Equal policies - HR or employment lawyer please help!

[ChocOrange05]

Hi all

I have a job I really like and I like my employers and bosses a lot so I don't want to go into any potentially difficult conversations without knowing where I stand legally.

Basically I returned from maternity leave in September 2009 and work 3.5 days, I asked to do one day from home but was told that we do not have a working from home policy.

At that time a fellow team member was working one day from home but I was under the impression that his was a temporary arrangement (was trying to move his family to the UK) so I accepted their decision. It is now 12 months later and his situation hasn't changed and does not look like it is going to (he commutes home to another country every week).

I still want to do one day from home (long commute) so I was planning to ask again and would like to have some knowledge about where I stand.

Thanks in advance!!

You can put in a flexible working request to work from home. If it's been a year since your last one you are fine to do this.

Make sure you give a lot of thought to all the logistical issues with regard to working from home - you need to be able to demonstrate that you have an adequate workspace, for example. What do you propose to do about equipment? That kind of thing. Plus of course reassuring your employer that although you will be at home, you will have childcare in place and are not doing it to save on nursery fees or whatever.

Have a look at this handy guide and put in a good flexible working request, anticipating possible objections, providing solutions to them and demonstrating how your request will benefit your employer.

Thanks flowerybeanbag thats some good ideas about how to plead my case, although I am not so concerned about convincing them that I can do it, more that are they allowed to tell me I can't because they do not have a policy etc, when one of my other colleagues does?

They don't need a specific policy about working from home in order to enable them to agree requests, as the fact your colleague works from home proves. Flexible working requests should be considered on their own merit, and not having a written policy about working from home wouldn't be adequate reason for refusing you.