is my employer fair to decline this? Would yours be the same?

[amazonsl]

I’m not asking strictly speaking, obviously I know legally they can decline it. I’m a single mum (no relevance to the company obviously) with one dc and due to go back to work when they are one. I wanted to use my holiday to work three days a week for 6 months. This would have massively reduced nursery fees and would have helped me adjust. We work from home a lot but condensed working (4 days squeezed into 3) was also declined. Just wondered if other places would have declined this too? It’s a progressional place and I do have quite a bit of responsibility but I’m not at the top, either. I’m going to struggle so much as they’ve said I could go back four days but that doesn’t save much on nursery and im
not sure I will cope!

What was their reason to deny it?

As a single parent will you be entitled to UC help towards the nursery fees? they may make a really big difference

I’m quite lucky in that my employer are very flexible. My job has to be covered every day though so I’d imagine they’d refuse this too unless I officially went part time and got a job share. Can you afford to do that? Have a look at entitled to, see if there’s anything you can claim that could help, eg childcare vouchers etc. Good luck, it’s short term pain but it’ll pay off when DC is older.

I wouldn’t be allowed. It would be a nightmare for them to cover the work for those days for such a long period of time.
We can have the odd day here and there but otherwise it’s one week spring, two weeks summer one week autumn & you can have a week elsewhere or odd days, depending on how many holidays you have accrued.

@QforCucumber @TheTempest they said one day holiday a week was enough and two would mean I couldn’t be as involved in projects as I would need to be. I’m on 60k so don’t think I get any help?

Presumably their hours mean that if they were to agree to that, they'd need someone else employed for 2 days.
Same with condensed. If their "office hours" are 9-5 what's the point of having someone who is offering to do 7-7 if it's not needed.

4 days in 3 or using holiday that way would probably not be approved here

A simple part time contract would be

Can't see how 4 days in 3 could work unless you planned to work whilst baby asleep which as a mother myself I would think unreasonable

Yes, mine would refuse. Education, LA.

I think the problem with you doing 3 days a week on a temp basis using your holiday will mean that they're still paying you 5 days a week but will somehow have to cover the other two days worth of work. I can absolutely see why that wouldn't work for business reasons. If you wanted to, eg, go back 3 days a week on a pro rata'd salary that would be different because they'd be able to afford to pay someone for the other two days or whatever.

My workplace wouldn’t allow it because they’d effectively have to find someone who wanted to do my job for two days a week. They would also recognise that even with the best will in the world, I would not really be able to do four days worth of work in three days while I was also being a single parent so that would be refused too.

If they’ve said they will let you take one day a week as holiday then they are being flexible.

Do you rent or own? You may be surprised at the assurance you could get with the childcare costs
for reference I didn’t request any change in hours so work M-F 9-5 because that’s the business need but also my own; any reduction would mean I’d have to carry out my workload in a lesser timescale and would have detrimentally affected me. But I do only have a 5 min commute!

My work don't allow condensed days as it leads to very long days and they feel productivity declines. Also unless you permanently wfh or have a very short commute it won't fit in nursery hours.
Would you go full time after the 6 months? That makes it hard as unless there's a natural ramp up they'd need to hire someone to job share for those 6 months. Also that would be a huge chunk of your leave and may well leave you short for actual holidays (remember most nurseries close for at least a week at Christmas) and the inevitable child illness.

Using holiday to effectively reduce yourself to part time for several months would have been declined by my employer. They'd have had to upskill someone to pick up the slack for those months.

Working compressed is common though, I work full time over 4 days as do a number of colleagues. The only thing that can be a sticking point is the day off, they're careful to have an even spread so you don't always get the day you want.

One of my work colleagues currently is working 2 days for months on end after returning from mat leave ( normally does 3 days). It does have a significant impact on the service though as we are a small team. Condensing hours would not be allowed as office is only open 9-5, but might be different if home working. One of my friends does five days condensed into four with a toddler, it's very hard going.

Also have you checked all the various tax thresholds and childcare help. It was years ago so may have changed but dropping to 4 days didn't have as much impact as I thought as it took me out of the higher tax bracket so I got to keep more childcare vouchers. Don't know if this holds true for tax free childcare though.

I would also struggle logistically with condensed hours. I drop my DS at nursery when it opens and pick him up as late as I can but there still aren't enough hours in the working day to make up an extra day. To do that, I'd have to work in the evenings which 1) is not really sustainable or healthy; and 2) doesn't really work so well when everyone else is working a standard 9-5 and a lot of our work is calls/meetings/workshops with stakeholders etc.

It depends on what you do. I requested condensed hours but knew it was a long shot (it was declined). My job is customer facing, I'm a single point of contact for specific customers, so if I'm not there on a Friday (for example), and something breaks, I'm not there to help. My customers are businesses that work Monday to Friday, so I completely understand why my request was declined.

I've worked in places where that scenario was approved. Depends on their budget though, as they kept the maternity cover on for the part times days to keep the job covered. That's a big expense though that hasn't been budgeted for so it wouldnt always be approved. It's not the same as taking your annual leave throughout the year and not paying for cover.

I work in it software company and don’t think they’d agree to use 2 day’s annual leave a week for 6 months no

what’s the child’s father doing to help? Childcare/parenting and cms

What's your plan for after the 6 months are up, even if they were to agree?

Ultimately doing 5 days work in 3 is impossible, especially if you're working on fast moving projects.

Condensed working would have been approved in some roles - ie those where the hours are more flexible in the first place. But is that what you really want? Childcare for extended days is both hard to find and/or more expensive. And if there's the slightest suspicion that someone would attempt to WFH without childcare in place, then it would definitely be rejected.

Using holiday to go effectively part time on full pay would only be approved as a temporary measure (I used to do this occasionally over school holidays) and I don't think it would have been approved over the longer term

Mine would have declined condensed working (as it's their new policy, no condensed hours allowed)

But lots of colleagues I know have used holiday to come back for shorter weeks for a period of time. AFAIK your holiday is yours to use as you wish. Unless you work shifts I suppose

It obviously depends on the size of the workforce and the nature of the work, but having one member of staff away for two days of each week might make it difficult for other employees to book a full week's leave.

Condensed working is not generally allowed at my workplace, partly to support a healthy work/life balance which they feel isn’t compatible with long days, and partly because there’s the expectation that senior staff (which I’d guess you are on your salary) don’t just work their exact hours and no more (which is more likely with condensed working). Not saying that’s right but it’s how it would be in my place, which is generally considered a supportive place to work.

They’d also most likely decline a 3 day week for 6 months as who would cover your work on that regular a basis?

I hope you can work something out that suits your family set up.

My place would allow it (and have done in the past) but we're public sector so very flexible.

One day of leave a week for six months would be 26 days leave, meaning you'd have nothing left for the final six months (assuming you have that entitlement anyway). We accrue leave over a complete year so wouldn't be able to take it all before having 'earned' it. And it leaves you with no rest periods which is the point of leave.

Compressed hours better and worth putting in another proposal but only if you can demonstrate you had sufficient nursery cover in place so that those hours (roughly 10 a day) are child-free. Could you look for a childminder as they are often cheaper and more flexible (in my experience).