Work travel - mandatory dates

[s017506]

My role has always involved some travel (job description says something wooly about occasional travel) but there has always been some flexibility around dates (everyone gives their availability and the work is split fairly). However there has now been a policy shift where we are just given a date and expected to make it work. The trips involve staying away from home for several nights at a time, including weekends. This is going to make it very difficult for anyone with caring/childcare arrangements for example. Has anyone got any experience of this? Wondering if it's worth speaking to HR?

We have this in my company. Certain events are compulsory so you need your be available for to attend. The dates are normally well known in advance which helps though eg conferences etc .

What’s the aim of it?

so you need to be in X place on 10th and 11th and you could travel on the 9th and 12th, so either side.

Now they are saying you just travel on the 10th and back on the 11th?

how will this negatively impact you? Do they give notice of travel?

So previously there might be say 3 events, and you were expected to go to one of them. But it meant for example if one event went across my non working days or was a time when I had no childcare options then I could attend an alternative. I think it's a bit of an effort for them to try and work round people's availability, which I understand, but now they are going to dictate the one you have to go too. The amount of time away from home is the same, but now with no flexibility, which makes it much harder.

I think the question of how best to handle this depends a lot on the detail. How often in a year do you expect to have a mandatory overnight stay? What have you done for childcare when you've had mandatory overnight stays in the past? Why are you concerned that that same childcare won't be available for the mandatory travel dates?

Several times a years, for 4-5 days per time. Usually the flexibility means I can do dates when my husband or parents can do the childcare. If there's no flexibility this is less likely (husband works shifts and parents work full time and aren't local)

Maybe they were finding that everyone was trying to avoid the same one. How much notice do you get given?

Some are definitely less popular (ironically I tended to be happy to cover weekend events as its easier to get childcare, where most people have a social life and would rather do weekdays).

Notice wise it's usually a few weeks, which isn't awful. I suppose part of my beef with this is that I moved to this job on the promise that it's a very family friendly and flexible organisation but this new way of working is neither!

I think in this scenario I would contact HR and/or your manager, say that you are very concerned at the new system and explain why, namely that you've previously relied on your husband and parents for childcare, but that they all work too so are not guaranteed to be available on any given date. Rather than giving the impression that you are just complaining, I would look for workarounds. Firstly, ask if they can give you as much notice as possible of the dates when you might need to be away (even if it's not definite). Secondly, I would point out that provided you are given enough notice, you are often OK with being away at the weekend dates that your colleagues prefer to avoid, so there's a "win win" element to getting as much notice as possible. Are these events things that are in the public domain (eg trade fairs) for which you could research the dates yourself to get as much advance notice as possible?

Thank you, that's helpful. I am keen to not just appear to be moaning - I fully accept that this is part of my role (and have never missed an event due to childcare issues), but without some degree of flexibility it becomes much harder. Unfortunately we don't know the exact dates at an earlier point - we might know the month but not the exact break down of dates which doesn't help - by the point we know exact dates it's often past the point my husband can arrange leave/cover.

I was given this in a contract. I asked for the dates and they were fairly fixed each year, but would have fallen on my son’s 18th, something I always attend and take holiday for mid week and our wedding anniversary. So I said no to the job.

If they don’t know the dates, how on earth can you cover them? I would let HR know that it’s unlikely you’re unable to accept the policy change.

Yeah this is what I'm struggling with!