Flexible working

[redsquirrelmonkey]

Hi all,

I am due to return to work in a few months after mat leave with DC1. I will be returning full time (8.30-5). I know that prior to coming back to work, I will have the option to request some flexibility in my work hours.

Just wondering what type of flexible arrangements people on here have, to see if it can give me any inspiration as to what (if anything) I could make work for me and could suggest to my employer. Appreciate everyone's circumstances are different, but really curious as to what can happen with flexible working, beyond the obvious i.e. I start at work at 8 instead of 8.30 so I can leave at 4.30 instead of 5 type thing!

TIA

Any option to work at home? Could you reduce your hours?

Working from home would be a possibility although would still have to practically drive to work to drop DC off at nursery as it's nearby so not sure there would be much benefit in it... I've made a decision not to reduce my hours as the job I do isn't easy to do part time, and those that work "part time" in reality get paid part time hours but end up working on their days off anyway.

I have:

Compressed my hours so I work four days instead of five

Dropped three hours a week so I finish at 4pm

WFH on a Friday.

Senior Manager so high stress job but they agreed the hours so all good.

I also do a compressed week 37.5 hours over 4 days. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 8am-6pm and Thursday 8am-5.30pm.

I made a conscious decision to switch off my work phone and not reply to emails on a Friday from the start, people get used to it quickly.

My employer isn’t strict on start / finish times so I have more flexibility than most. I also travel quite a lot so over nights away and early mornings and late nights regularly mean I don’t feel guilty about not staying in the office till 6pm every night. I could work from home if I wanted but it doesn’t really work for me, I prefer to go in.

I've agreed a 10% reduction in my monthly hours but I can take it in any format I need to. Normally try and finish at four but sometimes I might just take a full day here and there. It works well and work like it cause I'm flexible with them too