Hybrid Working Policy help needed

[jamcorrosion]

Hi - my job has a policy as above, states to be in the office for 3 days a week, with an option to submit a form for unforeseen circumstances. The policy states that the focus is on days not hours spent in the office per day but the expectation is that majority of the day is spent in office when there. There’s no definition of ‘majority’ so I’ve assumed it means more than 50%. This policy has been in place a year. Recently received an email from a senior member of staff to the whole team stating that when in the office we are expected to be there for a full day.

Since this policy was introduced - I arranged my childcare around it. My son is in nursery 7.30-5.30 daily (I’m a single parent) I chose these hours so I could get to the office early. Usually around 8.15/30, I stay until lunchtime which is four hours and then head home. I do this as I thought it was better to travel home on my unpaid hour than later in the afternoon on works time.

Since receiving the email I have reached out and explained my usual routine and asked for clarification if this is no longer ok. I have been told it is no longer ok and I cannot leave at lunchtime consistently only occasionally for appointments etc. Apparently this was clarified with HR before I was given a response. Where do I stand here as the policy doesn’t state full days? I have offered to stay till later in the afternoon and explained why I chose lunchtime. Also explained that I can’t stay till later than 4pm really due to traffic and nursery pick up.

I’m just not sure where I stand or how to handle? As the policy is not specific at all. Can the goalposts be changed like this?

IABU - Suck it up
IANBU - This isnt ok to just change it

Did you put that reply in chat gpt?

No, why?

My work has a similar policy and 3 half days would not be tolerated . Leaving 4/4.30 for pick up would be considered fine though

Yeah I have a friend at PwC and he said up until
now, lots of people have been literally clocking in for one meeting and then leaving again. Not in the spirit of what they’re after!

I think PwC are shooting themselves in the foot and lots of people will leave. KPMG are much more flexible about anchor days, and Deloitte are really flexible and for a lot of roles don’t have any mandated office days!

Caring responsibilities and being a single parent are not protected characteristics.

Being disabled is, but the op hasn't mentioned that, so you've added that.

The policy is not unlawful. Knowing now who the employer is, I'm confident they will have done an equality impact assessment.

She can put in a flexible working request, of course (she doesn't need what you previously termed a "legitimate reason", you actually don't need any reason at all, and the reason you want it cannot be part of the justification for declining it - you can say you like to stand on your head all day for all the difference your reason should make) but given the information we have, they are saying her arrangements don't suit the business, and they can decline a flexible working request on that basis.

Communication and agreement is the way forward.

Oh god there’s two of them! 😩

I have done a lot of travelling on work time - it’s the nature of the job I have. There’s travel a lot sometimes and other times none at all. People don’t work a standard day it’s always been very flexible
Looks like there is a lot of piss taking going on and people confusing flexibility with not working contractual hours. Commuting time is NEVER considered travelling for business(ie. within working hours). It sounds like you've flexible what you call a 'lunch hour' during working hours that would only allow for 30 mns lunch break.

I totally get it. I was a single mum in exactly the same situation than you. Our offices used to be less than a 10mns drive from my home. It then moved 45 minutes away, and then almost 90 minutes away in traffic. EVERYDAY. In the end, the only way I could make it work was for someone to come to my house just after 6am so that I could get to work for 7am (and bypass the traffic) and then leave at 3pm to hopefully be home by 4:15/30.

And I was grateful that I was allowed to start at 7am. That's what flexible working meant. Not counting hours to suit when the reality was working under 7 hours in total.

You are extremely lucky they are agreeing to you leaving at 3pm because the reality is that you unlikely to be very productive logging in for 1 hour once you get home after a long commute.

2.5 hours is quite a big safety valve for a 45 minute journey though.

I think by majority of the day they mean core hours like 10am to 4pm i.e. when most people are likely in the office.

You coming jn early and leaving at 12 is not in the spirit and likely upsets the equilibrium of the office as they see you shoot off at 12.

I don’t understand how you thought this would be ok. It’s inevitable that you’ve been found out.

I don’t think it is that ambiguous tbh.

But now the policy has been amended to clarify that "majority" means most, not half.

You've put in a request for a reasonable adjustment and been told. Its not reasonable for business needs and you need to leave at lunchtime by exception not rule.

This could be for a variety of reasons.. it may be the monitoring data improved so where previously it identified a tick box now it can track patterns and the business want higher office attendance, it could be any number of things.

Your contract doesnt allow you to do half days, the policy has been updated to prevent half days and your request for half days was refused. Thats it. Accept it or look for different employment

So this still doesn't answer why you need to leave at 3?

