Working from home request

[noflexibility]

Reading some of the threads on here, I'd love to be able to work from home occasionally so I can cut out my commute and pick DC up from nursery. There is no reason why I can't in my role, other than the company I work for doesn't really have an agile working culture and are not really open to the idea, you have to jump through hoops to get a single work from home day approved for say a plumber coming or something.

I'm thinking of sending an informal email to my manager on behalf of myself and a few team members (who also resent the fact that they aren't able to work from home) to ask if we could each do a couple of days remote working per month, and what were their thoughts on this?

More of a casual 'would you be open to this' rather than a formal flexible working request.

AIBU that this casual request might go down better than going straight in with an individual formal flexible working request. If I don't ask more casually I will want to ask formally in a few months as my DH, who currently does all nursery pickups is changing work projects which will require a couple of very long working days each month so I need to be available to pick up from nursery at 6pm, and working from home is the easiest way I could realistically do that.

Personally I'm all for working from home where the role makes it possible, and where the individual demonstrates that they'll actually work.

But if the company you work for isn't, there isn't really anything you can do if they say no.

It’s a double edged sword - our company is incredibly agile in fact I really don’t think we need all the desk space we have! But it does mean sometimes the office can be quiet but also then sometimes packed when people don’t want to work from home!

My company is flex on everything even clothes we can wear pretty much what we want (if we don’t have client meetings) and also we just need to sort holidays amongst ourselves!

Sounds like a great idea, another big fan of remote working here! Do you ever have any parking issues? Something to highlight of so, plus also environmental benefit of less cars on road etc

I work in recruitment and it's a wide spread belief that companies who don't offer this will relatively soon fall begins and be unable to attract the kind of people they need to keep their business going. It's no longer considered a luxury in most forward thinking organisations. It's accepted.
The best thing people can do is making exactly the request you are tallying about, and encouraging others who feel the same as you (irrespective of having children) to do the same. Even if it's only 1 day a week then that makes such a difference to the people that have it . I work 2 days a week from home and it makes such a difference. It's part of the reason I have stayed with my company.

If you have a good relationship with your manager I would suggest an off the record chat / coffee and say how you are feeling. Along the lines of it really feel like I am missing out on picking up my DC . I'd love to be able to do it once a week. I am aware read there are companies close by that do offer WFH/ can offer agile working. I desperately don't want to leave as I love my job here and the company, but it's something I might have to consider. I didn't have DC not to see them!

Etc .

Do you think something like that could work? The more people that bang that drum the better.

I’m a big fan of WFH. I’d try suggesting it as a trial - agree some ground rules up front and how you will gauge if it works for the company and employees at the end of the trial period. Your employer might be more willing to give it a go if they don’t feel they will be tied to something that then doesn’t work well. Try to show the business benefit. If you can pinpoint what their reservations are you can come up with solutions.

I think a casual email is a good start.
I did something similar, had an off the record chat with HR and said would it be frowned upon to ask for xxx. If they said yes I wouldn’t ace made the request. Thankfully they didn’t. It does make such a difference.

Can you list the benefits of WFH in respect you the company benefits and employee benefits?

How about suggesting a trial if say 2/3 people for one day a month over a set period?

You could suggest keeping a diary of activities to show what progress has been made

Suggest activities to be carried out at home which are best suited being carried out in a solo space without interruption.

Are there any issues or blockers in the office which would be resolved by homeworking? Eg lack of meeting rooms in which to conduct conference / video calls

Give examples of other organisations in your line of work who successfully permit home working.

Try reaching out to LinkedIn contacts for suggestions too.

Hope that's given you ideas, good luck and keep us posted.

Thanks all, suggesting a trial is a good idea - they might be open to that!

I am now 100% home working.
Basically for me it was getting my manager on side for 1 day a fortnight WFH, and I would always go back to them and just make sure that they felt i was still achieving.. After 1 month, I then upped it to 1 day a week, and so on, so on.
I am very lucky in my situation that I can do the job and have been very consistant.. I used the argument of it taking 2 hours of driving and around £10 of fuel to get in and out of work and that I was looking at changing companies based on the driving time.
My manager's boss doesn't like it but because there I get the same (if not more) work done from home then he won't bring it up directly with me. (He's just commented a few times).. My manager has told me off the record that basically all though I've shown them that a trusted employee can do it, they don't like it, because they don't trust a lot of the other people to put in a full day. That's probably where the biggest problem will lie.

I would make it casual to start with. As the company isn’t particularly agile then it makes more sense to try and ease them in gently.

Or you coudl make a formal flexible working request. If it is successful for you then colleagues could ask for their own. That way you force them to consider the business case properly.

I'm a big advocate for home working.

I used to have a job where I had to be present, and it came with a long commute. It was exhausting and began to impact on my entire life.

I now work from home and the difference it's made to my life is amazing. Okay, I've had a career change too which has probably helped but I am so much happier. I work about 3-4 days a week 10-4 and pick up the odd couple of hours in the evenings too.

This week for example I had Sunday off, I worked Monday 10-4 and then 6-8. Yesterday I did 10-5. Today I might do a couple of hours this evening, tomorrow I'll be working 2-5 and then probably 6-8, and Friday 10-4 again.

I can set my own ours and as long as I get my work done, the time I do it is irrelevant. The best part is being able to get the house stuff done, cutting out the commute and being able to work from the sofa in my pyjamas

im a massive advocate of home working. My role is pretty much 100% home based with the exception of having to go in occasionally for training.
I do a call centre role from my house. I’ve done it for a few years now and love every minute of it.
So many roles these days can be done from home and I think it should be encouraged.

Currently, my organisation allows people to WFH up to 40% of their time.

I see the advantages, I really do, and take advantage of it myself regularly (although I tend to do shorter days working in the office and then top up my hours logging on at home for a sort burst).

But there are disadvantages as well. I think my particular area of work really benefits from having colleagues around for support and guidance (yes, I know this can be done through online chat and similar) and I’ve noticed that team engagement is lower than it used to be because you hardly ever get the full team in the office so people start to feel disjointed from it.

It’ll be interesting to see how the landscape a changes in the next few years...

What’s a sort burst? Short, short!

More conservative managers tend to be suspicious of Monday and Friday WFH requests (can look like you're carving out a long weekend), so you could say you don't mind which day.

And, as PP have said: be clear on what's in It for the company/why it's going to make you more productive, how you're going to ensure they can reach you etc. And suggesting a trial period.

I'd ask casually (maybe face to face) and be prepared with some facts and figures on how similar companies are doing it and all the benefits.

Get your team to come up with a plan together and ask management if you can do it on a trial basis.
So maybe suggest a rota; Ann WFH Monday's, Sarah Tuesdays etc
Highlight all the benefits; work life balance for you for example

I wouldn’t do this via an email. I would ask for a meeting to discuss agile working within your team.

Be clear you understand what this is. Agile working isn’t always the solution if you have fixed commitments, like picking up a child. Under agile working people need to be in office when they are needed in the office or at a meeting. In other words if you are not able to be agile, you won’t be able to do your job as and when needed.