Flexible working hearing - advice/tips please

[Trace38]

I have a flexible working hearing coming up and I'm after any advice I can get re. the right things to say and questions to ask/solutions to provide etc to prevent them from refusing. I am asking to work three days rather than five and I'm in senior management.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Is this a hearing at work? Do you have any feel for how the decision might go? Normally I would encourage you to look at the request from the employer's perspective? What are they likely to raise as objections and then think of solutions to those objections. How flexible are you as to which three days you work? Can it be flexible from week to week e.g. for particular meetings? If you work with clients, what might the employer's concerns be from the client perspective? How do you propose to maintain those client relationships? What are the functions or tasks that you wont be able to accommodate in your 3 days - and who can you delegate those to? Are those tasks essential? Could they be streamlined in any way? Consider also what will the commercial and operational impact be? What will be the benefits to the business e.g. cost saving or perhaps increased flexibility to cover non-standard hours? Though I'm guessing that last one might not be appropriate in your case.

I hope that helps and gives food for thought.

Yy to what sherry suggested.
When I had to justify to my employers why it would work if I went to 3,days- I offered to work mon,weds and thurs as they were days that always had reports due out/important meetings.
I started a training programme so other staff could deal with things the days I didn't work and I could complete them on return.
I offered to swap my working days if needed but told them I needed 1 week notice to do this- and it never actually happened but gave them peace of mind that if needed I could come in on 'my days off'.