Can I ask the hive mind for advice ahead of a meeting I have at work next week?
I have been trialling compressed hours at work for 3 months following my return from maternity leave in August, so I do 5 days over 4. My hours are 8am to 5:45pm, Tuesday to Friday.
I have a daughter who is 15 months old. Doing compressed hours gives me one extra day per week with her, which I really cherish, and saves me a day of nursery fees.
As far as I am concerned, the arrangement has gone very well. I don’t mind the long days and find the hour I have morning and evening when no-one else is in lets me get my head down and focus without interruptions. I’m an accountant and all my work is time-recorded to specific clients, so it’s easy to see that my performance hasn’t been negatively affected by the change. In fact, I’m more efficient now than I was before I went on maternity (which I put down to me being happier and therefore more motivated). My firm has a flexible working policy which heavily promotes the idea of flexible working to a pattern that suits you. We have no core hours, for example, and total autonomy over whether to work from home.
The only snag is I don’t think my boss likes it. We work very closely together, though I am quite junior to her, and I think she likes having me available as soon as she wants me to do anything. She has made a few comments recently about how when she had her children (now aged 15 and 10) she went back to full time work after 3 months because she was ambitious and didn’t want to let her firm down. She has also several times ‘forgotten’ my non-working day and then expressed a sort of disappointed surprise at my unavailability for a last minute meeting or similar. She has also called me on every single one of my NWDs so far with questions (so far all have been things that either could have waited until Tuesday, or that she could have found herself very quickly from checking our file).
I have anxiety and I fully appreciate I may be catastrophising, but I’m really anxious that she’s going to put the kibosh on my compressed hours because she personally would rather have me at her beck and call.
I’ve prepared financial reports of my performance to show her and made a list of all the benefits to the business and to me personally. She isn’t technically allowed to refuse my working request just because she doesn’t like it - there has to be a business need behind it. But I want to be alive to any attempts to dress this up as a legitimate concern.
Any advice on how to approach this meeting? Any useful phrases I should be ready to deploy, any angles I haven’t considered? I love my job but I would actually consider leaving if this can’t be accommodated, so I really want to get it right!