End of Mat Leave and WFH

[TheNinkyNonkyIsATardis]

Hi all

I returned from Mat Leave after 10 months in August, with my husband doing the last two months as SPL. My son is now in nursery three days a week, and we both work five days compressed into four.

I completely underestimated the impact of returning to work, because before my husband was caring for our child in our house. The adjustment is hard, and I went back full time cold turkey.

My office requires 40% attendance, the nearest offices are 2h away. They removed this requirement and barred me from the office when I was pregnant due to high risk factors, so I haven't been in for months. My team has always had below-target attendance because it really doesn't suit our tasks.

WIBU to now ask for a phased return in the form of WFH whilst I'm still breastfeeding?

It's the thing that really causes issues because I can't express (I've really tried but it takes over an hour to produce one measly feed!), and I can't be back to feed my son without turning back practically after I arrived.

Whenever I have attended the offices in the past, 9/10 either the person I have come to meet has cancelled and attended virtually, or they've cancelled altogether.

Another HR person here, I think given that your mat leave cover was WFH the entire time you were on leave, it gives a really strong case to say why is it even a requirement for you to be working in the office?

I'd put it all down in a flexi working request and state that it may only be needed until January, which again is an even bigger reason for it to be approved as it's such a minor adjustment for a short period. They'd need to have a really clear case to say no IMO.

Presumably that was because the office was shut for some reason.

I think that's definitely a more viable option. I'm also happy to be permanently moved there if they want (people in my team are automatically put on the London office with London weighting regardless of where they live in the country unless they actively state a preference for the nearer office... It would save them and me money and time to put me on the more local office!)

Thank you for your advice on this. As I said, I like to be honest, and part of the request is about the convenience to me/phased return.

However, do you genuinely think I ought to stick to the business grounds?

I have worked on the other side of this myself in the past from HR/WFH management etc, and I always appreciated the honesty and clarity of what people wanted.

(The org has entirely obvious issues with WFH which I won't go into here, so part of this comes from me really wanting to give them some pointers about how to make it ACTUALLY work...)

Did you use a FWR to compress your hourrs, OP?

Personally, I think the nature of the work grounds are stronger.

Yes, I used FWR.

If I'd anticipated better, I'd have put the start date of the compressed hours in from January, and have used holiday to do 4 days per week phased return. But as I didn't, I'd like to offer a temporary and informal arrangement up until January.

The one risk I don't want to run is to not show up at the office until Jan and have to make up the 40% attendance in a massive block.

The one issue with the nature of the work point is that it could be considered more or less permanent.

Now to REALLY complicate things I actually have an OH report stating that I'm better off WFH where possible :D

I know I could just "lean on" that, but it feels dishonest, given it's not the issue!

Surely this type of work will be enough to argue a set period of wfh until the project is finished

When is the OH report from? Is it what they used to make adjustments while you were pregnant? If so, do they still hold? If they were for SPD or something then surely that no longer applies?

They don’t have to consider, never mind agree a change to the agreed FWR, or a further informal working arrangement (by its nature, it can’t be informal).

Why was the office closed?

Can you get this moved to Work? AIBU is a terrible place for employment matters.

From pre-covid. Different company, but I've shared it with my employer because they're very proactive about that sort of thing and very understanding.

It's for migraines - so an ongoing, lifelong condition. I've WFH pre and post COVID in a variety of roles, because I can then have full control of environmental triggers. I was having regular 1 to 3 week episodes of migraine, including poor attendance. These issues disappeared WFH because I can control the environment, but I don't always need them.

I’m early 50s and loads of my contemporaries didn’t return to work after mat leave because it was just too hard.

I had to wean mine before I went back to work because I had an hour commute and nowhere to pump during the day. I had to drop to part time to make childcare affordable. My career stalled, my pension pot took a hit, it took me years to get back to where I was before DC.

Compressed office hours and WFH options would have made my life so much easier.

Thankfully times have changed, technology has moved on, WFH is easier.

OP I don’t know the formalities of flexible working, but you’re a valuable and skilled employee so it’s in there interest to accommodate you.

I just wanted to say thank you, because I've sadly encountered many older women who endured those struggles but who take a "I suffered, so should you" approach. A number of which were spoken about colleagues to me over Teams who didn't realise I was pregnant too!

And the worst being an HR woman who asked me if I was planning a family, and that she thought maternity rights had "gone too far"...

Presumably you know now whether the return to the office (at least 12 times since August) has affected you?

Migraines aren’t usually expected to be life long, are they?. I’ve always had discussions about what was being done to manage them by the individual (one got them every TOTM and asked for 26 extra days of paid holiday as a reasonable adjustment to cover them so they didn’t have to use sick leave - they obviously didn’t get that and one of the reasons was that they were not accessing any medical or other support to try and resolve them).

As above, the office was closed for an office move, so has only just opened again.

I won't seek to educate you on the entire effect of migraines, but I've been receiving medical support and suffering them for 28 years now. It is often a life long condition that's considered a disability.

(I had to refuse to alter MY reasonable adjustments on one office because a colleague was refusing to get eye tests for their headaches...)

You could ask for an informal arrangement to tide you over, or you could put in another formal FWR as you are allowed to do 2 in 12 months. However your employer can take 2 months to get back to you. I'd be a bit annoyed you hadn't thought all this through better and I'd want to know how you think this would not affect the wider team or the business. I see so many colleagues with small kids opting for compressed hours and it is nightmarish to do. Would it be better to go to 4 actual days and take the hit on your salary?

👏👍

As above, I think my reasons for not anticipating this were fairly clear. They can be annoyed all they want, but being annoyed isn't an official HR stance (and if they're annoyed, then that's at least equal to my annoyance at how they handled a few things about my mat pay etc - so we're even). I also offered to do a trial period, which they opted to skip.

And as above, 4 days would not be a viable option because the workload exceeds that. They have a huge cost savings drive on at the moment and the project I've identified creates an ongoing cost and time saving of 97% for part of their business operations.

If I were a business leader (and I have been), it would be a no brainer to allow this. I'm asking for other perspectives/how to pitch this, but I have no doubt that it's both reasonable and valuable to the company for me to work this way.

I think your request is reasonable, be it wfh or a local office if that is an option. Phased return does not mean you are seeking a permanent change, as well.

I do hope that you don't take advantage of any of the improvements to employment law since you started working. I'd hate to think you were a hypocrite.

There didn't used to be weekends, minimum wages, statutory sick leave, holiday pay, pensions, notice periods etc.

I assume that you use none of these because, well, people managed before without them?

I don't know about the other poster, who was bang on, but I don't work and never have done. My husband and I manage our own commercial and domestic rental properties.

Ah, a true expert in employment then. Thank god you're here, we were struggling without your experience and insight into something that's never affected you.

I think that I might be a teeny tiny bit in love with you Op.

Basically your job needs to be done at home to avoid problems with confidentiality? So say that!

I do think your issue here is having chosen a job that's 2 hours from where you live.

Can you not find work nearer home?