Angry my manager has taken away WFH perk?

[ZaHaK]

Am I unreasonable to be angry that my manager has taken away my wfh perk whilst I’m on maternity?

I have put in a proposed flexible work plan.

I used to do Tuesday - Thursday on site and Friday morning at home.

I requested to do less hours so I can drop the kids off to school and pick them up and keep my wfh Friday morning hours.

He’s rejected it and basically cornered me into just doing Tuesday- Thursday on site but I don’t want to reduce my hours too much so I’ve had to add an hour in the morning which means rushing my kids to breakfast club and nursery.

I am annoyed because on my last maternity 6 years ago, I applied for another job in another department which guaranteed wfh and my manager promised me more flexibility and wfh when I able to to keep me in his team.

But I feel like he’s used this maternity as an excuse to take it away from me. It’s not in my contract, it was an agreement between me and him.

What would you do? I feel like emailing him to say I am disappointed in him. Not many of our team like him but I used to rate him quite highly on the surveys etc because he always let me be. But I am really disappointed. I should have gone to the other team.

But how can she argue that pregnancy (not mat leave!) shouldn't be the time to change established working patterns when she herself is the one who initiated the change? The employer hasn't unilaterally decided to cut her wfh day just because she is pregnant. They have proposed an alternative arrangement to accommodate the reduction in hours that she requested.

But it's OP who is asking to change her working pattern. Had she not requested to work less hours they wouldn'tt have made any changes. Also, it is a perk. It's not in her contract and nobody else in the business is allowed to wfh and her manager has refused any requests to do so.

As far as I can see working from home hasn't been stopped. The reduction in hours has been applied on the working from home day. She's not being asked to come into the office more often.

Just on the working from home day, she'll no longer be working. What exactly has she been deprived of.

Appeal what? They haven’t taken away WFH.

The OP requested to reduce her hours Tuesday to Thursday. They can’t give her the time off every morning so they have offered her the option to reduce hours by removing Friday. She doesn’t need to go into the office, they haven’t removed wfh. They’ve offered to reduce her hours, as she requested, during a day that works with the business needs.

She can say no and carry on doing what she does now, and continue wfh on Friday.

The OP has given this a very misleading title and everyone is misunderstanding. They have not removed wfh. They have offered her the reduced hours she asked for and she can refuse and carry on her usual working pattern if she wants.

The perk would have still been there if you hadn’t asked to reduce your hours, whether during maternity or not.
YABU.

Sadly as it was a perk and not in your contract there is little you can do.

You can email him thst youre disappointed in him but he can choose to just ignore it and it may make things harder when you go back.

Im not an expert but since it was a perk agreed between you, you have little in the way of taking it further.

It was given at discretion and can be taken away whenever

Honestly, the people who shout "maternity discrimination" every time a pregnant woman or a woman on mat leave doesn't get special/more favourable treatment are really doing women no favours.

Maternity discrimination is a real thing. Some women are genuinely treated unfairly because of their pregnancies. Please let us not minimise what these women go through by pretending it is maternity discrimination whenever a pregnant woman isn't allowed to call all of the shots.

This all sounds like a very woolly arrangement. You need to make this formal. Check the terms of your contract carefully, consult your union if you have one, consider taking advice from ACAS and Pregnant Then Screwed.

You don't have the automatic right to work flexibly but you do have the statutory right to put in a flexible working request (up to a max of two requests within a 12 month period), which your employer is required to consider and only reject on the grounds of business reasons.

YANBU to be annoyed. But you would be to email a manager to tell them you're disappointed in them. I'd gently remind them that your decision to stay on the team was influenced by his promises of WFH. If that doesn't help, I'd be looking for more flexible roles

The OP has given this a very misleading title and everyone is misunderstanding. They have not removed wfh. They have offered her the reduced hours she asked for and she can refuse and carry on her usual working pattern if she wants.

This!

I think you are trying to take advantage of your employer. They accommodated your first request and offered an alternative for the 2nd request.
You want to be a SAHM first and then fit a job in between. But in that case you should start your own business so you manage time as you wish.

Also, why are your colleagues seeing their WFH requests denied? I would be discussing this with my boss as it feels there are favorites

i used to do
7:45 - 3:30 Tuesday to Thursday
2 years ago, I asked for a pay rise, it got denied but he said he will increase my hours, I said okay but only if I can do it from home. He agreed. I was always allowed to work from home during the week if I had enough work. This “perk” was carried on from my predecessor who also had this perk and retired. so I did overall 26 hours (4 hours on Friday wfh)

I have asked to do 22 hours now:
8:30 - 3:30
8:30 - 2:30
8:30 - 4:30
9 - 11:30 (wfh)

The above got rejected saying we need more on site from me. However, the job itself is based on workload which is like a rollercoaster. Some times it’s busy, sometimes it’s not. I will be more than capable of doing the work as the team itself has reduced its headcount by 1 full time person.

i used to do 22 hours in a team of 5 people, it got upped tp 26 hours and I’ve asked to do 22 hours on the basis that they’ve also lost a head count. He didn’t reject the reduction in hours but the wfh and saying I need to come in on Friday. But why would I want to go in for 2 hours?!

The above allowed me to pick the kids up from school Tuesday and Thursday and drop them off.

However to keep 22 hours, and not go in for 2 hours on a Friday, I might have to request an addition 30 minutes a day Tuesday to Thursday.

