Can I be forced to work part time?

[Wurkit]

Hi all

I’ve name changed for this and I’m feeling a bit upset so please don’t flame me.

I’m am returning to work in June after having dd2. I will be returning to work on the same basis as before my mat leave - working 4 compressed days. I’ve done this for quite sometime and it works reasonably well.

I was diagnosed with anxiety after my dd2 was born and I feel like it’s not getting any better or worse

I spoke to my work and asked them if I could work a day from home a week. They have the technology to do this and made a big fuss about it when the technology was rolled out. I do the sort of job that doesn’t require me to be in the office every single day and could easily wfh and get more done.

My work are refusing to let me work from home on a set day. When I ask why they say “they just don’t allow it” when pushed further on this they can’t give any further reason. This is an enormous organisation- not a small firm or family company. I know several teams across this UK who do the same job as me work from home regularly.

My boss said to me that I could work from home different days of the week and I spoke with him today to say that I could try and do this and he changed his story to “oh well I can’t promise you’d get it every week..”

I’m at my wit’s end. I can’t afford to work part time and I can’t afford to pay for childcare over the 5 days. My DH works away and I’m honestly feeling like I could have a breakdown over it.

It’s 2019 and I’m trying my best to get out and work and hold my own in a time when the company I work for is all about “flexibility and diversity” it’s total nonsense.

I just feel completely drained by it all. They’ve offered an occupational health referral but I’m completely terrified and anxious that they’ll force me into part time hours.

Could this happen?

I wonder if it was your initial reluctance to vary the day working from home and that's made them think that you want it for childcare reasons (even though you don't) and hence why they're not keen.

Why are people being such twats about the OP wanting a set day?

I've worked with plenty of people who have designated WFH days that are the same each week. If anything, it's easier to manage as people know what days to arrange deadlines, meetings etc for.

OP your title doesn't make sense - why are you thinking you are being forced part time?

At present you have a full time job over 4 days. That's not part time.

You've asked for one of those days at home. That wouldn't be part time either.

Work has said no to a fixed day at home, possibility of different days each week depending on how it goes. That's not part time either.

There has been no suggestion you drop a day. Or go back to working 5 days. All work has said is that they don't think they can offer any more flexibility than you currently have.

So why are you "being forced to work part time"?

They can’t force you to go part time, but they could review your current arrangement and try to put you back on 5 days a week. You would have arguments against that though, you should definitely be phoning your union and getting them involved.

DarlingNikita

‘Why are people being such twats about the OP wanting a set day?’

Or maybe, rather than being twats, some people are aware that in some workplaces, lack of flexibility could impact negatively for meetings etc. Not everyone works in the same office as you, where clearly it’s no problem.

Cba, as it happens, I no longer work in an office, although I did enjoy the lazy assumption.

In SOME workplaces, sure, lack of flexibility could be a problem. Point is that the OP says in hers there IS generally flexibility. And they can't seem to come up with a good reason as to why they can't offer her a set day.

The business might think that compressed hours is not compatible with working from home.

I can see that from a perspective of trying to address anxiety, fixed days is better, even if you remain flexible once a pattern is established.

But I still don't see that wfh one day a week would make much impact on alleviating what is overall quite an anxiety-inducing set up. Are you getting any help for the anxiety at all? Can you take longer mat leave?

All you can do is look for another job. I sympathise it's not easy getting the hours you want. have to agree with a pp though it's not up to your employer to be flexible because you have kids.

I think you sound very stressed about it all it might not be so bad once you go back.it sounds like your company do wfm n your job allows it. Its not an unreasonable request. Unfortunately your boss is old school. accept the varying days n once you back into the swing of it you can stick to the same day most weeks. Surely it's better for your colleagues you stick same day as you/they know well in advance when they can see you face to face. I work from home all the time (just do a 3 day week) my mgr & all my team in different country now. When I went part time (my request) and moved 2 hours from the office to wfh my mgr approved it but warned (unofficially) I'd b a target for redundancy. That was 7 years ago n he was made redundant a year later. If you produce good work & you are happier in yourself then the company benefits & will flex.

If it's a big company surely they have a policy in place that sets out WLB? You have to officially apply and they either accept or reject but give you a business reason why they cannot facilitate it.

I think there’s a subtext here of them not being happy with the compressed hours, as they’ve already raised the issue of it being ‘too much.’ So perhaps it’s not working well for them, and they feel they’re not getting the productivity they should for a full time role. Of course this should all be relayed to you properly through performance reviews.
But that’s what it sounds like

If they are generally a flexible organisation and this isn’t a problem for other workers, why would they raise it as an issue with you? Companies tend to value good workers and aren’t going to obstruct someone for the sake of it. And I still don’t get the issue of part time?

I'm surprised by some of these responses. I don't think what the OP is asking for is unreasonable at all. There is a massive push for work/life balance, mental health awareness, flexibility etc across a lot of companies recently, and for good reason

This. Working your hours over 4 days a week, and having one of those days at home seems sensible enough to me. I don't think compressed hours is that massive a concession from an employer. A pp mentioned the difficulty of finding meeting dates and nobody being in the same place at the same time until June but this can be resolved by requiring everyone to be in the office on the same day every week or once a fortnight or once a month or whatever so you do always have a day when you can have meetings.

I agree with the people who've suggested asking to trial it.

