returning to work after mat leave: I don't think my boss will agree my flexi hours application

[foxcub]

I feel so very depressed about returning to work in 2.4 weeks. My boss has e-mailed me saying that it will take longer than that to process my flexi work application so he wants me to return on my old hours.

I am going to e-mail him saying I cannot return until I have childcare set up and I cannot arrange childcare until I have my hours confirmed, so will be postponing my return until its all agreed. That will give me at least another two weeks with my baby.

My plan was to work 3 days in office/1 at home. Taking one day accrued annual leave each week would mean only 2 days in office until January, which would be fine, but my boss is hinting he doesn't want to agree it (talking about the need to "bottom out" some "issues" around my proposed new hours ).

I am aware roughly of the rule, as around applying for stat flexible hours for parents with children under six but would really appreciate some advice on tactics regarding how to persuade him to accept my application to work flexibly.

I always meet my targets and so do my team and I have two fab managers who I can delegate too. 30 people in the org work flexi hours - many who are not even parents. I think he's just being an arse.

ooh this thread got quite exciting for a moment then

lol at an employment thread getting all heated, v exciting!

Well an apology is called for from me if you don't have that sort of attitude.

But you were giving off confused and adversarial messages. Probably the effect of three children and a long day.

The reason I say confused is that you said earlier on in the thread (twice) that you were planning to do 30 hours per week over four days. You also said that you would be having the children for two days. So that caused confusion.

The adversarial messages came from your boss "being an arse" the head of HR being a "bitch" who is "gunning for you" and that you "had" to take out a grievance procedure against a third individual at your firm.

That's why I was challenging attitude. Wasn't doing it to be gratuitously offensive.

Hurly - that's useful actually. I guess the bottom line is that what I am worried about is that because I took out a grievance, they may not treat my flexible working application fairly. And TBH I am feeling a bit paranoid that they may now see me as a "trouble maker" and make things difficult for me.

The Head of Hr is not a bitch, but I did catch her talking about me behind her hand - although I've no idea what she was saying of course, but it made me feel very awkward.

I think I perhaps need to forget that now though and concentrate on how to present my proposal for new hours in a positive and professional light.

I am finding it quite difficult to put my work head back on though, as I am very tired after 6 weeks at home with three kids all day

I can't wait to get back to work

That's the price you pay for raising grievances as everyone knows. One thing is for sure the world isn't fair whatever the law says.

I've never met anyone who has actually had a grievance upheld. Normally grievances appear to result in a closing of ranks and lots of risk management coming into play.

I ended up taking my grievance to a tribunal, because my ex-employers (they became 'ex' because they neglected to deal with a complaint in the first place).

We got halfway through the tribunal and the latter part had to be relisted. They settled just hours before the final part reconvened.

The UK MD of the company (huge multinational company) felt it acceptable to hear my grievance in a Starbucks coffee shop, that's how seriously my complaint was taken. (Sex discrimination and unfair (constructive) dismissal).

Some organisations do take them seriously, I have been involved in 2 grievances, advising both sides (not same grievance!) in different organisations which were at least partly upheld.
Mind you, I guess organisations who don't have any money to chuck at tribunals or compromise agreements etc might take them more seriously, in lots of places it can be a bit of a waste of time.

Lots of people raising grievances genuinely have a good point and deserve it to be upheld. There are however also plenty of people who have a bit of a persecution complex and chuck in a grievance everytime they are p**d off about something . People like that are often the reason that employees raising grievance are given a label as a troublemaker.

Not saying anyone here is one of those people btw!

FBB/VVV - that's reassuring (well done on getting a settlement VVV).

I won't bore you with the details of my grievance, but it was several fairly serious matters combined and in the end it was resolved informally as I agreed to withdraw the grievance and let it be dealt with that way.

I don't think my boss holds a grudge, but Head of HR is acting strangley towards me.

Any good arguements that anyone has used in order to get their employers to agree to letting them:

Work from home?

Reduce their hours?

I onky want to reduce mine from 35 to 30, so reckon that bit is OK, but I think they may want to resist me working from home. It would be for about 25% of my total hours.

I know loads of people work from home nowadays but our CEO is quite against it for some reason.

ps I think I need some good arguements as to why its a good idea!

Er..because you are a fab person, it would be a shame for you to have to leave due to high costs of full time child care, they would need to recruit and train someone to cover your job, etc etc.

Because if planned well, it wont interupt the flow of the business etc etc.

TBH Foxcub, if you cant think of many good reasons yourself, I think you need to think about why that is? Maybe your plan isnt such a good one?

Foxcub thought I had given you link to this before, apologies if not, it's a checklist for managers which looks at reasons why flexible working is a good thing. Apply as many of these benefits as possible to your application.

Thanks FBB (apologies, you did give link before)

VVV - my brain is a bit frazzled atm as my baby is waking me every hour or so. He's just started weaning and is very hungry, so I'm not getting much sleep at all. I'm finding it very hard to get my head around anything atm, hence me starting this thread to try and get some tips and help me focus a little on the task in hand. Not a good way to be obviously but its all part of my prep for the meeting.

I find it hard to imagine that when I was on mat leave with DD I went to a job interview and got a fab job - I cannot imagine doing an interview now. Mind you, DD was about 10 months at the time and slept through. This baby is 6 months and very different indeed. I still have to return to work though, or the mortgage will not be paid next month.

it depends on the job. No use a police officer who works on the beat or a bank clerk who works the tills working from home. Other jobs it is possible. Some people skive a lot at home and not surprisingly some bosses think they can get people to work harder under their noses so I'm sure that's part of why it's resisted.