KIT Days… gearing up for an argument

[pinkpepperclove]

Meeting with my notorious penny pinching boss about KIT days. Like everyone in the UK I want to use as many as I can to keep some income… but I know he is going to expect the world. He thinks every pound we spend is from his own pocket… (it’s a global conglomerate…)

Company handbook is very light touch and says “training and meetings” nothing at all about whole days of work in the office, which I KNOW he is going to expect.

Any Advice on how you handled it? I really don’t want to be commuting and DD is only 5 months so childcare is super tricky.

Are KIT days funded by the government? Or Employer?

KIT days are topped up to your full pay from the employer. They also need to be agreed by both the employee and the employer so don't go in all guns blazing. You can't insist on using KIT days just as much as they can't.

You also need to agree what you will get paid as there is no regulation to say that you will get your normal pay.

KIT days need to be agreed by both employee and employer and hours/pay discussed beforehand

It sounds like they’ll probably pay you for the time you work if they’re that tight and there’s no regulation around payment. So if you want a full day’s money you’ll need to do a full day’s work.

They may not want you doing kit days if you aren’t useful while you’re there (it is a bit money for nothing otherwise, from an employer perspective).

I really wouldn’t bother, it’s not worth the childcare aggravation-I wasn’t ready to leave DD and I found the idea of engagement with work whilst being off really weird. It was much nicer to just completely forget about it for 14 months entirely!

Pre baby I thought I would, but I just didn’t want to.

The company don’t have to give you KIT days unless you and they agree. And it’s OK for them to ask you to work in the office if that is the usual way of working. And it’s ok not to do them if childcare would be difficult

www.gov.uk/employee-rights-when-on-leave

KIT days are voluntary on both sides but they must be paid if you both agree to do them. They are funded by the employer. Not the government.

How are you thinking this is going to work if you don't fancy commuting and childcare is tricky then?

The employer can offset the pay against SMP. I looked into it and like PP it didn't seem worth it.

You want to use your KIT days to top up your pay, but you don’t want to go to work or get childcare? How do you see it working? What is the value add for your employer? These are genuine questions as I would expect your boss to very reasonably ask them when you discuss the subject.

We can work remotely which is a normal practice. I didn’t say I didn’t want to get childcare. I said it’s tricky. Nurseries aren’t interested in a 1 off day 5 months before we start using them permanently.

Interesting! I will look into that

I work in a council. My kit days were paid on top of smp and I was paid per hour. So if I went in for five hours I got five hours not the full day.

I didn't do any.

Didn't see the point as once l was back at work after Mat leave, I'd soon catch up.... so l wasn't prepared to give up my precious time

I don’t know anyone who used them.
They seem a good idea but the logistics weren’t worth it.
I suppose if you have a high paying job and childcare on hand.

KiT days aren't a way to top up maternity pay, your employer needs to also agree it's worthwhile (it's unlikely if your workload is being managed whilst you're off that you're going to be able to just do a normal day of work whenever you fancy). I'm not sure working from home with a baby to look after would appeal to even the most generous employer.

I didn’t do any either, made no difference going back to work tbh, had other kids at home so I didn’t have the childcare for one random day. But could your partner take an annual leave day on your first kit day or parental leave otherwise I wouldn’t bother seems a lot of stress and hassle for one day

I did full days on my KIT days. It didn't sit right with me to do any less, and I work for a huge global pharma company. My DH took a day off to look after little ones.

Quite honestly your work doesn’t have to agree to you having kit days, and can insist that you come into the office and get childcare. When I did kit days my DH took days off so that I could do them. My first mat leave he couldn’t so I didn’t do any kit days.

I used a few of mine but have grandparents for childcare on tap. I used one for a team day midyear as it was useful to meet new joiners in our team and know any changes. I used one for a team day then team Xmas lunch at end of year and I used 3 to help with a one off project that happens yearly (unusual but for anyone in the legal field I came in and did the legal 500 submission that year)

I didn't bother either, it didn't seem worth it.

Obviously you won't be able to WFH with the baby so your partner will need to book annual leave unless you have grandparents who can help. There's better uses for annual leave!

Do them if there's anything in work you would actually find useful (meetings to keep in the loop, CPD to keep a professional registration etc) but otherwise I personally wouldn't bother.

Do look into your partner taking shared parental leave when you go back though, that makes the return to work so much easier.

You don't want to do normal work but also you don't want to go into the office and so are you envisaging just meeting some people on Teams?
I think you'd be best off just dropping thr KIT idea or if you are really serious about it then asking DP to take a day off. It's unlikely in practicality your boss will get you to do a day actual work, but it's normally a day where perhaps you'd join a team meeting and maybe have a few meetings with folks to fill you in on developments. Depending on your work, it may involve refresher training or that sort of thing.
Ultimately it's a bit of a 2 way thing and doesn't sound like either of you are keen !

I’ve done a couple and preferred to be in the office so I could catch up with people. For childcare my DH took a day holiday, can the baby’s father take a day off?

Btw OP, there is increasing attention on whether people WFH and look after young DC at the same time. I wouldn't draw that attention on yourself if you want to WFH after maternity leave. Even with nursery, WFH is really useful in terms of cutting commute time (you'll be exhausted) and keeping on top of laundry etc. Don't put the idea in your boss's head that you would consider WFH with a baby.

You'll need childcare whether or not you go into the office of WFH on any KIT days.

I thought most people used partner/parent care for these rather than paid childcare. What would you actually expect to do remotely? Catch up with training, clear emails? I would have thought the whole point was to actually go into the office and catch up with your colleagues, but don't really see how you could be expected to pick up a normal day's work. However if you only do a few hours that's all you should be paid for.