I have recently had a flexible working request rejected, I work 28 hours a week over 4 days and asked if I could finish 2 hours early 1 day to collect my children from school and make up the hours on another day. I also agreed to swap the day if necessary and that I was happy for work to choose the day. Other people at my level have been allowed to change the working pattern and more junior staff have recently been recruited on different contracts such as 5 days in 4.
I like my job but working 4 full days is having a huge impact on my children who are in school but still quite young. Being able to do one more school pick up and therefore one more day of after school activities / play dates would make a big difference to them.
I have now seen a local job for 3 days a week, currently have an hour commute meaning that my children do breakfast and after school club 4 days a week which they don't like, which would allow me to do drop off every morning and pick up 3 days a week. It is a step down but once commuting costs are taken into account I would only be £320 a month worse off by dropping a day and can afford to do this. However, I have been in my current job less than a year and have worked really hard to get such a senior role.
I feel quite angry that I was very upfront about my reasons to ask for this change and that they have said no, over 2 hours, and now I am in a position where I am giving up a job I like and I am good at over their refusal to let me move 2 hours a week to another day. I do accept they are perfectly within their rights to refuse although I disagree with the reasons which I don't want to get into here. It is not an option to stay there on my current hours as its really making all of us too miserable.