Flexible working appeal

[Finlay1987]

Hi has anyone attended a hearing to appeal flexible working hours? How did the hearing go?

The appeal is your opportunity to tell your employer what my their initial decision was incorrect.

What reason did they give for rejecting your request and what are your grounds for appeal?

Bit different but I've attended loads of these over the years in the capacity of HR advisor/manager for the organisation. Sometimes the appeal is granted and the person gets their flexible working, sometimes not, it really comes down to the nature of the request and how well it fits with the business and its needs. Things that tend to help from the employee are: being able to calmly articulate what you want and need, how the impact on the team, customers and the business can be managed and minimized and how/where you are personally prepared to compromise. If you are too nervous/emotional to present this all to the panel in a clear manner, it can be very helpful to have a trade union representative or colleague do so on your behalf, or if not to pre-prepare a written statement explaining it and submit to the appeal beforehand.

Things that are not helpful are: getting overly emotional (I understand its a difficult and sometimes conflictual/emotional process but floods of tears don't really help the panel understand what you are saying), getting angry or confrontational with the manager/person presenting the opposite side (it's the panels job to decide and they will be able to see if the other person is being unreasonable), focusing too much on the reasons why you need the flexible working and not enough on how it will work in practice (even if you need it for very good/real personal reasons, being harsh that is not the main concern of the business), being unrealistic (e.g. wanting to only work 1 hour per week at a time that suits you, oh and be paid a higher hourly rate than now to do so, yes people do ask for this kind of thing sometimes!), being confused/unclear about what you are asking for and/or totally inflexible yourself e.g. saying you can work these hours only and no others, ever, even with notice and adjustments, is unlikely to go over well...

Good luck!

No experience with hearings / appeals but I have dealt with a lot of flex working applications as a line manager and what most people failed to realise is that as part of the application they had to explain how they were going to make it work for the business - the attitude of most people was very much 'I want these hours for these reasons' but with no solution as to how, for example, we were expected to cover their workload on a Friday when there were already 2 people in the team who didn't work Fridays other than 'well you'll have to give my work to someone else or recruit someone to work Fridays".

The applications that were generally successful were the ones where people were sensible about what they were asking for (i.e. not requesting a pattern where it would leave us obviously short handed due to existing work patterns of colleagues), were able to offer some flexibility if needed, and had thought about the work volumes generally and how others could help to cover / how they would manage any handover needed for when they weren't in.

I had a couple of people over the years come back from mat leave basically having decided what days / hours they would work and being really pissed off that we wouldn't just agree what they wanted, even though it made no sense for the business at all.

Thank you for your advice @purpledagger@maxelly@pootleforPM you have all be very helpful.
I’m returning to work after maternity leave.
The reason for rejecting my request is that they need staff to work mornings.
I work in a primary school as support and the rest of support work FT or 2.5/3days.
I ideally would have liked 3 days but I was told 2.5 days at the end of the week would be the only way flexible working would be considered to cover when less staff work. I filled in my application to suit the 2.5 days at the back end of the week but then I was offered 5 mornings. Working 5 mornings would make childcare more difficult and I would also need to pay for more than half a day by the time I could pick my daughter up.
Work are aware of my medical conditions and know that mornings are difficult for me.
I have an appointment with occupational health before the hearing. I also have a very supportive union rep that is going to attend the hearing with me.
Thank you again for you time and advice.

You need to focus your appeal on how your proposal won't have a detrimental impact on the service. Your childcare isn't their concern.

Even going down the medical route, they are only required to make reasonable adjustment 1) if you have a disability under the Equality Act 2010 2) they can accommodate the adjustment.

Thank you @purpledagger for explaining this to me.