Am I going to cause issues by doing this?

[exiledmancityfan]

I have applied for flexible working through the policy at work. I work in an industry where having Kids is virtually unheard of and usually it's young single people. I am thr first person to apply for flexible working and the policy states s decision in writing within 14 days or my line manager will ask for my agreement for an extension in writing.

Today is day 14 and neither of these have happened. If I chase HR will it put my application in jeopardy?

Well, to be honest, I wouldn't start by assuming that a slow response meant a negative response to this kind of thing. It certainly doesn't look like a knee-jerk no! At best, they could be giving it real thought, and asking round key people how they think it might affect business. At worst, it's got lost in somebody's TO DO pile, and/or they deal with these so rarely that they've forgotten their 14-day rule. I don't see any harm in a friendly email, saying "I know you've got loads to do before the bank holidays, so I expect this will be after Easter now..." What you want to avoid is pushing them into a corner where the DO have to make a knee-jerk response, because the easiest decision is probably not the one you want. Keep your tone light and appeasing, but just gently remind them of the existence of the request. You can get pushier later if they ignore you.

In the meantime, have you given some thought to your response to alternative proposals? I guess you have put a specific package that would be your ideal, but what happens if they refuse that? Would you accept a compromise? If you've asked for reduced days, would flexi time, or home working do instead? Might you even accept your original working arrangement, or will you be looking for another job? I really hope you get it: I HATE the idea of certain careers being restricted to young and single people (or any subset of society, for that matter). But I do think you need to be clear, yourself, where your limits are, so you can negotiate the best possible arrangement for you.