Flexible working application help?

[ObviouslyOblivious]

Hi there,

I'm currently on maternity leave, returning at the end of January. I work for a central London local authority and am currently contracted for 37.5 hours per week with flexitime, and one of those days I can work at home.

When I return (I will have been off for a year) I'm hoping to work 24 hours per week across three days; two in the office and one at home.

There are already people in my main department (but not my team) who work part time, and we all have flexitime and work from home.

I have chosen the days of the week to work as I feel they best suit my employer's needs and allow for our regular team meetings, for example.

I'm looking for some assistance with how to fill in the part of the application form that asks how the change to my working pattern will affect the department, my colleagues and customers - without shooting myself in the foot! I have a feeling there are some stock phrases that should and shouldn't be used. Can anyone help me?

Thank you

Oh, just had a thought! If I want to add some annual leave on to the end of my maternity, should this form part of this application?

No. Annual leave is separate to flex working request so ask at the same time but its not part of your formal request (i.e. use a different piece of paper).

You know your job. Talk about how you'll be able to handle what you do in 3 days, what'll happen on the other 2 days when you're not working. How will you keep up with meetings that happen when you're not here etc.

How many people in your department, do many do this job or are you a one off and the only person to do your job etc.

Talk about how working from home will work, do you have an office/study? Who will be taking care of the LO as you can't look after a toddler and put a good 8 hours work in, it's just not possible.

Hi Grevling. Sorry, I may have phrased my OP badly. I'm wondering if there is a 'nice' way to say that there may be more work for my colleagues.

We have a team of approximately 10 people who all have the same core skills but preferences/extra training in certain areas. It is an office based job but also involves mixture of site visits, meetings, committee appearances and office work.

My employer is keen to cut costs and has recently invited applications to reduce hours (for anyone who is interested) from 37.5 to 35 hours.

DS will be at the childminder's for all three days that I work. The working at home day will just allow me to pick up, drop off, cook etc!
Before I left last year I successfully worked at home twice a week and I hope that means I can demonstrate that I can manage my workload even when at home.

I have chosen the days to work as I will be in the office for our scheduled weekly meeting and the weekly committee should I be required to attend. I'm happy for the work at home day to vary each week as my employer requires.

I will probably do my office work on the home day, and then block book site visits on my office days to ensure they all get done. I will likely only take 30 mins lunch each day.

I wrote something about being considerate about my workload and setting deadlines which gave colleague the maximum amount of time to work on stuff in my absence.
Also wrote I acknowledge that my day will finish before theirs and will plan accordingly.
Fix a work from home day (otherwise you won't be able to plan anything!), but suggest that there is flexibility there for you to react to varying workloads, subject to childcare (it gives you a really good get out!)

Hope that helps.

Thank you Coldcup