Work Hours

[strugglingto]

Good afternoon all,

Posting here for traffic mainly and some advice.

I have been working part time since my daughter was born. I am a single parent with no help from anyone whatsoever.

My hours were 16 but I have been having meetings with the job centre to increase these.

I have requested 2 extra hours from work and have been asking and prompting them for what must be going on well over a month. Every time I'm told they will try to chase it up. I have explained more than once that if I cannot increase my hours, they will force me to look for other work.

Work know that I am having weekly meeting with universal credit and that they are waiting/expecting an answer.

My manages has told me just to keep telling them it is with higher management, but I have been doing this for weeks. They won't take this much longer.

Has anyone else been in this position who could possibly offer some advice?

This is really now starting to affect my anxiety, stress levels and mental health.

To be honest it doesn't sound like the have, or want, to give you more hours. I'd start looking for something else, and then if you find something and still would prefer to stay where you are you can say that you've found a new job and will be leaving. They may counter offer. Good luck.

They do have the hours as we are actually short staffed at the moment and there has been a big recruitment drive.

That's odd then. Are they looking for someone to take on a full shift?

Large Civil Service organisation so working as part of a team, of which there are many.

I wonder if you went to 24 hours, so an extra full day that would be easier for them to say yes to. You don't mention your current work pattern, but if it's lunch cover 5 days a week then it's probably not worth the company while giving you an extra half hour a day, it's extra pay for not a lot of extra bonus. If you work 2 full days and can up to 3 then I can see that that might be more attractive.

Try not to be so stressed about this. What has your work coach actually said? What will happen if you can't increase your existing job by 2hrs? Looking for a new job doesn't mean you will actually get a new job. And if you do actually get a new job, maybe that will be a good thing (in terms of more money)?

I wouldn't be in a rush to leave the Civil Service if you can help it!

Have you put in a formal request? Is your manager chasing this for you? Can you go directly to the Grade 6 or whoever is responsible for signing this off?

Do you have something in writing from Universal credit you can send them?

Do you know any colleagues who are looking to reduce their hours so that you could put that forward as a solution?

2 extra hours!!! Perhaps they think you are just doing it to keep the benefits people at bay abd are therefore not too keen.

Make sure you submit a formal flexible working request, there will be a process on the Intranet. Set out how those 2 hours could benefit your team/business.

The process has timescales that they should adhere to.

Yep, what previous poster said. There'll be a workplace policy on requesting flexible working or family friendly or change of hours or whatever they've called it. You need to start putting it in writing or email and then asking "As per the policy I would like a reply within 10 working days" kind of thing. They can't keep fobbing you off if there's a policy and a paper trail.

Just wondering if there has been a big recruitment drive have they now filled the spaces so no more hours to offer you, or maybe those hours will then be coming off an advertise job making it less attractive to applicants. Where I work extra hours takes ages to agree with higher management, working out budgets etc we are currently not allowed to recruit or have additional hours despite the work being there due to budgets