Work travel, what is reasonable?

[IceandIndigo]

I work in a small team in a public sector organisation. We have recently got a new team leader. This person has no children or caring responsibilities and seems to have a very different attitude to work-life balance than their predecessor. They are expecting me and the rest of the team to travel regularly to offsite meetings around the country, which means either overnight stays or getting up very early/returning late. I have primary school age DC and no extended family I can rely on for help, so if I need to travel for work this means a lot of additional load for DH (who is a great and involved dad but also has a busy senior job), and it also means I don't see my kids - they are asleep when I leave the house and when I return home.

The boss now wants to plan a multi-day team planning meeting in a destination I will need to fly to. Initially they had planned this to take place in the school holidays but I said that was difficult for me due to family commitments (I was planning to take annual leave the week in question). They now want it to happen the first week of the new term, meaning I would literally be missing my DD's first week of school. I'm the only one in the team with DC and feel like no one understands the constraints. In other teams and organisations I've worked in it's been generally understood that important meetings and work travel shouldn't be scheduled during school holidays.

I am also part-time working 4 days a week, and the new boss has also been muttering about this, I am already coming under pressure to attend meetings on my non-working day.

Basically, how do I discuss flexible working and family commitments with someone who seems to be not at all sympathetic? When I was hired for this role they mentioned a requirement for "occasional travel" but that wasn't defined. Before the new boss started I was traveling 1-2 times a month day trips, and overnight stays very infrequently. Now it's day trips about once a week and overnight about once a month. Am I being unreasonable in expecting that I shouldn't need to regularly give my family time to my employer?

The multi-day team planning meeting seems unreasonable to me, regardless of location. A waste of public money, indeed were I to know who the organisation is, I would be happy to do what is required to help to put a stop to such profligacy.

Seek advice from your trade union if you are a member, or ACAS perhaps. This is blatantly unreasonable alongside the waste of public money.

Massive misappropriation of funds.

I would flat out refuse this fucking team building bullshit when it can be done locally and within normal working hours.

You are the employee, not slave. You can and should refuse and resist such crap - especially if it falls on your non working day/s.

Fuck that shit. And if they persist, grievance their ass - you will win all day long.

Thanks both. Sorry to drip feed but I should have mentioned the team is geographically spread and we mostly work from home so for us to get together in person will inevitably mean someone has to travel. The location for the team building day is partly because my boss will already be in that location for work purposes.

Depends what your contract says?

Difficult one - companies can’t be expected to run around their employees’ kids or other commitments but you’d hope for a bit of balance.

Contract says some travel expected but does not define how much.

This seems a lot of travel for a Public sector role - flying to where??

I don't think they can just change your job like that - are you in a Union?

A multi day team meeting in public sector that requires a flight is definitely unusual! Are you a union member?

Not in a union. I don’t want to give too many details as potentially outing, but suffice to say the team meeting is in another part of the UK where my employer has an office but I would need to fly to.

I don't think scheduling important meetings / work travel during school holidays (which is months of the year!) should be an issue, you're employed to work for the company around a business needs schedule rather than your DCs schedule. However I wouldn't see travelling to work once a week and overnight once a month as "giving family time" to your employer, I'd see it as doing the job with occasional travel you are employed for. If your contract makes it clear you've got travel expected then you're going to need to travel, your home life is your responsibility to sort with your DH, rather than your colleagues responsibility to plan around.

Your non working days shouldn't be part of the scheduling issued unless they're not fixed and change each week? And if they're fixed e.g every Friday it could probably be by exception (but not assumed you can do a meeting!) that your manager tries to get you to change them, but that shouldn't be assumed that you can chop and change.

Meetings don't always work for everyone - if they've re arranged it once because you're on annual leave (or plan to be) I think it's a bit much to ask for it to be rescheduled again because it's your child's first school week - that's not really a reasonable request imo, if the business needs the planning meeting to happen.

What would the response be if you have not flown anywhere since you joined and say you have a fear of flying? Or refuse to fly because it is contrary to government policies to reduce carbon emissions?

What happened to net zero?!

Hybrid working exists for a reason.

I would flat out refuse to even converse about attending until your cunty manager explains why you cannot participate (if you have to) via Teams etc?

Unless the team building exercise involves physically shoving your fingers up your colleagues asses in a circle, theres no reason why remote attendance isnt suitable.

Throw the ball back to your manager and grievance their ass if they persist to discriminate.

Honestly, 1 night away a month is very light for a role that stipulates occasional travel. My role has occasional travel and it's a lot more than that. So yes, I think you are being unreasonable that you see that as too much. Likewise, unless you have booked holiday days for September, it would be unreasonable to complain about a date that's already been rescheduled once for you.

But its NOT once a month though, is it?

The OP was clear:

Before the new boss started I was traveling 1-2 times a month day trips, and overnight stays very infrequently. Now it's day trips about once a week and overnight about once a month.

Add to that, the OP is part time.

The employer/new manager is being an obfuscating cunt - just because the manager is without kids doesnt mean they get to dictate how those with kids should organise their non-work lives.

Employees, not slaves.

Apart from anything else I guess I just find it a bit unfair that when it comes to calculating pay for part time staff it’s all based on the assumption that people work 9-5, so I have to take a 20% pay cut to work 4 days a week, but if they want to fill up my non-work hours with travel I don’t get any extra pay. I’m not asking for additional time off, I’m asking to work my actual contracted hours on a day that’s important to my family.