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!

That would be rejected by my employer too. The most part time they'll permit in my department is 30 hours a week over 4 or 5 days. You can compress 5 into 4 but a maximum of 9 hours ie you'd still need to reduce your overall hours.

I know that some companies always want at least one holiday to be a continuous period of a week or more, as it raises suspicions with auditors/fraud teams that by not doing so, there is something being hidden.

Would the nursery be OK with a period of say half a school term where you use them one day less?

I've taken off 1 day a week for 6 months after my return from mat, haven't asked for 2 so can't really comment. I imagine I'd get pushback on it though.

Yes, mine would deny both those things.

I understand why they would decline but it's still really frustrating.

I mean we can assume the father is not on the scene from OP’s posts, can’t we?

I don’t know loads of people but even I know 2 donor sperm babies with single mums, and one child from a ONS whose mum is doing everything 100% alone. It’s not unusual!

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

Sounds like a justifiable business reason to me

If they've realised that the whole thrust of this is to save childcare costs - which as you rightly said aren't their issue - they've probably also worked out that the work just isn't going to get done when you'll be naturally tired/distracted, and certainly not by compressing 4 days into 3

Add to that the need to employ someone else for the other 2 days and I can't see this appealing to many employers

Having 2 days a week off for 6 months makes 48 days. Do you even have that much holiday to take? Seems like a lot to me (but then, I'm a teacher so I know nothing/can't talk! 😆)

My sister is planning on taking 1 day a week off for 3 months while her baby settles into nursery so it isn't there full time right from the off. (I say planning, she's only 4 months pregnant atm but doesn't think her work will say no). Could you try a half way house like that between working fully time as (presumably) they want and doing what you want?

My husband’s boss is currently taking a day a week for months on end as his wife just had a baby. Tech.

I’ve managed people with compressed hours and it’s a bloody nightmare when everyone is working late on a project and then the compressed hours person gets a day off… I can’t make that work with the business I am in because there is an expectation that occasionally extra hours are needed.

The rest depends on your role - I think you will struggle to get involved in the meaty stuff on 3 days pw so I’ve some sympathy with your employer.

I used my mat leave holiday to work 4 days a week for the first 3 months I was back. Now I'm gearing up to ask to make that permanent, understanding that will mean a pay cut

I don't think a days holiday every week would be feasible for a lot of employers and over such a long period of time. I think a nursery is more reliable thwn a childminder.

It's not clear whether this would involve WFH with baby, in which case very few employers would accept this (quite rightly).

My concern would be that if you've used up all your leave, you're going to require an awful lot of unpaid leave or parental leave to cover the inevitable child illness/childcare issues that accompany having a small child. It's an additional burden on the rest of your colleagues, on top of having to cover you not being there for 2 days per week for 6 months.

I'm currently using some of my accrued annual leave to work 4 days instead of 5. When it runs out, I'm back full time. My employer is flexible but even here I don't think they'd allow me to have 2 days off for 6 months.

I did that - I had 6 weeks holiday to use and I was going onto a 4 day a week contract, my HR department actually suggested why don't I stay full time for a few months and use the holiday up that way.

Exactly this. A nightmare to cover

I did that for 3 months when I back to work, but I was already planning to drop those days, so I used my holiday for 3 months before officially reducing my hours.

Otherwise, I don’t think my employer would have agreed it for such a long period of time as it would have made it tricky for me to be treated as a full time employee but always on annual leave.

For all those saying employer would refuse due to cover/upskilling etc, would they do this if she booked whole weeks annual leave instead ? What’s the difference?

My employer would allow it, and as a Manager I would find it actually easier than being without a staff member for blocks at a time.

I think you need to think about it from their perspective. How will this work in practice and what issues there would be (and what are the solutions).

Actually depending on the work it can be easier to cover a whole week than 1 day a week

Say you have 5 team members and need at least 4 in at any one time - quite common set up

If someone takes a whole week then the others can't

If someone takes every Friday off then no one else could have a whole week off

I'm on similar salary and using leave to cover two days a week so I only work 3 days a week. I didn't have any problems getting approved. Work would rather I had a plan to use up my leave.
I don't have the sort of job where someone covers me when I'm on leave, I just take on a smaller portfolio of projects.
I did similar when I returned to work after my first child and found it worked well.

It would be declined where I work on the basis that it would stop other people taking a week holiday during that whole time period.

We are required to take two weeks holidays in a block each year. Other leave can be taken as agreed with the line manager. Staff who have built up leave whilst off on protected leave sick leave etc can use their accrued leave to help them phase back into their role but for a max of three months. There are different types of roles in the business some are Mon - Fri office hours so hard to have someone constantly out eg every Friday as that reduces cover.

It’s not something we would allow in our practice.
We are architects and for a member of a team not working 2 days a week would make it impossible to run a project on site and have regular contact with contractors, other professional disciplines and the client. It would severely impact the project.
It would make no difference if someone suggested squeezing 4days into 3 as regular contact and problem solving are constantly needed.

When you say you won't cope? What do you actually mean? In what way will you financially not cope? What were your plans, during pregnancy, what did you plan to do?

My work would be completely fine with it (local govt) as would my previous job (civil service), and my sil has just done that exact same thing (nhs) -key thing is that those are all public sector!

I don't really see their rationale -surely as you've accrued all that annual leave you will have to use it in a fairly short space of time, from their POV I would have thought that you having planned 3 day weeks for 6 months so everyone knows what's happening and can allocate work accordingly is better than you working 4 day weeks but only working 3 weeks out of 4, or taking 6 weeks in a row off because you've got to use up your leave somewhere!

How strict are they with how you book leave? Could you agree to working a 4 day week and then as soon as you come back book 3 out of 4 Mondays off so you basically get what you want anyway and get backup childcare for the fourth one?
Because again it seems incredibly prescriptive if they accept you need to use up this leave but try and mandate when you use it!