wfh trial

[abigail225]

I've been working from home for two years and had no complaints. My LM asked me to come back to the office so I put in a Flexible working request. I was given a two week trial which was very successful, at the end of the two weeks i asked for an update and was told they need more time to consider the request and they technically have 3 months to decide and until they did the trial would be ongoing, after this point I stopped getting any work, stopped getting calls, my colleagues, working from the office, were doing my jobs. When I asked for work I was told there was none and then ultimately 3 days before the 3 month deadline it was refused. Is it worth taking things further as they'd obviously set me up to fail? Thank you in advance.

Where is the outcome the wfh trial was 'very successful'? If you've been told this by line manager esp in writing, then use this in your discussion with them when asking what's changed.

What job do you do that there was suddenly no work for you?

Has anyone else made a flexible request?

I’m in charge of arranging repairs for clients. so my manager (who is permanently wfh) Sends me the information of who needs to be contacted and what the particular issue is and then I arrange the logistics, all computer based. I say successful as in the first two weeks everything was working as it should’ve done. After that when I asked for an update on the trial I stopped receiving information from my manager so I couldn’t do my part of the job, my request was then declined.

Genuine question here, but what do you mean by “taking it further”? Don’t get me wrong, based on what you are saying here it does seem unreasonable, but that’s a separate issue – lots of things in life are unreasonable or unfair, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to live with them. So your manager, after a three month trial, has said no. Can you appeal over their head? What, realistically, are the chances of someone over-ruling their decision? If they do get over-ruled, will your manager be out to get you (because nobody is so perfect that a motivated manager can’t “get” them if they want to)? If they aren’t over-ruled, they might still be extremely unhappy with you – does that matter to you? And if you lose the appeal, are you willing to take your employer to a tribunal over this? And you may be correct that you were set up to fail – but could you demonstrate to the satisfaction of a court of law that you were set up as opposed to it not working? Unfortunately, whilst employers do have to give reasons why they are refusing to approve a flexible working request, it isn’t all that hard to find cause to do so. So you may have a fight on your hands, one way or another, and you need to have an appetite for that fight, and the willingness to take the consequences of fighting. It’s too much to hope that you are in a union?

What reason did they provide for turning the request down?

They don't have to allow you to work from home though do they, I presume your contract was based on being in the office. It is shit so I do sympathise but surely if they've decided it is in the best interests of the business for you to be in the office I can't see how you can take it further?

Who said the trial had been very successful,was it your employers or was it just your opinion
A few of our staff thought they were more effective WFH
We didn’t agree

A few of our staff thought they were more effective WFH
We didn’t agree

😀Yes, I had a staff member who thought that too. She had failed to notice an important aspect of working from home. You actually had to be working.