What are you talking about? She is not losing wfh. She wants to reduce her hours but they cannot accommodate her reducing her hours Tuesday to Thursday to just school hours so they have offered to drop her Friday.

She isn’t losing wfh. She simply won’t be working Friday, because she wants to reduce her hours. She can say no to this option and withdraw her request to reduce hours.

If they can’t accommodate school hours Tuesday to Thursday then the answer is no. She isn’t entitled to that and she is not being discriminated against. As an alternative, they offered to reduce hours by no longer working a Friday. She isn’t being asked to come into to office on a Friday, they haven’t removed work from home.

If she didn’t like the counter offer, she could have say no and continued her usual working pattern.

The thing is OP it seems to be your way or the highway. IMO companies need to treat all employees fairly. Can your partner not do some drop offs/pick ups? Whilst yes some women are discriminated against due to pregnancy/childcare the biggest issue is still men/partners not stepping up. They always seem to have such an important job that they can’t possibly ask for flexi hours 🤔

Unfortunately my husband is self employed and now has to go in the office which means working away a couple of days a week. My husband has been doing the pick ups and drops off for 3 years and even on maternity whilst I got lie in etc. So he would if he could.

They’ve refused your request to reduce your hours during the week, but have said you can reduce your hours by no longer working Friday.

You also said that you’ve had to add an extra hour on each morning Tuesday to Thursday as you didn’t want to reduce by that much if you dropped Friday… you only work 2.5 hours on a Friday, you’re saying you wanted to drop from 26 to 22 hours… so you wanted to drop 4 hours, you’ve been offered to drop 2.5 hours from Friday, so you’ve added extra time Tuesday to Thursday as you didn’t want to drop that many hours?

You’re making no sense and just contraction yourself. Do you want to start again?

You wanted to drop 4 hours. They offered to drop 2.5 hours from the Friday. You’ve now added 3 hours Tuesday to Thursday? 🫤

But he has to give a good business reason for not accepting a flexible working request. And it does not sound like he has. If OP previously WFH on Friday mornings, that makes sense to continue it.

@ZaHaK did you make a formal flexible working request? Because I would ensure it has been logged as such and that HR and your manager's manager are CC-ed in. Include your current working arrangement (pre mat leave) how long you have had that arrangement, and your formal proposal for when you come back from mat leave.

BCC in your own personal email.

I am the only one who can do my job, they are desperate to have my back.

I know what I can or can’t do at home. It’s not it’s my way or the highway. I just don’t understand the rejection as it’s a reasonable request.

I think some people have misunderstood what has actually happened.

If I have understood correctly:

OP was working 3.5 days per week. Three days on site Tuesday to Thursday, and one half day WFH on Friday mornings.

OP has now requested to reduce her hours further so she can do school drop offs and pick ups on Tuesday to Thursday, and still keep her half day WFH on Friday mornings.

The arrangements the OP is requesting would mean that she wouldn't be working a full day on any day of the week. She would be arriving at work after dropping her children off at school, and leaving on time to pick them up again at the end of the day. It's not clear how many hours this would involve working on Tuesday to Thursday, but none of them would be full days.

To be honest I can see why this might not really work for the business, particularly a business where WFH is not the norm.

I would also be interested to know why the children's father is apparently not doing any of the school runs.

It does come across as though the OP wants to have her cake and eat it. She wants to reduce her hours, but only on the days that suit her. She wants to be the person who arrives later and leaves earlier than her colleagues because she does the school runs, but also the person who gets to WFH on Friday mornings when no one else does.

It's also entirely possible that the OP is not very productive on her WFH Friday mornings and her manager thinks that cutting these particular hours would have much less of an impact for the business than cutting hours on the other days when she is present on site.

Ultimately, many people have to use breakfast clubs because it's not possible to drop their children off at school for the start of the school day and still arrive at work on time. This is a normal part of life for most working families. The OP sounds like she already has a fair amount of flexibility and would be unlikely to find a better deal elsewhere.

You're never the only one who can do your job.

No one hates women more than women it seems!!

Everyone just forgets the law here don’t they because HOW DARE YOU WFH?!

OP I’d suggest getting advice from ACAS and maybe the legal board.

I would absolutely email him and explain but as you say it is just a perk and not actually in your contract.

If it is an immediate thing you could ask for a couple of weeks to sort out childcare etc but ultimately if he needs you on site, he needs you on site.

Unfortunately too many pisstakers have spoiled it for everyone. I gave a lady in my team a similar arrangement you've requested. It quickly became clear that she never ever has childcare for her 15 month old when she works from home. After a few weeks we asked her get childcare for when working at home. She said she would but didn't and started avoiding calls and switching her camera off etc. I bloody hated doing it but we had to say you can't wfh any more. It was such a shame as I wanted to help but she couldn't get any actual work done with a toddler there

No. She wants to reduce her hours. He’s saying she can’t cut hours from her ‘in the office’ days - he needs her there. He’s saying if she wants to cut her hours it has to come from her wfh hours on a Friday.
Totally reasonable.

typo

Yes I’ve dropped 2.5 hours on Friday and added some hours on Tuesday and Thursday eg a longer day on Thursday.

However, as he doesn’t want me to work from home on Friday, I don’t want to reduce my hours more so I’ve had to add more hours Tuesday to Thursday if I want to do 22 hours eg start work at 8am instead of 8:30 that I originally requested. This will have to be a new request.

There you have it. Others have requested it and been turned down He's bringing your work pattern in line with others. No maternity discrimination. You had a long run with the perk. Let it go or find alternative employment.