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?

No one in my division at work has set hours, just a target billing level. It works just fine.

when we have bank holidays, we get a number of hours credited towards our billing for that week.

some people work condensed schedules. Some people work short days and make hours on the weekends. As long as you show up to meetings and are available to whoever you are working with at the moment, no one cares. That does mean being flexible because sometimes my preferred hours and someone else’s might not match up, and if we are working closely we may need to adjust for a bit. We don’t need a manager to intervene, we just figure it out like adults.

Of course flexible working is requested to suit the employee 🙄
no one ever checks I have worked my hours….you sound like hard work ….wouldn’t want you as my manager.
we have people working condensed 9 day fortnights…. Or 4 days condensed…..we have 30 hours worked over 7 day fortnights …..different patterns work for different people ….if the work is done then our managers are happy

As a manager I couldn’t be doing with the fluffing around with the 5 hours. I’d say yes to a 4 day week of 9.25hrs Min-Thurs and you don’t work Fri, as long as there is other coverage for Fri if needed. I know someone who does 4 days, but that’s a 10hr by 4 but I’m guessing lunch is included in that and it would be the same as what you are asking if you exclude lunch? Works for them.

It depends on the culture in your organisation - yours sounds very flexible and it doesn’t sound like you need to be in on the Friday so flexing the 5 hours might work.

I’d have concerns about as a manager is whether your colleague would be expected to keep up to speed with your work and answer queries relating to it in addition to her own - that’s putting quite an onus on her and may require some wording to her JD to set that in stone. If she was off for some reason then how would the questions be dealt with? You might have to give that some thought.

I would probably prefer a more rigid arrangement eg compressed hours so I knew when you were available rather than having a floating number of extra hours that varied on a weekly basis.

Ha! I'm actually a lovely Manager in a really flexible business! What I'm saying is don't try to fool me, come to me and say 'I'd really like to condense my hours and work 4 days most weeks, but 4.5 days at month end' I'd be pleased to, no bother at all, really!

But if you come with a story about messing with 5 hours trying to cover over that you're really after working 4 days for most of the month then it's annoying. I'd rather you were just straight, said what you wanted and I'd likely say yes!

Worth noting op that as of last Monday, you do not have to say how any concerns over cover for your work/queries etc. can be mitigated. The onus is now on your employer to consider this and demonstrate they have fully explored all options if they were to refuse. (Although like I say for me this isn't a FWR situation its a reasonable adjustment)

Yes! This!

and from me too. this!

We do this anyway and are both up to speed on each others work as we work on the same projects and cover each others holidays, we just don't have the exact same job within those projects but a lot of overlap and a slightly different title

Then I take everything I said back 😊

A few posters have suggested just going for a 4 day week every week and youd prefer it as a manager. This wouldn't be accepted I don't think as I need to be in daily even if just for half an hour minimum for the meeting on that first week a month and to send some reports to our parent company. We aren't allowed holiday at month end for this reason either, emergency leave only

I didn't realise this. Thank you

I think your 4 days, but sometimes 4.5 days is fine, but just set out what you're asking really clearly.

My query would be how you book annual leave - at my work they would insist on a set working pattern for the purposes of booking leave. I.e, would you need to book a Friday as annual leave if you definitely didn't want to work? And would this 'use' your 5 hrs?

op is there a precedent?!

I addressed this in a pp, but at my workplace you get annualised Annual leave hours and can book hours down to the 15mins. I'd simply book X number of hours of leave and work Y hours that week, where X+Y=37.

Others in other departments do similar just not my team

Yes, you might be doing that on an informal basis but you are asking your colleague to do this every Friday and to be your point of contact in order to facilitate your request. If this is now something that your manager has yo consider then it might be worth giving it some thought in case they feel they can’t support your request on that basis.

A request for an adjustment might be better.

others in my team work flexibly, just not this exact arrangement, and others in other departments have a similar arrangement to what I am proposing

No, on all Fridays except the first one of the month there are never urgent requests that couldn't wait until Monday for me to answer myself. Questions on the month end friday would be things like "can you get me a copy of this invoice so I can check the VAT treatment" and would be only if they didn't know the question was coming during the time I was online, and mostly things I could answer with a quick text anyway. Ie quite rare for anyone to need to cover me for anything

If your colleague isn’t needed in order for your request to work then I’d leave that part out - your OP said “I have a colleague in a very similar role who could answer questions if I wasn't around” so it appeared as if you were expecting them to routinely field queries relating to your work as part of your request.

Wonders if you work where I do 🤣

If I was your Manager I'd be happy agreeing to this. I wouldn't be happy if you were parenting whilst working though, so you may need to rethink that when the time comes. We have parents who have tried to work like this and it has resulted in subparr work, and them having to work extra to fix the work so may taint my view.

I'd agree on the basis of your health conditions.

Couldn't you just work a 9 day fortnight so you had every 2nd Friday off? So much easier for everyone (manager, colleagues, clients) to understand.

I don’t think you understand the point about annual leave booking. It being in hours actually makes it more complicated if you have these flexible 5 hours which aren’t in your schedule as you never end up taking them off and so would end up with more annual leave.

The 9 day fortnight idea is a good one if it could work around month end and 5 week months.

I am a manager and I also work compressed hours. I do 4.5 days and it’s very clear when I will be working. I think that’s important to ensure people don’t think you’re taking the piss. If one of my team asked to condense to 4.5 days I’d say yes. If they asked to do 4 days with a floating 5 hours for whenever they fancy I’d say no.

In your shoes I would ask for the condensed 4 days that you want and say you’d like to do 9.25 hours Mon-Thurs, and add that if they would like you to you could do a half day on the month end Friday. I think it’s reasonable to say you want to do it to manage your medical condition and appointments etc. Don’t mention children, your mum, DH’s Tuesdays - keep it short and to the point.

Condensed hours are causing issues with counter-claims by those working the same hours but not getting the Friday off. Outside shift type work (medics, retail, hospitality, manufacturing) and in fields where there is often discretionary effort, it can be hard to manage fairly.
i would have no issue with 4 days a week.