Return to work- is this allowed?!?!

[TheCalmSwan]

Me and my partner have agreed flexible work contracts within our work places- I work weekends and Wednesdays and he works Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday so there is always one of us at home for childcare. He works from home and my work is a five minute walk away so we have got a good thing going on!

i am about to return to work next week. While I’ve been off everyone has had to retrain. I’m now expected to do 4 weeks training 8-4 which is in a city over an hour away from me.

is this allowed? I understand everyone else has completed this training but before leaving I was told it would be 2 weeks in my usual workplace which I have managed to just about sort childcare for but now the extra two weeks and the travelling I’m really panicking

has similar happened to anyone else? Would love some advice

What do you mean 'is this allowed? Most employment contracts specify certain circumstances where requests are made. Even though you have flexible, I would be pretty much certain that there will be a clause to cover this request.

Is the retraining required for you to do your job and is it an external provider?

@Overthebow It’s not an external provider it’s in house training just at a different office however they do the training at my office as well. I need to be retrained to do my job, I go back next week but the course it’s until august so I’ll be on alternative duties until then

If they offer the training at your location it’s fine to ask the question of whether you can do it there instead but yeah overall of course it’ll allowed for them to say you need to complete some one off training.

Are there others doing the course at the same time as you? If it’s a set course then it makes sense for it to be during the week as presumably the trainer and others don't work weekends

Yes of course it’s allowed

Just for interest …. what is your job role that requires 4 weeks retraining? That’s a long time.

That's a long time but it sounds like you need to suck it up if you want to keep this job and not be permanently on other duties.

I think you need to look into alternative childcare for those 4 weeks - some combination of your parents, dh's parents and DH (taking additional uniaid leave from work as needed).

Would the training be 1:1 due to you missing the original training, or in a group with others? If 1:1 you might be able to negotiate it being delivered as more hours over fewer days?

If it's not worth your while to deal with this you need to get jobhunting.

I’d suck it up and get it done - as you say, you’ve got a great arrangement in place so I wouldn’t jeopardise it !