Boss wants to change my hours from fixed Nights to variable Days inc w/e.

[SarahJG123]

Since I came back off maternity leave with my youngest 12 years ago I have worked Monday and Tuesday nights (24 hrs/wk). This is mainly so I can be at home to collect my children from school, as we do not have any childminders in our area. In emergencies we ask a neighbour if she can collect them, but often she doesn't have room in the car for 2 children. I cannot let the children cross the busy dual carriageway themselves as there have been several accidents over the years and 3 deaths on this stretch of road. My husband works long hours and would have to leave work at lunchtime in order to get home in time to collect the boys. Obviously not possible. I am in my 50's and have worked for this NHS employer since 1988, my current job started in 2000. We are a small team and no-one else wants to do my nights as they are the busiest of the week, if I don't do them then someone else has to. There are 4 of us over 3 hospital sites who are in the same boat. I have said I am happy to rotate across sites to cover A/L or sickness, but cannot work w/e or days. Alternate w/e I car for my elderly Mother with dementia who lives 180 miles away. My boss has threatened that if I do not agree to do days then she will not revalidate me and that I am not a team player if I don't change. After 12 years this would be so disruptive and working day and night shifts is more harmful to health than just nights. I really don't want to be forced to leave my job, but if she insists on this change then I will have no choice as my kids have to come first.
Can anyone help and tell me what to do next, she has launched a formal consultation, and I don't know where I stand?
Thanks

My kids are NOT both in secondary school - my eldest is 12, my youngest is in year 6. They have a very long day from 7:20 am to 5:30pm as we live a long way from their schools, out in the sticks. The bus drops them off a mile from our house at the crossroads and at the end of a dual carriageway on a downhill slope. There is no pavement (country roads) and no street lighting and cars come past the bus stop at 70+ miles an hour. All the children have to wait for their parents to collect them in the car as it is far too dangerous for anyone to cross the road safely, let alone children in winter. I do not have 'night nurse-itis' whatever that is. I am a site manager and my boss has deemed that only clinical staff can work OOH's - I am clinical, yet she is insisting I do days, "so I can see what you do"! I have been a nurse for 30 years and done a lot of unsocial hours in that time. No-one else in my team wants to do these nights as they are the busiest in the week usually and my boss has just had to pay overtime to get someone to cover my A/L. I do not do nights out of choice, but it is the only shift that fits in with collecting my children and caring for my Mother with dementia. I have offered to do days on Mondays and Tuesdays and Wednesdays for 8hrs/day to make up the 24 hrs that I work so that I can leave in time to collect the children, but she will not let me do that as it doesn't fit in with the 12 hour shift pattern. I have offered to work 1 Saturday alternate w/e and 1 Monday and Tuesday (8hrs), but that has not been accepted either, so I don't think I am being unreasonable or inflexible, but cannot see another way around it. There is no point asking anyone else to bring my children home as there will be no-one in the house to look after them. I am not prepared to leave my 2 boys aged 11 and 12 to their own devices until 7pm, to get their own tea and settle down and do their homework - that just wouldn't happen! It is also not my style of parenting.

The confusion over your kids' ages is that you said you went back after maternity leave with your youngest over 12 years ago.

I am not prepared to leave my 2 boys aged 11 and 12 to their own devices until 7pm, to get their own tea and settle down and do their homework - that just wouldn't happen! It is also not my style of parenting.

It maybe time then to look for another position

Your OP says "Since I came back off maternity leave with my youngest 12 years ago" - unless you only took a short maternity leave that would make your youngest around 13 years old. Don't get offended if people answer your questions on the basis of the facts you gave. If it was a typing error why didn't you correct it as soon as you first posted?

Would have to be a very short maternity leave for her youngest to now be 11...

You can get the union involved but it sounds like you may need to just leave if you can't come to an agreement , we all have choices to make with career v family .

Your lucky to have habits cushy for so many years.

Many people, myself included have never been so lucky

Bit of resentment here from people I think. Everyone is entitled to request flexible working now, not just parents/carers, so if the OPs employer refused a request because her children are secondary age (rather than for actual business reasons) as someone suggested that would be unlawful.

Comments like the OP doesn't need these hours now her children are at secondary school and that she's been lucky are also unhelpful. These are her permanent terms and conditions. They are just as fixed as anyone else's terms and conditions and the fact that these hours happened to start after maternity leave doesn't make them less so, and doesn't give her employer or anyone else the right to decide that now her children are older, she doesn't need them any more.

That's not to say they can't be changed. OP if your boss is consulting properly, you should engage in the process and consider compromises where possible. But ultimately, if she forces you to change, there needs to be good business reason for doing so. And making threats isn't a constructive consultation technique so I'd make sure you involve your union.

The revalidation threat is very poor, I do hope you've contacted your union?

The revalidation threat is poor but if you have your evidence in your portfolio it's not really possible anyway ,and although they recommend you use your manager it's not essential and I'm sure if you have got a grievance with your manager it would be understandable that you have asked someone else to revalidate . I don't see any resentment on the thread ,just people speaking from experience of trying to get fixed and flexible hours in the NHS , I actually had a night only agreement prior to resigning my post, but it was difficult to get it agreed and my circumstances for needing it were fairly extreme .

You can request it but they can refuse.

As others have said permanent nights have become a thing of the past - on my ward we are bringing nurses who have been working permanent nights back onto 24hr rotation .

For lots of reasons nurses ( and I am a nurse manager with children and health issues ) I support ensuring nurses do 24 hour rotation- nhs needs flexibility right now. Nights can be deskilling long term. There are so many women with childcare issues in the nhs it just isn't fair to allow some staff to work sole nights for childcare reasons as others will obviously get less.

Like others have said, nobody expects to come into nursing with the hours they want all the time.

At some point you have to weigh up whether you work what is offered because you need the money, or drop your hours , or do bank -work .

Several people have said directly or implied that the OP should consider herself "lucky" to have had family friendly hours at all, and have said things along the lines of now her family's older of course it's right that she should have to give those "cushy" hours up.

Given that the question the OP was essentially asking was 'can my employer force me to change my hours', I think any reasonable person would read the responses here and come to the conclusion that some responses had been coloured by posters' individual experience of not being able to get that arrangement or something similar for themselves. As if that was at all relevant to the question. And when that happens, it does come across as resentment - it sounds like "why should she have a nice family friendly arrangement with teenagers when I couldn't get anything suitable when I had smaller children?"

If the OP had asked the question straight without saying the age of her children or anything, and hadn't given the details of exactly what the hours she was currently working actually were, I'm prepared to bet answers would have been different. In fact similar threads are posted on here regularly, addressing the question of whether an employer can unilaterally vary established terms and conditions. Posters are not usually told to suck it up in the way this particular poster has been.

Very good point flowery. I think nursing is so unfamily-friendly that there is envy or resentment evident in many responses, it doesn't make it right though and, as you say, a differently worded OP may have elicited a very different response.

OP, you'll probably find that within a month they'll be begging you to do the nights.

I'm pretty horrified at peoples judgement etc.

I hope your union can support you through this and the not so veiled threats that have been made!

Hear hear flowery!! Nursing does have rubbish hours BUT what suits one family doesn't suit another and the OP had already said that no one would want to do those shifts, so hardly "cushy". I personally can not work overnight as it makes me ill so the thought of having to cover those nights would fill me with horror and annoy me when there is some one desperate to do them!