Remote Working Request Pregnancy

[Hil99]

Hi everyone. I’m working on a plan to present to my supervisor regarding flexible working during my 3rd trimester. I’m curious, had anyone done the same and what did you propose? I don’t think it will be a huge issue but I’m struggling to decide what to ask for. My current schedule is 4 days in the office, 1 wfh. I’m thinking of asking for the following.

3 days wfh, 2 days in for 9 weeks
5 days fully remote for the remaining 5 weeks leading up to my due date

Thanks for your help!

I worked from home for a whole month before I gave birth. I don’t even think I really asked properly. Show them how much time you’ll save having appointments when you’re at home. (I assume you will as midwife appts are usually local.) This was before lockdown and we couldn’t really work from home unless it was an emergency. Best to discuss with HR too.

Sell them other savings too… You’ll need lots of modifications for work that they’d save on too- e.g. foot stool, lumbar support so if you work from home they might be able to save money by not having to pay for it all.

I’m not going into the office from 34 weeks.

I commute by train with a 20 min walk each side which I’m already struggling with (and I only go in once a week!) and I don’t want to be over an hour from home for work after this point.

It depends what you do, and how far the commute is. If it's an hour each way that sounds reasonable - if you're in 10 mins drive and your office is making good accommodations (workplace assessment with appropriate chair etc) I'm not sure why you'd need it?

There should be an individual risk assessment if you are pregnant which can help to identify reasonable adjustments. Pregnancy in itself isn’t an illness and individual risk assessment is useful where your work is / could be an additional risk to you.
In reality , if you work in an office , unless you have a medical concern or difficult pregnancy I’m unclear what you would need (other than adjustments to chair for example) or why you would need to work from home.
Anyone can ask for flexible working under the law - which is what you are asking for here I think.

Entirely depends what you do and what will fall to other people if you're not there. Loads of people work their normal job up til when they take their maternity leave.....

3 days wfh, 2 days in for 9 weeks
5 days fully remote for the remaining 5 weeks leading up to my due date
Do you have to ask this far in advance for the fully remote? Why have you chosen those weeks? These are what they'd want to know

I had a tonne of appointments in the third trimester, so it wasn’t always sensible to get to the office.

My boss was happy for me to wfh when it was easier, because they knew I wouldn’t take the piss. I was probably in twice a week from 30 weeks onwards.

How far/long is your commute? Is there a reason why you think you will need to WFH? Unless you get to the later stages of pregnancy and start having difficulties I don’t see what the issue is with working from the office. I worked through both pregnancies and was high risk with both, my employers just made sure I had adjustments in place and were flexible when I needed to leave for the appointments.

Does your work place allow working from home usually?

On a slightly more positive note, my employer was very understanding and seemed to almost expect me to WFH towards the end of pregnancy. I had a lot of appointments, didn’t want to risk going into labour an hour+ away from the hospital and frankly found my commute really uncomfortable especially in the heat of summer.

My manager was really kind and supportive of it, but I had generally been a reliable hard worker until that point.

There’s really no need to be so rude. You don’t know OP’s circumstances at all. Perhaps she has a 2 hour commute via public transport with no access to a toilet on the way? Perhaps she has PGP or SPD which is limiting her movement and causing pain? Perhaps she’s exhausted as she’s had a difficult pregnancy or carrying multiples?

You simply do not know how ‘taxing’ OP’s role is.

Why do you assume that OP pregnancy is rosy and healthy?

Who are you to say OP has no need to wfh?

Or are you just one of those "I suffered so you must suffer too" type people?

Bore off...

I worked fully from home for my last trimester, it was a reasonable adjustment following the pregnancy risk assessment.

The main reason however, was complications / risk factors following my first child being born at 32 weeks, and the fact my office was an hour from the hospital. I'm not sure it would have been approved if not for this.

You're really, really rude. You have no idea of the nature of OP's job role nor do you know anything about her pregnancy.

She says she currently works from home one day a week, so presumably it is normal.

OP - so much of this depends on the culture at your workplace around this. For my company, nobody would have any problem with you just saying you were going to wfh for the last few weeks/months of your pregnancy. Other places would need you to justify it.

Assuming its the latter, since you're having to put in a request, you just need to be able to justify your request, from a business point of view. So why you want/need to wfh more (is it the commute? getting to appointments?) If need be, go through the risk assessment with them and point out how you wfh will mitigate some of those risks (assuming they do).

If there are no actual reasons and you just prefer to be at home, then I think expect your work to be less flexible about it - they don't have to grant your request in those circumstances.

No advice but I worked from the office until 39 weeks. No option to wfh due to nature of job. 1.5 hour commute on the train each day was hell. I would definitely have requested home working if I could!

Sounds fine but maybe suggest you're willing to come in for one day during the final 5 weeks for face to face handover if they feel it's a benefit.
And back it up with your reasoning for wanting to do it, backache/risk of high BP/struggling to drive or use public transport whatever applies/lots of midwife appointments in last month etc

What's the current advice re covid? When I had my first in was told by work to stay at home in 3rd trimester but that was a few years ago

It's hard to advise without knowing the 'norms' at your workplace. I'd personally want to leave it a bit more flexible if you can, rather than locking it in, if possible? My manager has already told me I can WFH as much as I like in the last couple of months, but we have a very flexible culture.

Depends on the nature of the job and if you deciding to wfh will impact on your colleagues or company as a whole. You can ask by all means