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!

It wouldn’t be allowed where I work because if they accommodated one person everyone would be looking for special treatment.

My workplace wouldn't deny any option. They are very lenient and reasonable towards returning mums.

That is not correct.

If the OP was asking for a permanent flexible working arrangement eg going from full time to part time hours then yes, they have to consider the request and have good business reasons. If the OP asked for a permanent reduction in hours the company could advertise for a job share etc.

But she is just asking for holiday. Companies can set pretty much whatever holiday rules they like as long including when they take their holiday as they allow the OP to take their entitlement. One or two days holiday per week for an extended period would not be allowed at manty places. Holiday has to be covered by existing staff who also deserve to be able to take their holiday too.

I mean, it sounds reasonable. They're also thinking no doubt of the days you'll have off additionally if little one is ill.

Which bit do you not think you'll cope with? Leaving DC, the cost or thr work life balance?

When I was employed full
Time by a company I had been with for years I finished earlier on two days which equates to one days work but got everything in by the finish time and without a lunch break.

Mine were at primary school though so that worked for me by saving me after school clubs twice a week.

I've definitely worked places where this wouldn't be allowed, including one place where something similar was tried but ended up unfortunately combining with various flexi working requests which left one person who was in the office on Fridays and was told she couldn't take Fridays off at all unless she could persuade one of the other members of the team to swap with her for cover. It caused massive bad feeling.

It all depends on the set up of the team and workstream I think.

When will you take your holiday entitlement?

I know somewhere that actively pays for a phased return over a month. They were finding people would go back and then quit.

Could you apply for flexible working instead you get one request a year

have you checked out to see if you can get help with nursery fees from UC as they usually pay up to earning of around £40k

It's not clear here if ultimately the OP is looking for a way to work PT and be paid FT..... using a/l would achieve that for 6 months but beyond that of course they don't want to accommodate it.

Anyway after 6 months you would have your childcare established and would 100% want/need to continue the 3 days on 2 days off, right? Possibly having tried to prove you can do your job in 3 days and wanting full pay still? I think as an employer that's what's I'd be looking at rather than the now.

She earns more than that.

OP why don't you ask to go down to 3 days? Not condense 4 days in 3. Obviously you will need to take a pay cut but do the math and see if it's worth it.

Can your work be condensed into three days per week? If not, you'd be expecting them to incur an additional cost of a person to cover two days per week, for six months.
Why should they?

No it would not be allowed

Everyone would want to do that

And there would be someone on annual leave every week (you) making it more difficult for others to book

Could you go part time and ask for your accrued annual leave to be paid as a lump sum?

That would never have been allowed anywhere I've ever worked - just because it's a PITA to find cover for.

If you drop to three days a week, that's part-time and they'll need to find someone to cover the other two days which is expensive (especially as it will be on a short, fixed-term contract).

Condensing hours only makes sense when work can be done any day, any time, but most businesses need people available during certain hours - someone working at 7am-7pm is pointless if the businesses main hours are 9am-5pm.

Not in my case as public sector. (above) Very little flexibility or support.

If this is holiday you have accrued whilst on Mat leave could you ask to be paid it instead to help cover nursery costs? Obviously that is if cost is the main factor.

Such a pointless question. Like a person trying to figure out fairly complex work patterns is suddenly going to go 'oh my god, yes, they can go to their dad two days a week, why didn't I think of that!'

My employer is very flexible but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't approve this on such a temporary basis. How would they cover your 2 days for 6 months and while paying u for 5 days.

They let me go part time with no issues but I def think the wouldn't have let me do what ur wanting to do.

All comes down to business needs. They can and will decline if the proposal has an impact on service delivery.

My (former) employer let me do this. I needed to go back after 7 months mat leave because of redundancy on the horizon for DH. I used accrued holiday to go back 3 days a week for 2 months. I ran a team so was more strategic than hands on so presenteeism less important.

(Ironically this is a private sector company generally considered evil and ultra-right wing but in fact was the nicest, most diverse and most flexible work culture I have ever experienced.)

They don't have to accept your request. Can you go back with a business case? You have to present the benefits to the employer

• can return earlier and therefore can hit X deadline or deliver X project
• can train up another member of the team or delegate workload to cover the other 2 days.
• 6 months is a lot - can you reduce it? You will need a proper holiday as well within that time.
• Can you use keeping in touch days?
• Is there another opportunity in another team?

I’ve just gone back part time- so 2.5 days a week instead of 5. They would never approve the use of holiday long term.. you’d be better off asking for part time surely? But you wouldn’t be paid the same of course. X

YABU. Of course it’s fair for them to decline. It doesn’t suit their business needs.

I work for a very flexible company.

I was allowed one day per week AL for 6 months to run down my very high annual leave balance after maternity leave. This was allowed because the I was still in the office 4 days per week, and at that time the person who replaced me during maternity leave was still in the team. I subsequently got a new manager though, and she was amazed that one day per week leave had been authorised as if she'd been my manager when I asked, she would have refused my request.

Compressed working is very common in my organisation, but is fairly exclusively either 10 days in 9 or 5 days in 4. I don't think they'd approve 4 days in 3 because it would mean very long days on the three remaining days.

Absolutely no way would they approve two days of annual leave per week and working 4 days in 3 because it wouldn't work for the business, risks employee welfare (long working hours) and sets a precedent that those sorts of things can be approved.

Nursery fees are extortionate, and I have every sympathy with you (not least because I've put 4 kids through nursery, two of them at the same time, while working full time. But that's just how it is, and you can't ask your employer for so much help to make it more affordable.