You don't need any more hours at nursery why would you need 2.5 hours to get to him? Why can't you do until 4,i just don't get it why are you taking flexibility you don't even need?!

If it suits you to be in the office in the mornings, maybe you could offer to work 4/5 mornings in the office to make up for only being in for a shorter day.

Can you not submit a flexible working request? Seems if you have been doing what you’ve been doing for a while now, and the team have only just had this clarified by management. It’s worth asking based on child care commitments.

Majority of the day is not 'over 50%'. Majority of the day is 80% to 90%.

Yep.

We will be back in the office 4 days per week at this rate and people like OP will wonder why.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

Examples like this are exactly why WFH is beginning to slide. I know a big company which currently requires 3 days in office, moving to 4 days in the office by spring then by end of year everyone needs to be back in full-time. Many friends are now back up to.3 days as standard.

Interpreting majority of a day as leaving at lunchtime is really overtly playing the system. Travelling "during lunchtime" feels so irrelevant too - as if everyone downs tools at the same time and puts their feet up, making it fine to head off.

However, I'm surprised the employer has allowed this to happen. Sounds like their policy change is designed precisely to stop daft things like this, which is ultimately down to themselves for not clearly stating expectations of working hours.

I work in a hybrid set up and I'm so grateful to have the work life balance of wfh that I'd never want to take the P on my office days.

Good luck OP - I hope you manage to sort out a schedule which works for you.

Presumably your contract states you’re an office worker (not a home worker) but when you joined there was only a requirement to be in the office one day a week. This is where Covid flexible working arrangements really backfired for a lot of people as contracts were never changed, it just was no longer expected to come into the office 5 days a week. Now offices are encouraging more attendance people are inflexible and refusing to return.

Appreciate you’ve said that your work has agreed you can leave at 3pm but you should really formalise this with a flexible working request. It’s not right just to say you’re a single parent and can’t afford more childcare, that’s not an employer's problem.

Come on OP you’re supposed to parent like you don’t have a career and work like you aren’t a parent.

I also work somewhere with a 3 day a week policy but there is no definition of a day and senior leaders have been very reluctant to give any guidance on expected hours.

Some team leaders tried to put in a minimum number of hours, in cases where it appeared reasonable that been fine but where they've behaved like yours there has been push back and HR confirmed that there are no minimum hours and local working arrangements should not put fixed hours in place.

So I'd say speak to HR yourself to check. It doesn't matter whether MN think a day should mean a whole day, what is the actual policy?

They're not assuming you are working half a day. People get angry when they think other people are not following the rules. The rules said it means days not hours. Therefore it looks like you're only in the workplace for half a day. People who get into work after you don't know you've been in since 8.15 so they think you're only doing half a day.

As your policy says they expect you to be in the workplace for the day, by starting early you can leave early and this has been accepted.

As for your colleague starting at 11, perhaps they work much later?

I would ignore trying to get this sorted under the hybrid working policy and submit a flexible working request. Then it needs to be reviewed under the f flexible working requirements and not having to go through whether it meets the hybrid working policy. At my org going through flexible working instead of hybrid policy also had the benefit of making it a contractual change rather than something that can be more easily changed

You are taking the p big style!!! You say you get there early 8.15/30??? There’s nothing early about that. And you stay 4 hours???? For 3 days a week? I’m assuming this is a joke

So, surely if it's on 'days attended' rather than 'hours spent', you're answering your own question? You're basing your time on hours spent, your employer is not.

Honestly, all this splitting hairs over an hour here and there just makes it difficult for everyone else.

Things have changed... you're now required to go into the office three days a week, and should arrange full wraparound childcare for those days.

I wonder if the weird wording about the focus being on "days not hours" was actually to stop people doing the opposite thing. Perhaps some people were trying to do two very long office days (perhaps when kids were with the other parent, or because they actually live elsewhere and so were staying somewhere for the night between) instead of being there on three days as intended.

I think "we want you in the office on three days" does not suggest that three half-days is sufficient. "The majority of the day" is perhaps saying that if you have dentist appointment at the end of the day it can still count, or that if you spend some of your work time visiting clients that it can count as an office day if you're there more than anywhere else.

If I was your line manager I would have major issues with this, to me the majority of the day means you might finish 20/30 mins early which you make up on the days you are WFH, your commute to/from work is completely outside working hours so you saying you are doing it on “your lunch, to save them the time” is wild. I don’t mean this to sound as harsh as it does, however you being a single parent is totally irrelevant you’ve committed to x hours of work per week so it shouldn’t matter where you are doing it from as surely when you are WFH you have child care given you should be working in that time and not navigating your home life…