Flexi working request denied. What next?

[anicecuppateaa]

Requested to work 10 days in 9 and it’s been turned down. HR claim it will negatively affect mental health to work longer hours. I’ve had a quick look on acas website, and it says it can only be turned down if there is a business reason.

Any thoughts on whether it’s worth appealing?

That's astonishingly cheeky, personal, and presumptive of them. No, they can't say you might have mental health issues if you do flexi time cheeky cunts lol hope you've got that in writing.

Have you mentioned to them before that you are having difficulty with any aspect of your work due to mental health?

That's less than an hour extra a day!!

I know you've mentioned ACAS, they seem to state some pretty specific reasons for declining flexible working:

• it will cost too much
• they cannot reorganise the work among other staff
• they cannot recruit more staff
• there will be a negative effect on quality
• there will be a negative effect on the business’ ability to meet customer demand
• there will be a negative effect on performance
• there’s not enough work for you to do when you’ve requested to work
• there are planned changes to the business, for example, your employer plans to reorganise or change the business and thinks the request will not fit with these plans

Could you politely go back to them? Ask for a bit more explanation, based on the above? Sometimes all it takes is a gentle nudge!

That doesn't sound right op.

I work 5 days in 4 and can absolutely say my mental health is better for it as I get a whole day to get things done without children around.

Employers have a legal duty of care. It might be an entirely well-intentioned response. Don't kick off, just calmly ask for clarification.

. HR claim it will negatively affect mental health to work longer hours

Do you have a history of mental health issues which HR are aware of?
If not, they are not qualified to comment on what will and will not affect an individual's mental health. It may be something they need to consider when requests are submitted but that will be for people who have had a range of specific health issues

10/9 is one of the most common flexible working patterns, their reason is stupid. I work 5 into 4.5, I prefer half a day off every week to 1 day every 2 weeks. It's not long days at all.

I'd query it, link to the ACAS guidance and ask politely for an explanation as to where it fits in with those reasons. I suspect they haven't thought about it and will pick the one about performance....

I work this pattern and it’s encouraged as a way of supporting positive mental health! I agree with pp, ask them to clarify and evidence how your mental health would be adversely affected as there’s lot of research that shows the complete opposite is true.

How do they know it will?!
ive actually seen occupational health recommend this working pattern could you go down this route that it’s for your mental health?

As Scrabbler has said there are specific reasons that a flex working request can be declined. So I would go back and ask GR which one they believe the reason to be

Thanks all for the guidance, and making think this is not ridiculous at all. It was actually DH that had his request declined. I didn’t put this in the OP as I didn’t want that to affect the answers.

No issues with MH and he is a qualified MH first aider and passionate supporter of MH at work. It seems like a cheeky cop out.

He had a rushed meeting (that the HR team called) with them earlier and referred to the acas guidance (thank you @Scrabblerabble89 ). He has suggested a 3 month trial with occupational health review at the beginning and end, and has said NOT approving the request will be detrimental to his mental health.

Apparently they are going to see what they can do but it doesn’t sound positive.

As an aside, my company don’t allow condensed hours either, and state that its because everyone works longer than contracted hours anyway. What a joke.

My employer- big financial services firm - announced earlier this year that all compressed working arrangements were bad and any of us on them were work shy slackers not putting the company first. For the previous 10 years people had been encouraged to have these arrangements and built their life around them.

Unfortunately there seems to be a change of heart about flexible working hours, it's an odd reason to decline them, but I doubt your DH will get anywhere with an appeal.

all compressed working arrangements were bad and any of us on them were work shy slackers

Crikey @rookiemere
What your employer actually meant was we want you all to work 8-6, not just those on compressed days, while we just pay you 9-5

Yes pretty much @Photio , it's been a huge shock as for the prior 10 years the company has been very family and mental health friendly, actively encouraging people to have non standard arrangements.

Thankfully I'm in my 50s so not too long to go until retirement from the day job ( 60 if I'm lucky) but it's such a retrogressive step - over the past few years I've seen so many more DFs become actively involved in childcare through the use of flexible or compressed hours.

And therefore cutting employment costs in a dishonest, unethical way.

They must have an extremely low opinion of their employees if they think they won't see it for what it is.

I think I work for the same company as @rookiemere

I've worked compressed for 10 years and am also now disabled.

The hoops I'm having to jump through to keep the arrangement are obscene. I'm playing nicely as I'm trying to move up - I've seen loads of people just move to standard working for fear of rocking the boat.

Sone big names in the mental health space are now leaving...

This sounds just like flexi working to me. I think a trail sounds perfectly reasonable and they don’t have much of a reason to say no if the MH reason is the only one. In fact he could argue it could improve his MH.