Wfh with a child. Is it fair?

[violetsparkle]

Employee wants to pick up their kid from nursery and then do 2 hours more work. Is this fair? There's no policy against it so is it just what's acceptable now? I don't know if I should approve it. I don't want to really but we're desperate for the staff so I'm not sure if I have a choice. Just want to give employee a heads up that HR might not approve it so they can consider alternatives.

What hours are you wanting this employee to work? After nursery closes?

But your child is 7 which is massively different to a preschooler.

I think there's room to be flexible. However as a working mum who WFH and puts my 3 yo in nursery for these times, I'd be fed up if a member of my team got to do this and nobody else.
So potentially opening the floodgates. But if it doesn't impact performance and doesn't impact customers/clients then it's something to consider but short term only x

You can't really just resent someone because they've asked and you haven't?

A child die dying lockdown while a parent was working from home. It isn’t safe for a toddler.

Not ok for a nursery age child. My work would not be happy. They seem to tolerate school age kids now from 3-5pm being at home when you wfh but with babies and pre-school it's impossible to do any work. I'm still a bit traumatised from trying to do it for 3 months straight over Covid when my childminder closed.

Absolutely not an issue here. 4 days a week

Also as other PPs have said - it's tolerable when you're in a pinch I.e childcare let you down for one day or they're sick or something. But not on a regular basis z

That's sounds like a good temporary arrangement I just don't think I can agree to it as a permanent change

There's always one.

Children die at nursery too. Maybe they're not safe for toddlers either?

The other team members would be fine. They are internal meetings. If she chose to opt out then there is no impact on the team other than missing out on her contribution which in all honesty we would cope without just fine.

My last boss used to start two hours early and finish two hours early too, for nursery and school run. He'd just block the 30 mins or however long it takes out to collect them in his teams calendar - we all checked each others' calendars for clashes and wouldn't book in calls etc for the time.

Once he was back his kids would very occasionally run into the room (couldn't see them clearly as the background was always blurred, but could hear 'Daddy!!!' etc sometimes and see the little blurry shapes! But it didn't bother me tbh.

I'm assuming this is only one kid, nursery age? That would be a bit more difficult as I get the impression that my ex boss's eldest (aged 9) entertains his youngest (age 2). Also his wife does something in education so is home for all the holidays.

We had core hours for all HQ staff (other than the ones that had to be in or work shifts at a specified time, like Security). Core hours were 10-4. So nobody could book calls etc outside those times, and it was up to us which hours we worked to make it up to at least 37.5 hrs. That worked pretty well for us but it may be very different for your company depending on the nature of the work - I was a lawyer in a big tech company so to some extent we could control our own workload!

Say no. My toddler is either in Nursery or with family because I can't work and look after her at the same time. No one can.

If you let one person do this what if others also want to do it?

I had someone do this in my team. As someone with kids, I wanted to be as flexible as possible… but it became obvious they weren’t covering the extra hours at all - and instead just claiming they were working - which meant the rest of my (already overworked) team ended up doing more. Fact is if you have a child in your house and you are the responsible adult, you will not be doing your job properly.

The problem with showing this sort of flexibility is people do, inevitably, take the piss - it starts off as ‘just a few mins here or there’ and then it escalates when they realise they’ve gotten away with it. And it’s not just about them - it’s about the wider team and productivity.

I ended up manage moving (civil service) the person in my team who did it into another directorate where they could go part time. And TBH after that experience I would be loath to agree such a request again.

They've asked to do 9-5. Using break to pick up child. We can easily start her day earlier if she requires but thats not what she's asked for. I don't know when her nursery closes but she's told me she wants to leave to pick them up at 245 and then will be back at 315 to resume so I suppose it's only actually 1 hour 45 minutes.

Her track record shall be respected and should mean something when deliberating decision. Your tendency of a straight refusal is not neutral unfortunately and it is good for your own career for you to recognise that. A trial period is fairer, how she would deal with her child is not for you to decide or judge, as long as she does her job well. She might have helper at hand after certain hours, for example.

Lots of companies have policies that you can’t wfh when you have sole charge of a child under 12 (or 10, or whatever age they’ve chosen). It’s fine for an employer to assess that they can’t rely on your productivity when you are also meant to be looking after a child.

Yes my own child goes to nursery so I understand this sentiment but everyone is allowed to request flexible working twice a year so they can all ask if they want!

I'd offer her hours 9-2.45

Um what do you do? Can I work for you?

Sometimes it looks like fulltime roles won't be amenable to part time.

I WFH a couple of days a week. There have been several days throughout the holidays where my child has been at home with me and it's been fine in the sense that they don't really disturb me (9 yrs old) but the downside is that they watch WAY too much tv and game too much.

However there is absolutely no way it would have worked when they were a toddler!

What time does the nursery close? I would look into why she doesn't have childcare until 6pm (usual nursery closing time) because if you agree to this, it will set a precedence for others and where does the cut off end. 1pm? 12pm?

It’s unreasonable. You cannot work and supervise a toddler. As a one off fine. Permanent arrangement absolutely not.

Would you be say ues to other team members requesting the same ? I think they would resent having to contribute to a team meeting while another colleague doesn't.

I think since covid too many managers where I work are frightened to say no to their junior colleagues.