Hello.
I recently spoke to my boss about the prospect of reducing my hours (effectively dropping a day). I generally feel worn out and stressed during work. I want to partake in more hobbies and focus on my health and fitness. Their answer in short was that it would not be possible.
I work in a team of 30, of which 18 are part time. The issue is that the service depends on the 12 full time employees to run effectively (we're desperately short on Mondays and Fridays). Compounding the problem, 4 full time employees are leaving by June 2021. Only one person has been recruited to offset this.
One of the employees leaving wanted to change their working hours and had a request rejected (they wanted to do 4 long days). Work said it would increase their risk of RSI and wouldn't work with the rota (despite other employees working these hours). Fair enough.
Most of the part-time employees are older than myself / those leaving and have been there for much longer. Some have histories of back/shoulder injuries, had children to look after previously (now grown up) etc. They do the same job but are paid more due to older contracts (if they were full-time there would be a significant income tax implication).
A couple of colleagues my age have been granted part time hours but they have children or have joined our team on the condition that they will do e.g. 3 days. These tend to pick up at least one day a week overtime at bank rate or work privately on the side.
Aside from joining the exodus, is there anything I can do to improve my chances of the request being taken seriously.