What is your employer doing to support you to homeschool?

[XmasSkies2020]

Just wondering what other employers are doing this time around. Potentially to go to employer with ideas.

My private sector employer is offering:

• the option to buy 1 week of annual leave and spread payments over 12 months salary

• unpaid leave

• work flexible hours outside office hours

We have timesheets and work is client facing. No furlough this time as really busy.

We've been offered flexibility in our working patterns - so can work before/after normal finish times and our CEO is happy for people to miss meetings etc sometimes.

I'd imagine unpaid leave would be available without argument if needed too

Meeting tomorrow but due to nature of business it’s a busy busy month so I don’t see us getting furloughed again.

Throughout the whole thing it’s been ‘do your hours when you can’ so that’s still in place.

Haven’t really discussed it tbh! We will just do as we are told

I’m not back from mat leave so doesn’t affect me but my company (private sector) are offered unpaid leave, use of annual leave, ability to temporarily reduce hours (with reduced salary to match of course!), and a flexible working week.

Sounds very similar to my employer

Last lockdown left me exhausted working all hours and I’ve never actually recovered. I guess this time around it feels even more daunting because there is greater risk of not coping with it all because there’s not much in the tank iyswim? Especially after a long Christmas at home with young children and no escape!

Mine is offering fully paid special leave for staff who need to take it. From experience of the last lockdown, relatively few will actually take it and if they do it will just be for a few days whilst they sort out arrangements and get to grips with it all. It’s always been a flexible workplace and so many people are starting early/late to finish early/late and all kinds of odd hours. As long as managers are aware it’s all fine.

Private sector. V small business.
We are still (so far) operating as normal. No offer of anything, they couldn't care less.

We are NI so waiting on our official announcement. But i know it will not affect us and we will be fully expected to just get on with it.
I am lucky my DH has a slightly flexible working pattern and he can a bit of school work in the mornings. They will then need to go to grandparents for the rest of the time and there'll be no homeschooling there as they wouldn't have a clue how to go on to the apps.

I think the generosity in offering paid leave, and the lack of resentment from childfree colleagues at colleagues with children being offered it, is down to people not generally taking the piss, which is a really refreshing attitude.

Well they haven't sacked me (yet) for being distracted, inattentive and yelling "I SAID WAIT!" really loudly during a meeting when I thought I was on mute.

Nothing

@TheYearOfSmallThings

I find it shocking that some employers are not even acknowledging the pressure this places on their staff. I realise there is only so much that they can do though and it’s unrealistic to expect anything beyond flexible hours and unpaid leave (if you’re lucky by the looks of it!)

I think what your employer is offering is more than reasonable, OP. I’m not sure what else you’d ask for really.

@AgentProvocateur very good point
Perhaps I need a reality check
I can’t take unpaid leave due to workload

Wow, DH is a GP so absolutely nothing from his work, they are very busy, my work has allowed me to move my hours so I go in on DH’s 2 mornings off a week (he works 2 half days & 3 full days), and then work from home with the 3 kids the rest of the time.

Nothing, but it’s education. When I explained I was really worried my boss said ‘Oh it won’t be for long’ 🧐

Total flexibility. I asked for a month unpaid leave over summer and my boss said it will be paid, which was wonderful. My boss doesn’t breathe down my neck as he knows I produce output and am a key part of the team. It won’t be easy to replace me due to my skills and knowledge of our work.

When I explained I was really worried my boss said ‘Oh it won’t be for long’ 🧐

That's what my DM said too, all brisk and sprightly and can-do. My manager was actually more sympathetic, if saying "Jesus, wouldn't want to be you." counts.

Public sector - we offer flexible hours beyond those we normally do, take leave or unpaid leave. Furlough isn't allowed for the public sector, so we have no other choices. Special leave that is paid might be allowed for an immediate emergency, but not more than a day at the most. Frankly, we'd like to do more but we can't - everyone is already under the hammer with work and we have no capacity for generosity. Every member of staff off work is a job that someone else needs to do as well as their own, and we are already dealing with a decade of cuts which have meant masses of job losses - we had to let 200 people go last year and there will be more in March.

On paper they’re offering unpaid parental leave. In reality all requests for leave have been denied.

On paper they offer flexible working hours (eg working earlier or later). In reality this has been questioned when put into practice and people are expected to attend meetings/meet deadlines at short notice, at all times of the day. Individuals hounded through Teams/email/phone etc.

Lots of bulletins about mental health awareness, managing stress blah blah. In reality no support offered.

Public sector so no furlough.

On the plus side the process for performance management is long and complex, particularly where individuals have always performed well prior to Covid, so relative job security.
Low morale though.

@Moondust001

Public sector - we offer flexible hours beyond those we normally do, take leave or unpaid leave. Furlough isn't allowed for the public sector, so we have no other choices. Special leave that is paid might be allowed for an immediate emergency, but not more than a day at the most. Frankly, we'd like to do more but we can't - everyone is already under the hammer with work and we have no capacity for generosity. Every member of staff off work is a job that someone else needs to do as well as their own, and we are already dealing with a decade of cuts which have meant masses of job losses - we had to let 200 people go last year and there will be more in March.

Similar with my work, also public sector. We are absolutely flat out at the moment and there is no slack left to give. We’ve had several rounds of ‘prioritisation exercises’ which ended up with us getting told that we needed to effectively prioritise everything.

@GoldenOmber "prioritise everything" - as a fellow public sector worker I can completely sympathise with that sentiment. We have 2 team members out of 8 off sick at the moment and there work is being covered by, of course, moi. Home schooling is going to be fun!

@Milomonster your boss sounds wise - Make life easier for you now and you are likely to be a happy and loyal employee in the longer run.

People will remember how they were treated during this period

On the other hand many employers wouldn’t be in the position to offer such financial support.

I can’t work from home so I was offered the option of being furloughed (but I have only just come back on 2/3 of old hours so don’t want to drop anymore income)
DH is WFH so work have agreed my 1 day off a week can be ‘floating’ so if DH needs to go to site I can take that day off as needed. I don’t start until 10am so can get the youngest (age 10) started with school work before I go and DH can supervise the rest. Older 2 in secondary school have online learning following timetable and interaction either through teams calls or chat with the teacher so are able to be quite self sufficient with thier learning this time

Self-employed, so fuck all. Don't work, don't get paid.

Very flexible WFH hours and understanding that less will probably get done and there will be interruptions on calls. They also offer special leave if you really can't work, it's fully paid but you're asked to take 2.5 days annual leave for every 10 days off. Which seems very fair to me.