Strong case for home working for childcare

[SillyRubyPeer]

I'm after some advice from those who have successfully gained home working contracts due to caring responsibilities (childcare).

I'm a civil servant and work in HR. Our policy states anyone can apply for homeworking however its more likely in my area of work to gain HW if you have disability. I want to request it as we are required to go into the office three days a week and it's just difficult with trying to drop off and pick up - drop off 8am and pick up 4pm so I'm leaving office at 3pm. I'm full time (can't drop hours) and already have flexible working in place. Home working would just make life A LOT easier... which is not an excuse they will support.

For this to be granted I need a super strong case to explain how child care impacts (as I know loads of parents make this work!) and wondered if anyone has a strong example of wording?

Working from home definitely won't impact the business negatively however given I'm in HR.. we see so many requests so I feel we have a stricter line.

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

I got an arrangement in place temporarily at my old workplace.
When I got the job, it was on a 3 office days and 2 WFH days a week.
Then the only route to our rural office got bogged down with major road works. Getting to the office wasn’t a problem, but getting home was a nightmare and I was late for 6pm childcare pick up on too many occasions (the nursery closed at 6pm). DH had to use the exact same route to get home, so 9 times out of 10, we’d be sat half a mile apart in separate cars in standstill traffic just praying one of us would get through the traffic by 6pm and avoid incurring late pick up fees.
Turns out my management team and most of my colleagues who lived in the same direction as me were having the same problem, so everyone was given the option to WFH full time until the roadworks were completed…..which ended up being over a year.

Just to balance - in roles that can be WFH teams can function perfectly well and provide a good service with staff WFH and working flexibly. Our team has a lot of WFH (to the point they don’t even have enough space in the office for the whole team all at once). Plenty of staff do school pick up and make up their hours. People are professionals and trusted to have autonomy.

Considering it’s more likely to be women picking up childcare and struggling with full time work, seems a bit backwards to be so anti flexible working to support childcare, IF it doesn’t affect the job getting done.

@greencartbluecart Such an assumption there is a husband.

For what it’s worth, also a single parent and on the days that I’m dropping my children, I logon at seven and do some work until 730. I wake my kids up they get themselves sorted and I keep working. I leave the house at 8:10 and I get into work for nine and then I work through my breakfast break. I finish at normal time of 4:30.and collect them for 5. Could you do something similar?

So basically you are trying to avoid saying that you want to work and do childcare at the same time?

well of course you can’t make a strong case for that can you?

i know it’s bloody tough as a single parent but trying to scam the company into paying yoh whilst you do childcare does no one any favors

I don’t know why everyone is being so down on the OP. If you live an hours commute from your childcare and home, wfh means you can get probably and extra 1.5 hours of work done because you’re cutting out the commute. It also massively reduces stress because you’re not sitting in traffic / on a sweaty train. It just sounds more efficient to me. I don’t know why people think wfh equates to skiving.

I think the government needs to lead by example. The private sector cannot be the answer to reviving the hospitality sector (commuters getting lunch / coffees etc).
The government have mandated a 60/40 attendance policy and it’s quite reasonable.

If you’re not getting the most out of collaborative working in the set up then raise that. That you’re not meeting with colleagues and therefore the business doesn’t require you to be in the office? You can do all your job role and responsibilities without having to see anyone who you work with / alongside.

I work for the NHS and it applies to everyone in our team, no set expectation on office days. (It does involve the need to travel to meetings/appointments in the community though, so slightly different)

Agree entirely

I don't see how you can expect to work full time but also collect children at 4pm.

Why are you asking if you already have all the answers OP?

Honestly, pay for a nanny or a babysitter on the regular for after school hours and go into office later after drop off.

I work from home with very very easy going employers who were happy for me to WFH with my kids around after school/nursery and in the half terms. It absolutely WRECKED my mental health and I ended up having a breakdown and was off work with stress. I had absolutely no time away from our 4 walls at home and it was unbearable in the end. I used to rave about it, about how lenient they were.. but it turned out to be so shit for me.

Is there another parent? I would assume there is another parent around or you’d have said as a couple have asked about the other parent. It’s a fair question.

To be honest in most of the CS, it was always 60% in the office but each department could deploy common sense and if they felt their business area didn’t require 60% office attendance they could reduce it to 40% and so for many that became the expectation and it worked fine - until the mainstream media found itself struggling for stories and so honed in on this which in turn spooked the government and for political (and not any proven business reasons based on staff performance/appraisals), all departments heads were told those who had sanctioned the lower percentage had to zap it up to 60% 🙄.

If you have exhausted all childcare options (father, grandparents, childminder, nanny, after school club etc) and there are no post 4pm options then your case to your employer should focus on how they will benefit from you WFH vs hybrid (eg the more productive hours you will be able to work) and how you will compensate for the downsides. Also be aware what your next best alternative is - eg “split shifts”, drop to 80% FTE and finish at 3pm each day.

I empathize I was a single mum to 2 kids under 6. I got a nanny to do pick ups/ homework and make / give them dinner as I didn’t get home until 6pm on a good day. I’m through that stage now and we all survived!

I’m also CS & wouldn’t waste your time or energy, you’re not going to get it because of childcare.

If they let one parent wfh full time due to childcare then they have to let every other parent do the same, which would make up probably 70% of the civil service and would render the office rules totally pointless. I had someone try to argue it last year, took it as high as it goes, and the answer is- you need to pay for childcare to meet your job requirements.

Plus if you can be bothered kick up a stink about the lack of childcare provisions in your area. Hits working mums the hardest.

If she works 37.5 hrs per week, as many do, she can work 8:15-3:45, and not break for lunch (plenty of people do one meal per day, or intermittent fasting).

Let’s name the problem.

My company has 1000 employees. 5% of those work part time. 100% of those are women.

I bet if we checked, most/all of the part-timers are also mothers.

Motherhood is a massive factor in the pay gap. Women are much more likely than men to go part time or sacrifice career prospects too care for children. We should be embracing wfh to help women to work full time. And to encourage men to play their part in picking up the kids.

It's nothing to do with whether you eat - legally a break is requirevd after 6 hours. If you work through your break it's still deducted unless there's a specific exemption (where I used to work, in a very different setting, we always ended up working through our breaks to some extent, but if in sole charge we could add a note and get that one break paid. It wasn't supposed to happen thatcwe were in sole charge unless there'd been an emergency, so it was theoretically a rare exception).

Nobody can have seven and a half hours without a break every day as a standard contract, though many will turn a blind eye to "taking your break" at the end of your day and leaving early it's not something that would be written down because it's a bit dodgy...