To feel my employer are suddenly discriminating because I have a young child?

[Tayo23]

I work for a government dpt where it is not usually commonplace to be able to work from home. On 19th/20th March when the schools closed, I was asked in work if this would impact me in regards to childcare - it does, and I was offered a laptop to work from home which I gratefully took.

At this point all my colleagues (except for a minority shielding or in similar positions) remained in the office every day as there were a lack of laptops for them - it was BAU. I worked remotely from home, with colleagues in the office uploading my (and other remote workers) work. A week later my office closed (a non-critical govt dpt) however I have continued to work from home since then although my colleagues without laptops were not working at all. My partner was furloughed a week or so after my office closed so has been a great help keeping 4yo entertained.

At the end of April my office advised those without laptops must return to the office one day a week on a rota basis to upload, (to maintain social distancing). I was not asked because it was understood I was working from home. Last week they provided everyone in my office (around 80 people) with laptops. I have now been told that because everyone else now has a laptop, I am now too required to work one day a week in the office, and spend the rest of the week working from home.

My partner returns to work next week. I now am in same position as end of March before lockdown re childcare. They are allowing me to take special leave for the one day a week I can’t come into the office, for 4 weeks. After then I have to use annual leave. I have repeatedly stressed I am willing to continue working each day from home. I just simply cannot leave my child at home alone. My partner is unable to get paid leave off and we would struggle without his pay.

AIBU to feel this way, they understood initially and accommodated me which I was extremely grateful for. I have worked each day whilst my colleagues barely have done until now, but now they too have the facilities to work from home, the goalposts have been moved.

I am not happy being told when to take AL when I have not asked for any time off. Do I have a leg to stand on here if I take this higher than my own line manager (who robotically regurgitates things without much compassion or consideration for people’s individual circumstances)

I work for Emergency Services in very much a key role but work have been flexible in allowing shift changes. My husband was furloughed at start but now back to work but we work opposite hours meaning that I am only asking to start half an hour later or leave an hour earlier etc. There are a few problem shifts and we have covered that with annual leave between us.
If I had asked I could have worked completely different shifts on those days but decided against it as we are in this for the long haul and I feel that I need to compromise as well as Employer.

In your case though surely if all your colleagues would much rather be in the office than working from home. You and one of them can go to your Employer and request that you swap your days as you are both then happy.

Tbh though OP, once you start having to do essentially FT childcare with FT wfh, on your own, I really do think you’ll be wanting the odd day off!

Moondust001 - There is no right to work from home, and it can be rescinded in a second. Without any requirement to give a reason.

Well if someone has exercised their statutory right to request flexible working arrangements - and the employer has agreed to working from home as part of this process - then that employee's contractual terms have been changed - and they DO have a right to work from home (in accordance with the flexible working arrangements that have been agreed).

Yes - it's different if temporary working from home arrangements have been set up in an informal way.

But if a formal flexible working agreement includes from home - then an employer cannot just rescind this "in a second" without giving a reason.

And, in the first place, they can't reject a formal request for flexible working arrangements "in a second" or without giving a reason. There is a statutory process theyt must go through to consider the request, and they need a "good business reason" to reject a request.

I’ve read all OP ‘s posts and most of the others but forgive me if I am repeating some points/questions here.

1. Up to now your DH has been looking after your DS full time while you work 5 days a week. You’ve been able to do your work because of that. To my mind (I also have a WFH job and a child of a similar age) your biggest issue soon is going to be that your ability to work will be severely reduced when DH is not there. It will be a different world. Rather than focusing on the “day in the office” problem, it might be an idea to be upfront and discuss with your employer that you are going to have real difficulty hitting targets/hours/objectives (however your productivity is measured) while combining work and childcare.