I think the issue they have is that they have already been flexible in allowing you to work 4 days and get full pay. So to ask to WFH for the 4th day does seem a bit much.
I would suggest you either stick with the 4 days for the moment & prove you're focused on doing a FT job - or accept that it is really hard for both parents to be FT if one parent is way with work & the other one is left to do stuff in the week with 2 little ones.
Perhaps they don't want to set a precedent? 3 days on site for FT pay does seem like it swings in your favour rather than theirs.
I had the problem the other way round - I was told I wasn't allowed to go PT and only got PT as someone was retiring.
Honestly if you're feeling anxious, maybe going PT would be the answer??

"it's not up to your employer to be flexible because you have kids."

Actually, it is. You are legally entitled to make a flexible working request on the basis of parenting. And an employer must consider this properly and make a business case if they refuse it.

Any enlightened employer will have a proper discussion with the employee to work out how to make things work. OP's employer sounds tbh like they are up for discussing it and have already accommodated compressed hours for her and wfh for others.

So theoretically- they will accomodate one day a week, out of the 4, from home. But not a set day, it will change weekly, and if it can't be offered for a specific week, wouldn't be available? If you can get that in writing, surely it's theoretically mostly what you're after? One day at home per week if workload allows? However I would have it confirmed. You can apply to HR for altered work conditions, and if it benefits the company, it can be approved. If they are concerned that you can't do the job for that Le goth of time from home and need to be office based then there is t much you can do about that. Whilst they should try to accomodate you, they are only obliged to offer you back the same job you took maternity leave from

They hinted that they may want me back 5 days if 4 days compressed is too much and I just cannot afford that

I have explicitly told them that if they need me in I’ll be there because the flexibility will work both ways

Since they're entitled to prioritise business needs when considering requests, I'm not sure how these two statements work together? Have they perhaps got the impression that, in reality, the giving would all be coming from them?

You mentioned work life balance and claimed their commitment to flexibility is "nonsense", but they've already shown willing by allowing compressed hours. Maybe they feel this is one "ask" too many, or perhaps experience has shown such requests are too often motivated by a wish for cheaper childcare - even where the employee says this has been taken care of?

Please try not to get upset with what some people are saying on here! I hope you're not feeling too overwhelmed by all of this...I think speaking to Occupational Health would be a good start because you can explain your situation and together you can find a way forward where they get to retain an employee and you get to have a good work / life balance. I hope you are able to find a solution. I myself am just about to return to work on full time hours and I am a little anxious about it...but I'm sure it'll work out as long as you are willing to be flexible and are willing to listen to your employer's business case for the hours that they need you to work / be in the office.

I would suggest you either stick with the 4 days for the moment & prove you're focused on doing a FT job - or accept that it is really hard for both parents to be FT if one parent is way with work & the other one is left to do stuff in the week with 2 little ones.

I agree with this. Your set up sounds very stressful even without the anxiety diagnosis. Is your husband not able to work flexibly at all?

The WFH offer is relatively simple to understand they want her to work around her office commitment rather than have a fixed day, like Friday. This means that if they organise training or a meeting she must be at, then she comes in. She can’t say no that’s my WFH day.

This is referred to as agile working. Flexible working is usually a fixed arrangement agreed in advance and which is part of terms and conditions. Then you can say no I’m not coming in.

My employer does this and expects us to wfh one or two days a week to free up desks. S9metimes you are in all week. Other times you can wfh for 2+ days. Depending on my projects I can usually organise it so I wfh almost all Fridays. But I am quite covert about making that happen although I’m sure some people rumble me.

It can be pretty difficult to get some people to understand the difference and quite annoying that some people expect to be at home no matter what.

It probably doesn’t help that many people are suspicious of compressed hours working from home. Well compressed hours in general if other colleagues put in the extra time anyway.

OP's employer ... have already accommodated compressed hours for her and wfh for others

But isn't that just the point? They've shown their commitment to flexibility by arranging compressed hours for some and WFH for others, but OP now wants both

Maybe for this particular business it's just too much?

they have already been flexible in allowing you to work 4 days and get full pay.

Not that flexible. She's on full pay because she works full-time! It's just compressed hours that they're 'allowing' her to do.

Op you say others wfh, do they also have children or caring responsibilities?
Have you done the request via statutory route eg outlined request, business impact, how that could be mitigated etc?
Have they responded (meeting etc) giving one of the set reasons allowed for refusal?
The fact that others already wfh might be the issue here if one more person doing so would detrimentally impact the business

My boss said to me that I could work from home different days of the week and I spoke with him today to say that I could try and do this and he changed his story to “oh well I can’t promise you’d get it every week..”

I’ve just re-read you OP and this stood out.

Maybe when you speak to them again, be as positive as possible and suggest trialling it short term. Maybe you could try WFH every 2 weeks to see how it goes.

If they are worried that you might be attempting to have your DC’s at home on your WFH days, this might alleviate that concern for them.

And say you could come into work on your WFH day at short notice if required (it’s not like you could do this if you had dcs at home )

I’m confused by your posts!

So you do compressed hours over 4 days. You want to WFH one of those days due to anxiety?

Is that right?

Is there a company policy on flexible working?

I suspect that they jumped to the same initial conclusion that most of us did - that you were planning to use a wfh day to save on childcare. Since you have explained that isn’t the case, I would go back to working in the office, show them that your childcare is sorted, then start taking the odd wfh day and build up to having one every week.