Flexible working at offer stage? What’s been your experience?

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Did anyone negotiate flexible working or reduced hours once an offer was made to them and if they were in a middle-management position? I’ve just been offered a great role after a layoff. They have turned down my request for four days.
I want to counter offer for a bit more flexibility around family especially school and childminder pickup

In your experience what’s the best way of doing this? Any experience as either someone who hires or someone who did this is welcome. My guess is

1. I try get them to do every other Monday off rather than every Monday. I will do the once-a-week travel to head office (1hr train journey)

2. I have to accept the 5 day pattern but I try get them to stand down the head office visit every week (it’s more of a show & tell thing anyway)

3. I start the job on their terms and then put a flexible request in once I’ve got a bit more credibility, later.

4. some combination of, e.g I asked them to let me have every Friday afternoon off to help school pick up. Something a little bit like that?

In this circumstance I'd put the counter offer back on them as part of the negotiation - ok, I understand, what sort of flexibility are you able to offer?

I've often both given and received flexibility at offer stage - it's part of the negotiation of the package. I've always been super clear with prospective employers that the flexibility I'm asking for is worth about £10k of salary for me.

I usually phone up before I even apply, and ask if they would consider flexible working. It's a deal breaker for me, so I'm not going to waste my time and theirs by going through the whole process and then turning the job down.

I agree with the above, ask what flexibility they can offer.

What was the original job advertised as?

What do you know about this company/organisation, do they have many staff at that level on flexible work patterns, if it was where where i work, suggestions 1 and 4 after requesting 4 days and being told no its a 5 day position , would probably lead to offer being withdrawn, as every second Monday off would just be disruptive for others,cause problems around bank holidays and you offered 4 days and were told no so you would be viewed as one of THOSE candidates, every Friday afternoon off would cause major aggrievance for others here longer, who doesn't want every friday afternoon off.

That said we have lots of flexible working patterns, and staff on half days , hybrid roles etc but its from a position of knowledge of job flow -do you know that Mondays are not the busiest days, or fridays? HR i think would be a bit 'you were offered a full time roll you don't want one so look elsewhere', but they would be open to is there a possibility that one day a week i could leave early to facilitate school pick up during term time only. HTH

@JassyRadlett thanks, I tried it. Unfortunately they said it’s firm. So now I have a big decision to make. I want both my career and my time to be the best mum I can

I'm so sorry! That's pretty crap and might mean that even though the job looks amazing, the working culture leaves a lot to be desired.

Is it worth accepting but continue to look? Have you got any other irons in the fire? It might be worth it a few months in to go "you know, I tried to make the rigid work culture work but it's just not doable" if another opportunity comes good - and you can then see if they counter.

Anyway it's good to have the weekend to weigh up your options - will be interesting to see if they chase you on Monday or wait for you to respond.