1. As they are willing to give you the 4 weeks’ special leave and then let you annual leave, they are not actually asking you to come into the office at all. So it’s clear from a business needs perspective that you are not needed in the office. They are able to cover all the uploading work with other staff. (I am presuming that you can all upload each other’s work?). Therefore I can see why you are frustrated that they won’t just let you convert your office day to a wfh day. However your main problem is that you’ll have to take annual leave. Can I ask why you didn’t take any leave earlier in lockdown- did they ban it because so few people were able to work and you were covering? Also, when does your holiday year end? Do you have specific plans for that leave that will be scuppered if you have to use it all up covering the “work from office” days?

In a way you’re not in such a bad position because they could be telling you that you can’t take leave and you DO have to come into the office. Once you start combining WFH with childcare you will very likely be extremely glad of a day off per week (and your DS might appreciate the extra attention too). In circumstances where holidays away from the home are a distant memory, being allowed to spread your holiday over multiple weeks rather than take it in bigger chunks could be seen as an advantage that your employer was not necessarily required to give you.

Why are you so confident that no Nurseries or childcare will be opening on 1st June, near you, when they are in the rest of the Country ?

I get why you would feel 'peeved' that you have been working when colleagues on full pay haven't.
I get it seems frustrating that you won't get to take your AL in a nice block for a fortnight away somewhere - but that is commonplace. My ds is furloughed. Next month he has to be 'un-fuloughed' and has to take some AL. Seems odd, but these are odd times. We are all adapting and doing what we can.
Your employers aren't forcing you to take AL, they are offering that to you as an option.
In your position, I would take the offer - it's going to be really hard trying to work with a 4 yr old to care for - do yourselves a favour and work for 4 days a week rather than 5. You've said it is going on for months yet. It seems a very sensible use of AL as none of us are heading off for our regular Summer holidays this year anyway.
Of course, you can choose not to, and work on one of the several other options suggested on here.
Unlike many other folk. You have a choice.

What you have to take into account is that these aren't 'normal times'. There will be decisions taken nationally which then impact on all of our individual situations, but you have to be prepared to go to your local manager and offer suggested solutions (many of which are on here) or make your own choices from the solutions offered to you.

As we all are.

I am going to add that under normal circumstances (not CVirus) & you don't need to take time off for children, but to care for another person. You can request emergency paid leave, holiday or unpaid leave
For longer term issues you can formally request flexible working

Ultimately, your out of work issues are not really your employer's concern. Some employers are more accommodating than others

We have been informed that we will soon return to the office on a rota basis to help with social distancing. Some work from home, some in office. Childcare or other dependent care is not their concern

It's structural discrimination.

Breathtakingly naive to suggest that there isn't discrimination against working mothers occurring during the pandemic and that in some cases this will be both intentional and opportunistic.

One thing to be aware of- it is already legal to have a paid, non- family member come to your home to look after your child while you work. In fact it has never been illegal. The government advice on this was clarified a few weeks ago.

What is not allowed is sending your child to a childminder or the home of a relative.

@bobbiester

Flexible working and working from home are entirely different things. The first does not have to include the latter in any way. And nor does flexible working imply that you can work from home whilst also doing childcare. That is quite definitely not a right, and in fact would be a disaster waiting to happen. You can't look after a child properly whilst also doing your job, and vice versa. I'm gobsmacked anyone would think that flexible working means yourlooking after cups whilst working.

And its entirely irrelevant here anyway.

This thread has descended into a fantasy realm of "what I believe should be the law is the law". And that is helping nobody. When in doubt, scream "it's a pandemic" and see if you get your own way.

The OP had been told to return to work one day a week. She had asked for another arrangement and been told no. What anyone personally thinks about that fact is irrelevant. It is lawful in the UK, and if she is genuinely daft enough to need advice on here that it's illegal or discrimination in law, she should have at it. Just prepare to be very disappointed and possibly unemployed.

heed not need

It's structural discrimination.

