WHAT CAN I DO TO GET PART TIME HOURS?????

[chatterbox22]

Hi there folks

First of all let me introduce myself i am the proud mum of a boisterous 18 month old boy named Greg. I am desperately looking for any kind of advice. I have been trying to get my contracted hours of 30 reduced to ideally 16 since i returned to work from maternity leave almost a year ago. My employers decided to take the moral high ground and informed me that there was no option for me to go part time, or have flexible working hours, i could not job share and it was going to proove to costly to train someone else. I even involved UNISON who tried to get my employers to see sense to no avail. I tried the 'Fit To Work' service who actually found in my favour but my employers do not recognise a union and the Fit To Work service could only advise my employers.

I have even looked into what benefits i would be entitled to worse luck now a days if you leave a job voluntarily you are not entitled to ANY benefits for 26 weeks. My partner is a low wage earner so i would need to have some sort of money coming in. I looked at Tax Credits but they go on what incomes were being earned in the previous financial year and when i tried their calculator on line i think we were entitled to about £5 per week hardly worth the hassle of filling in all the associated paperwork!!

With all the pressure of trying to work full time run a home and look after my son i was off work for exactly 1 month with stress and fatigue. Still my employers showed no sympathy for my plight.

I have now been back at work for about 5 months and again i feel as though my health is taking a turn for the worse (i have type 1 diabetes and epilepsy) and i just do not know what to do, where to go for advice (have tried CAB to no avail) and how to cope. I feel as though i am a part time mum who is through no choice of her own putting work first. My son is desperately needing socialised which i was ideally wanting to do through a mother and toddler group (our finances would not stretch to cover child care) but at the moment this is not an option with working full time. I am also missing out on great swathes of his development and this is time i will not get back. I am at a loss so as you can tell any advice that can be given would be very gratefully received.

Thank you for taking the time to read this thread and apologies for it being so long winded

Chatterbox22

Over how many days do you work your 30? That's only a 4 day week so p/t already? You can't make them reduce your hours they do however have to consider flex working requests. It also depends what you do for a job? Could you do it elsewhere? Who looks after you DS at the moment if you can't afford childcare?

Hi there mamababa

Thanks for your quick response i work 5 days from 10am to 4pm Mon to Fri. I am an admin assistant who has a line manager who works from home 2 days per week so i have no option to do my work elsewhere. I am one of the lucky few who have great grandparents who do the lion share of the care. My partner looks after Greg on Mon/Tues, my partners parents look after him on Wed/Thurs and finally my parents look after him on a Fri. The only thing that worries me is that my parents are elderly my mum is in her late seventies and my dad is in his eighties and i constantly worry that looking after Greg will be too much for them. What i am going to do then Lord only knows as my partners parents are not in great health either my partners dad has had a stroke and a kidney transplant and his mum has type 1 diabetes. So as you can tell it is a bit tricky to know what to do.

16 hours isn't much, could you try for 24 hours over 4 days maybe? Or 3 days? It's difficult to advise without knowing whether they need you over 5 days or you could do 4 or whatever to give you more time at home. You mention not being able to afford childcare but presumably dropping to 16 hours would near enough halve your income? I personally would rather do less days but full days but maybe this doesn't work for your company. When I asked for flex working, you have to try to solve the issues they might think of, so could dome of the admin work you do be done in an evening eg letter typing etc? If you would do this of course. If you worked more hours than 16 but had a weekday free you could do a mother/toddler group on your day off. Or you could use the extra money for one day at nursery for him? Beating in mind he'll get 15 hours free when he is 3. Does your partner take him to groups at children's centres?
It seems that they are saying no because effectively you want to halve your hours which is difficult to work around without a job share. Maybe you can reduce hours but not to 16 and that would work for them? Also I offered to 'work occasionally' on days off 'childcare permitting'
Alternatively, presumably you can look for a job elsewhere. I am guessing admin asst is a pretty versatile skill set that can be used across various businesses.

Firstly I know this sounds harsh, but your employers responsibility is ultimately to run their business as well as possible. Have they stated business reasons why they can not accommodate these requests? You need to think about how you can overcome these business reasons.

Could you still work 30 hours, but longer days in the days your boss is in the office to give you 1 day off would this be more productive as boss there most of the time you are there? Or is it that actually if you are there more when your boss is not there it would be better for the business.

Basically, there is nothing you can do except look for another job :( if your employers have decided it won't work for them at 16 hours.

Thanks folks for all your replies i think i knew it would be up to me to get alternative employment but when you are exhausted as i am the thought of having to fill in applications then to if i am lucky go through interviews just did not appeal. But anyway i will just have to get on and do something. Thanks again.