Would you as a manager accept this flexible working request?

[freakinthespreadsheets]

I work in finance and as such need to be at a meeting or two every day of the first week of the month. The remainder of my month end work is working through a tasklist and all tasks can be done anytime in the first week, in any order. The rest of the month I work on ad-hoc projects without real deadlines.

I currently work 37 hours, 7.5h M-Th and 7h F. WFH M,W,Th,F only in office every Tues.
I want to work 8h, M-Th and work the other 5 hours flexibly, staying WFH M,W,Th and going in for the day on Tues as i do now. I would vary the 5 extra hours to how I/the business suited, including a half-day on the Friday. I have a colleague in a very similar role who could answer questions if I wasn't around but I could still get my own work done before the deadlines. This would give me another half-day or day off a week outside month end which would benefit my mental health (i have chronic fatigue and several health conditions so I could organise my "life admin"/appointments on this day to leave my weekends free for recovery). But, at month end, it would mean I could still pop online for a few hours on a Friday to do my meetings and any other tasks I am needed for.

From that point of view, would you as a manager accept my request?

Separately, on a hypothetical note.
We do not have DC at the moment but we are planning to try for our first next year. We do not want to rely on grandparents for regular childcare but my mum works PT and could look after a DC for a few hours on a Friday once a month if we needed to (she has actively asked to do so FT but we said no). Once in a blue moon perhaps, I'd need to log on on a Friday while caring for the DC for an hour or two but this wouldn't be the regular arrangement and I'd ensure to work back a bit extra to compensate for any distractions. It would mean a lot saved in nursery/CM fees for that extra day and really utilising the full days we'd be paying for. Would this make me the WFH CF mumsnet loves to hate?

an you condense what you’re asking?!

How would holiday work if you don’t have set hours? I think you’d need to ask for 8hrs Monday to Thursday and 5hrs Friday.

Sorry I have edited for clarity.

Our holiday hours are annualised and we can book exact holiday to the quarter-hour. I'd be keeping the same number of working hours, so if I took holiday for part of a week, it would just be a case of - number of hours of holiday + number of hours worked = 37.

Agreed. Then ad hoc more informal flexibility as you go with your LM's permission if theyre willing to be flexible sometimes.

As a reasonable adjustment for your disability it's worth a shot, if the person deciding truly understands your variable workload.

I'd be a bit more concerned if you were trying to arrange it to reduce childcare costs. Some places offer a discount for full time so it's not actually that much cheaper to do 4 days instead of 5.

Perhaps don't mention the baby side until you need to.

I have this kind of arrangement at the moment although it's agreed informally rather than being a proper flexible working request. To make it easier from an HR perspective, I would probably ask for a half day on the Friday and then longer days on the other days of the week and then flex as you need. But it depends on the team culture. It would be (and is) fine where I work.

Honestly? Probably no. 'As a Manager' it looks to me like you're really trying to work 4 days without taking a drop in pay. This faffing about with the 5 hours - how do I know that you've worked them?

Far better to say what you want, and stick to it. Either say that you want to work condensed hours, and do them, or say that you want to work a half day on a Friday, and have your pay realigned to that. Once you start trying to game the system, entirely to suit yourself and with little regard for the business needs then you make me suspicious of other things too!

DH is dropping Tuesdays soon, so we'd only be doing 3 days anyway. i had in the original post to avoid drip feeding but edited out as someone said i should condense. Sorry. i definitely wouldnt mention baby plans tho!!

I am also not disabled and would feel disingenuous claiming to be such to get my own way

Condensed hours to free up half a day sounds like a reasonable adjustments taking your health condition into account.
This is similar to my work pattern BTW - longer days to claw back an early friday and I recommend it.

Offer to trial for 6 months to see if it works (and make it work!). Don't mention the childcare thing yet until it's reality.

What's the working culture like at the minute? Are you blazing a trail.with this or do people work flexibly already?

it would rather depend on how i view you and your productivity as currently stands

how long have you been there?

This should be handled as a reasonable adjustment due to your health condition rather than flex working.

You can submit as FWR, but I would outline the reasons are due to health, process should then switch to reasonable adjustment.

What i actually want is condensed hours to have an extra day off a week but I'm suggesting the flexibility to come in on a friday at month end, to suit the business's needs actually rather than mine. My manager doesn't keep tabs on what hours I work as it is and trusts me to get the work done but I'd be happy to do a timesheet if she wanted.

I have been there just over 2 years. and my managers are consistently praising my productivity, work quality and attitude at each informal review, last formal performance review I got the highest score possible

are you aware of any precedent within the team?

Quite hard to follow but yes, I would. However I am very pro flexible working and would only refuse a request if it would cause a real negative impact on the business or other members of the team.

So as you've explained it, condensed hours, but you'd 'un condense' and come in on the Friday at month end, then that would be fine with me, you just need to be clear and concise with your request.

Thank you, i will definitely ask for a trial period to prove I am willing to make it work for the business. Plenty people work flexibly and finish early to pick kids up then work in evenings etc, just not this particular arrangement. We have a very laid back culture and I have an incredible line manager who really trusts her team to get the work done and doesn't care if we pop out during the day and tag the time on somewhere else in the week. I'm taking my nan out for coffee&cake during my lunchbreak next Monday and unprompted she straight up told me to take more than an hour and not worry about making it up and just enjoy the time with her

when you do ask op

try to make it short and straight to the point

aren’t you meant to be working now?! 😆

sorry for all the extra info in post, I was trying to include extra context, that obviously my managers will have but you don't, without drip feeding. So will be much shorter ;)

Lol good point, I worked extra last week so finished at 4 today ;) such is our flexible culture

sure you did 😆

So basically you don’t trust your staff to work the hours that they are contracted to and your immediate response to a request like this is suspicion?

Your response shows that you are not a good manager. You might get results for the business, but you’re people/management skills are sadly lacking.

Staff perform well and go over and above when they feel supported and have a fair manager.