Employer changing my hours to nights when I have my son to care for

[Pantana90]

I work for a company that basically operates 24/7. I worked evenings and nights for years but ever since I had my son a year ago I was put on days/early evenings (working no later than 10pm).

Now they're saying they're going to put me on 8pm-4am five nights a week (all our contracts state we can be assigned to any shift).

My partner has recently returned to work and her shift is 8am-5pm. This means I'll have to work until 4am and then get up at 7.30am to look after our son every morning and for the entire day. This isn't a very attractive situation and I certainly couldn't do it long-term.

We have no access to childcare, can't really afford it anyway and Covid restricts anyone coming into our house. I've explained the situation to my boss, that due to looking after son, I simply can't do these hours. I said I'll compromise and do two nights a week, and the rest days. A mix of the two. They say I'm making life awkward for them - but this is making life really awkward for me!

Any advice as this is really stressing me out?

If you wont help out to cover sickness, then why should your employer help you out?

If you really do talk to your boss like that and tell them other peoples sickness is not your problem, then you can understand their attitude towards you.

Are you sure that the move wasn't because you were alone looking after a one year old while working, all day every day? I have a lot of sympathy, it's a shit situation, but given that WFH will be going on for a long while yet, and nurseries and childminders are now open, you cannot expect to continue get paid in full for a shift type job while doing childcare for a baby/toddler. There's just no way of working properly - maybe if you did the basics, a bit in naptime and made it up at night, but it doesn't sound like that's what's happening.

Is there any way you can form a bubble and swap with friends for childcare, or find a reasonably priced childminder?

Can you make a formal flexible working request?

Otherwise I would find a childminder or nursery for 7.30-12.

@Hotpenguin presumably OP was WFH and looking after their child, the same way all of us non-keyworkers have been for the last 3 months.and will be for at least the next 3 months.

OP, you can put in a flexible working request which is an official process, you will need to ensure you spend some time on it and think of every possible business justification you can for why they should accept your request. Try to think of the business needs alongside your personal needs and be as flexible as possible, so could you do 1 week of nights in 4 to take some of the bad shifts so it doesn't all fall to your colleagues?

WFH and simultaneously looking after your child cannot have been your long term plan though. People are doing it at the minute as an “national emergency needs must” type of thing, not as a “feasible under normal circumstances” type of thing.

Yes I get it. I’m trying to work at home and look after a 1-year-old. Thankfully I work for a company that is happy for the work to get done whenever I can do it, so long as the job is done and priorities are met they don’t care when I do it. I was hoping most companies would offer the same flexibility in what is unprecedented times. Is it critical to the business that they still run shifts?

@Abouttimemum running 24/7 shifts is very hard work. It would be pretty astonishing if it turned out that actually the work was flexible and could be done on people's own time (if so, why would you administer a shift model that's generally harder to staff and manage and difficult for employees?)

Phone ACAS. Some people here have no idea about employment law. Make a requests to only work days. It's possible it could be indirect sex discrimination to refuse or change (there is case law relating to similar childcare situations) because courts and tribunals recognise that women do the majority of childcare.

@BreathlessCommotion it's always good to phone ACAS, but if she's claiming discrimination on the basis that she needs to care for a one year old while doing paid employment, when childcare is available (obviously very different situation during full lockdown when it wasn't) then she's not going to have much of a case.

Op - where is your partner in this? is she currently sharing childcare during the day when you are officially working? Or are you always having to do both?

I'm a man...

You can still put a flexible working request in if you’re a man.

I think all the points on here are relevant regardless of sex

OP do you belong in a Union? Have you contacted Acas? Have you asked for a referral to Occupational Health to come up with reasonable adjustments? If this is impacting on you in any way health wise, you can also ask for a stress risk assessment. Yes this may be in your contract, but due to you working on a different pattern of hours, you can state that consultation should have been offered with the aim of mutual agreement. If all fails, you could submit a grievance. Good luck and please join a union if you haven't so far.

Have you checked to see if you can get help with childcare ? You say you can't afford it but you might be surprised ? Your DW could drop off in the morning ? You could probably get away with mornings only ?

@Pantana90

I work for a company that basically operates 24/7. I worked evenings and nights for years but ever since I had my son a year ago I was put on days/early evenings (working no later than 10pm).

Now they're saying they're going to put me on 8pm-4am five nights a week (all our contracts state we can be assigned to any shift).

My partner has recently returned to work and her shift is 8am-5pm. This means I'll have to work until 4am and then get up at 7.30am to look after our son every morning and for the entire day. This isn't a very attractive situation and I certainly couldn't do it long-term.

We have no access to childcare, can't really afford it anyway and Covid restricts anyone coming into our house. I've explained the situation to my boss, that due to looking after son, I simply can't do these hours. I said I'll compromise and do two nights a week, and the rest days. A mix of the two. They say I'm making life awkward for them - but this is making life really awkward for me!

Any advice as this is really stressing me out?

I think we assumed you were a woman since you said since I had my son, not that it makes any difference.

As your contract is to do any hours including nights you don't really have much choice if they turn down a flexible working request.

@Pantana90
So in essence, you have a variable contract, and they have indeed varied your hours of work to meet the needs of the business over the time you have worked with them. So this change is really no different to previous changes of hours.

I wonder that given your oh has returned to work, if there has been an analysis done of your productivity or effectiveness and this has dropped as a consequence of you "working" whilst caring for a baby! I'd be wary tbh of shouting too loudly because this could blow up in your face.
I think that you really only have 4 options :
1 pay for childcare or ask family to assist
2 suck it up
3 get your oh to request flexible working or change her hours
4 request flexible hours as a father - though I'm not sure how successful this will be if they know your circumstances

We have no access to childcare, can't really afford it anyway and Covid restricts anyone coming into our house

You have to be clearer on which of these is true.

1. Is there no access, or there is and you can't afford it?
2. Covid does not restrict 'anyone' coming into your house, in-home nannies and childcarers were specifically permitted to work from much earlier stages of lockdown, and many others now have bubbles or similar set up for childcare - it's not.ideal, but times are tricky.

If the issue is due to no access and shielding you might have more of a chance, but if there are local nurseries/childminders but your.budget won't stretch, or you could get a babysitter in but don't want to, then I can't see why your employer should need to work entirely around you, unfortunate though it is. Definitely not sure why others on here would think this would qualify for a grievance...