the office for any reason - urgent deadline, team meeting, client meeting, interviews etc - I would expect you to be able/ willing to come in.

I would also ask what the plan was for DSD in the school holidays.

My main concern would be who does the 20% of your job that gets done Monday’s- has that been discussed?

Yes you'll need childcare for the whole of the working day, unless you are proposing working half the Friday?

We're very flexible and allow wfh but only if the employee confirms there are childcare arrangements in place for the entire day, and anyone found to be dishonest would have (and have had) wfh withdrawn as a minimum.

I'm going to be totally honest and say that I might be a bit suspicious that you were angling to have a very long weekend by the back door. I had a colleague who did similar hours and her WFH day did get sabotaged by family stuff. So I'd be looking for evidence of a robust childcare plan and I would probably want to know whether you were happy to have a bit of flexibility if meetings etc couldn't be arranged around your hours.

Ask, but be ready to answer awkward questions in a business-like manner!

@reluctantbrit we have a team of around 20 but no specific numbers of people who have to be in. Some days we have 15, some days we have 5. We all have our own work loads.

I would have it written in to my request that in an emergency I would be able to sort childcare through grandparents of my partner taking the day off if need be, but can't do this all the time. So I would be fairly flexible in the case of operational need.

@Parkrunner25 school holidays is already sorted. DP takes 1.5 weeks off and I take 1 week off with grandparents helping in between. It's always been that way.

I work from home tues-Thurs and that’s two days from home and one in the office.

I do sometimes have to swap my days in the office but I’m flexible (as they’re flexible with me).

It works - most of my colleagues are around the country so it doesn’t really matter where I am.

Certain roles lend themselves to remote working- others do not.

Put your case together and demonstrate how it won’t adversely affect the role/colleagues/organisation.

Best of luck!

@glintandglide in what sense? I would just complete my work when I am working. We have our own workloads and a few people who work part time. Our work loads tend to reflect the hours we work.