To ask for a flexible working request to spend more time with my son ?

[tootiredtocare1111]

I Currently work Mon-Fri 8.30-4.30, I carry out the role with another guy we both do exactly the same hours, I am mum of one and would love to spend more time with my DS before he starts school.

My request would be to go down from 5 days to 3 , I would like to work Mon-Wed and have Thursday and Friday off.

All days would be covered as the other guy does full time anyway, the job role doesn't even justify 2 full time people, I am twiddling my thumbs on a Thursday and Friday mostly ( hence I am on mumsnet right now ) Monday to Wednesday are the busier days hence why I will be offering to do those days .

My role is admin based so nothing of high importance, I just want to spend more time with my DS - our time is precious.

What factors do you think the company will look at that may affect my application ?

Many thanks in advance guys!

I did this, went from 35 hours over five days to 24 hours over 3.

I was doing it on my return from maternity leave and they hadn't covered my post while I was off (local authority, recruitment freeze) so it was easy to evidence that they could manage without me.

At my work the childcare thing is relevant, they are far more likely to support an application from someone wanting to care for children or an elderly/disabled relative etc, than someone who just fancies working less.

It is a permanent change though, you can't just decide to go back full time. Suits me though.

You want to go part time. That is not flexible working. Also what are the business supposed to do for holiday cover or sick leave or if your colleague also requests to go part time?

You need to find a part time job 🤷‍♀️ give your job to someone who needs full time.

Cryingoverspilttea Why would I need to go full time when this is the whole point of a flexible working request , on the acas website it states that reduced days or hours constitutes as a flexible working request , and why would I leave the business when the role doesn’t justify two full time people ? I’m giving them options and also offering to cover sick and annual leave ... maybe think or read up before you post 🤷‍♀️

Like PP, it's not really a flexible working request - more of a request to work part-time. I'd suggest thinking about what realistic solutions there would be to any obvious objections. My main concern if I was your manager would be covering annual leave / sickness. Say if your colleague went sick on Thursday and Friday on your days off who would cover? Would you be able to do extra hours at short notice if required? Or is there anyone who could cover you both if required?

Hey - yeah there is someone else who can cover if the unlikely event someone is off sick. I have offered to cover annual leave as long as I have some notice . I’m trying to be flexible with them too and giving them options . I also have the advantage of working from home as my system and laptop allow it . So if they really needed someone I could work from home and but DS in nursery .

Also to clarify , just got this off citizens advice : Flexible working is the name given to any type of working pattern which is different from your existing one.

Flexible working arrangements might include:

changing from full-time to part-time work
changing the part-time hours that you work, for example from weekends to weekdays
changing working hours to fit in with, for example, school hours, college hours or care arrangements
compressed hours, that is, working your usual hours in fewer days

Well you can only ask and see what they say. There's nothing wrong with asking. I hope you get the outcome you want OP.

Thank you :) me too!

I guess the other issue you may have to put some thought to is managing your work share with your colleague. If I was your colleague I'd be concerned that you going part-time was going to add extra pressure on me IYSWIM. This stuff is always trickier when you are part of a small team.

You sound prepared op. As long as you go into it with benefits for the company, and answers to why it may be a negative/you haven’t needed full time for a while I think you’ll have a good case.

Really appreciate the advise guys thank you, shall definitely take this on board and go in prepared

I have also said the work load is not justifiable for two people and it never will be as two of my reasons.

Be very careful what you wish for OP.
Telling them they have been paying you to sit round doing nothing for 40% of your time might make them wonder if they can make do without the remaining 60%

You might regret bending quite so far backwards to cover for sickness etc if they start expecting you to do it regularly!

Do you currently cover each other for breaks/ lunch? We had an issue with someone wanting to change hours, which was fine from a workload pov, but would have meant their coworker wouldn't have had any guarantee they could have breaks/ lunch. Of course it was turned down, but a different shift pattern would have been granted.

I'd also say be realistic in what you are promising with short-notice sickness cover. Firstly you may not be able to get childcare at short-notice, and also if you've been really looking forward to your days off with DS and have made nice plans, are you really going to willing to cancel them if you get a call at 8am saying your colleague is ill?

Genuinely not trying to be negative here but just trying to be realistic about how sickness cover would work, so it's worth thinking about what realistic solutions you could propose. The more prepared you are as to what solutions you can offer to any issues the better your chances of getting your request approved.

I wouldn't be offering to cover sickness and holiday etc, in fact in my work you wouldn't be allowed to do this anyway. My contract is for the hours I do over the three days, I can't just come in on random other days to suit the business (or myself) because it would mess up my salary and annual leave calculations for one thing.

I'm not sure why people are getting hung up on whether it's called flexible working or not. Different places call it different things, at my work it's called a work/life balance application, but it amounts to the same thing.

Any application to request a change to your hours is called a FLEXIBLE WORKING REQUEST.

I think some of you are getting confused with flexitime .

I’ve had to submit two Flexible Working Requests since I went back to work after maternity leave. Once to reduce hours and a second to increase them slightly.

It’s called that because it’s an official application process. You can only make one flexible working request in a 12 month period.

I’m due to make another shortly. It’s still called a flexible working request!

OP, really don’t mention the low workload. They might use this to justify redundancy in the future.

Whenever I’ve made my flexible working requests I’ve stated what I can do to solve any issues that might arise from my change of hours. This might include offering to cover holiday or swap days if necessary. Your colleague may want the odd Friday off and it might go in your favour if you offer to be flexible on an ad hoc basis.

Not confused, it's not called that in my very large organisation. Flexitime is coming in half hour late or going home a couple of hours early because you have TOIL. Flexible working is exactly that, same contacted hours, different pattern, agreed formally but locally, reviewable every three months either party can withdraw from the agreement and you go back to standard pattern. Going part time, would be a change of contract/contracted hours, not agreed locally, not reversible by either party at will, all processed via HR and signed off at quarterly SLT by a director as part of staffing planning, we'd likely recruit to fill the other hours.