Civil Service flexible working

[woteverwenever]

Looking for advice from existing Civil Servants – I have just been provisionally offered a permanent G7 role which was advertised with a whole host of possible working patterns, including flexible working.

I would love to be able to work from home one or two days a week, and want to know whether it is possible to negotiate this sort of arrangement from the off. However, I very much want this job, and don’t want to antagonise my LM-to-be if this sort of question is a big no!

If it’s not the done thing to ask for this straight away, is there a possibility of doing the full five days for a set time, and then dropping down later on? I know that you can put in a flexible request after you’ve been with any employer for 26 weeks, but obviously if I can negotiate this straight away, then I don’t want to miss the chance.

I'm at the same grade and this is routine for us and absolutely fine but I do think it varies between departments. Can't hurt to ask I'd say.

1-2 days a week is generally no problem unless you work in a very secure area. You may also have to be reasonably flexible - as someone who ended up covering a lot of meetings for a colleague “because that’s my working from home day”, it did piss me off quite a bit.

Thanks both for your responses - I'll definitely make sure that I raise the possibility when I have a chat with my LM.

Also just to clarify, but I am coming in as an external candidate, not already within CS - hopefully that doesn't make any difference?

My advice is to make it clear now to your line manager that you want to wfh two days a week but are happy to work from the office for the first month (say) to settle in. And that you are flexible as to the exact days and understand they may change according to business need.

It’s easier to get it done before you arrive rather than afterwards.

I just ticked the flexitime box on my application then in my first call with my LM i mentioned all the info above and could this be approved prior to starting.

They said yes.

Definitely agree it up front, and if they refuse now then don’t think “oh well in a few months”. You’ll get a flavour of the culture from that conversation and that’s what usually dictates whether they embrace In my last office the front line ops teams wouldn’t allow home working for the first six months as learning is all on the job, it’s a technical area and you need to be in the office with people. But they tell people this up front. , After that, it’s based on operational need and most people wfh once a week. It’s a very reactive business area though and people often need to do visits at short notice.

I’ve just taken up a post in a new dept. I went from dictating my own flexible working (in part due to the nature of the my role and in part due to my manager not caring where I was!)

When I spoke to my new manager prior to accepting the role I said I needed to be able to work from home twice a week or I wouldn’t be able to take up the role (not a threat, a truth - I could have stayed in my old role even though I wanted to move, and logistically I couldn’t have managed childcare without it). It wasn’t a problem and in fact I have the flexibility to be at home more if I want/need. But I think if I wasn’t in the office much I’d miss an awful lot both work and social wise.