I don't understand why OP's company which has been accommodating, and continue to be accommodating and has come up with a suggestion to enable her to work long term, albeit one she doesn't like, is being described as discriminatory. Their solution allows her to care for her child 5 days a week whilst continuing to be paid.

OP's DP's company is insisting on unpaid leave if he wants time off.
He can't care for their child at all if he wants to continue to be paid.
Why is no one venting their vitriol on them?

I still don't get these comments about women being the ones to lose out. It doesn't have to be like that, you need to look at your partners (if you have one) to accommodate your work, not your employers/ or colleagues losing out to your lack of childcare.

It's tough, but for generations women couldn't work if they didn't have childcare, or couldn't afford it. or were unprepared to have latch key kids.

Things have moved on, we have equality that we fought long and hard for, demand your partners give you that equality and share in raising their kids. Don't settle for second best, or inequality, it's their responsibility as much as yours.

As an employer I'd be pretty miffed if someone working from home and doing childcare simultaneously expected full pay. Let's be honest you're not as productive as you would be in the office and your attention is divided between the two.

Not sure how the OP is being unreasonable in being unable to go to the office as no childcare is available?! She is able to work from home and has been doing so even when others just had the time off. Right now if my work wanted me back in next week instead of wfh I would be unable to do it because there are two children here and no childcare provision.

Would they let you pop in early mornings / evenings when your partner is home OP?

As an employer I'd be pretty miffed if someone working from home and doing childcare simultaneously expected full pay. Let's be honest you're not as productive as you would be in the office and your attention is divided between the two.

Well what do you propose happens as long as childcare isn’t available?

Should parents be forced to give up their jobs? Not being able to pay bills and provide for their children? Let’s think through the implications of that, shall we?

Not really@LaurieMarlow, is why should you be paid for a full days work while in reality you're concentrating for half of the time and earning the same as someone in the office working the full day

So what are parents supposed to do then?

Go on benefits?

What are the implications of that for society right now?

@LaurieMarlow if you say in an interview, I accept the job on the basis that I always have childcare available, you wouldn't get the job. Truth hurts I'm afraid. You choose to have kids

I accept the job on the basis that I always have childcare available, you wouldn't get the job.

Yes.

I accepted a job on the basis that I also sorted out nursery provision.

I sorted a contract with them.

Then the government forcibly shut that down.

Did you miss that little detail?

Then you should be using leave as you're not able to fulfil your contractual responsibility

Keepingitschtum

The job people being asked to do in the office at the mo, whilst important obviously is not the same as the job at home. It is copying and pasting around 15 cases of work and clicking a button. It could be done in 20-30 minutes, but instead they have to stay there for the full day. There is a lot of just being sat there on phones, making tea or browsing the internet and chatting to others. They are not required to ask for more work once they have uploaded their allocation.

It does not require the same amount of concentration as working from home. I am going to have to work early in the morning and work again once DP is home in order to look after DS until his nursery is open.

Unfortunately, we are not in a privileged position enough to hire a nannie as pp suggested.

How much leave do you think people have? Not enough to cover no childcare for the foreseeable, that’s for cure.

But you think you are being discriminated against which you're not. You're being asked what you are normally asked to do

Keepingitschtum

But you think you are being discriminated against which you're not. You're being asked what you are normally asked to do

In a time when everything else certainly isnt normal.

LaurieMarlow
I agree with you about the impact of childcare on women in the workplace, but I'm also increasingly concerned with the fact that it's disproportionately women who expect their employers to work around their children when children have two parents.
I'm not convinced that for every mum having issues with childcare and work there is a dad equally pushing his work to work around his children. That for me is the crucial issue: it seems accepted that whatever dads do is important work and mum's job has to give.
That message that working mums are potentially a risk to employ because they'll expect everything to bend around their children is much more damaging in my opinion.

When men choose to become fathers they have a responsibility to the family unit and that includes childcare. I don't see why it should just be accepted that 'DP's work aren't flexible' and women should pick up the slack with the associated impact on their jobs.