Please help me how to ask my boss...

[WWYD2016]

...for a laptop and an extra day working from home please.

My employer moved 15 miles from the location I was initially employed at making my commute from home 21 miles.

I was granted the provision of working from home 2 days a week on a 3 month trial. Month 3 has come and gone without so much as a murmer so I must presume they are happy with how the situation has worked out.

Even though I am commuting 3 days a week, I hate it, being stuck in a car for a daily total of 2.5 hours is horrible.

I want to request a 3rd WFH day and a laptop.

I have 3 school age children and it has been nice doing the school run and being home when the older ones get in.

I really want the laptop as I have an 89 year dementia mother, the nursing home she lives in has Wi-Fi and it'd be awesome to spend days by her side albeit working.

Currently I am tethered to the kitchen table by an old cast off non-Wi-Fi enabled desktop, I have an ethernet lead snaking across the house from router in lounge to kitchen.

I see clients less than once a month so cannot use that as a selling tool to justify the laptop.

Any suggestions on how to tackle extra WFH day and a laptop request?

If they haven't said anything about your working, Id' initiate contact, perhaps while asking for a meeting to discuss, and say something like, "after three months, I feel it has gone well and I have found alongside the benefits to me personally following the office move that I have been able to use the working at home time particularly productively when it comes to x, y, z. In light of the success, and the continuing challenge of the increased commute, I would like to request an additional WFH day."

Then outline how i would work etc.

The laptop is trickier. If I recall, I think employers do have an obligation to ensure that if you're working from home it's fit for purpose etc. So they're under the same obligations to ensure your working environment is safe etc. So you could look into that as I don't know details.

HOWEVER, asking for a laptop so that you can work from your mother's nursing home is unlikely to fly. That suggests you're not working, but being with your mother. Your WFH request was based on the significant increase in your commute that was created as a result of them moving your office. I'd take a pretty dim view of this if I was your boss.

I think you'll struggle with the laptop one unless you can find a compelling business reason. I really feel for you but I really wouldn't mention wanting to be with your mum as that makes it sound like you want to work from home in order to slack off. The extra day working from home I think you just have to ask for - all you can really do is say that you're happy with how it's working and feel you're really productive at home, and that you feel working from home an extra day would be beneficial to both your own work life balance (because of the reduce commute) and the business. I guess if they say yes you could then ask for a laptop to make the transition between work and home more seamless?

Depending on the software you need to use, a basic netbook would set you back around £100, so it may be worth getting yourself one rather than asking work to provide it.

I really want the laptop as I have an 89 year dementia mother, the nursing home she lives in has Wi-Fi and it'd be awesome to spend days by her side albeit working.

I am sorry to be blunt but if you even remotely approach anything like this, in many workplaces that would be the end of ANY arrangements for working from home. Working from home is for working - not for doing anything else at all. From what you are saying in your post, there is no feasible reason to buy you a laptop, because there is no reason why you should not be tethered to your home. And I certainly wouldn't recommend that you mention working on a kitchen table either - again, many employers would terminate such an arrangement as I can't even begin to list the number of aspects of DSE that probably breaks. My employer requires a full DSE assessment and properly equipped facilities for anything other than occasional and casual working from home. I work with a wide range of public sector employers, all of whom (a) would never allow more than a day a week without a full DSE assessment and (b) require an undertaking that you will not do anything else at all whilst "on the clock" - one employee I know recently got a final warning for looking after a sick child, and was lucky! It could easily have been a dismissal.

Op
Please don't mention your mother. Honestly don't think you should rock the boat .

A common issue with flexible working requests is that people focus on the benefits to them and how it works for them not the company.

Think about it from the perspective of your employer and make your case in that way.

Are there any other reasons a laptop
Would be useful? If so ask for one but if not don't. Would they set up a laptop you bought?
Hope you get something sorted

Well however you approach it, don't mention school runs or working at your mother's care home - in my organisation, this would be grounds for suspension of any WFH arrangements.

Sunshineboo is 100% right - you need to make a case as to why an extra day would benefit the company. You've already got a really nice arrangement, so point to some of the achievements you've had in the last 3 months, and how WFH has contributed to that, and what you would plan to achieve with an extra day

Thank guys, really thank you, your comments have really been useful, I am confident I know how to broach this now. All the best.