Flexible working requests

[Newmum738]

I’ve been looking at the figures for flexible working requests and shocked that nearly 1/4 of employers turn them down because they ‘don’t believe in flexible working’.

After I can back from Mat leave, I tried to agree a compressed week informally, offering to be completely flexible with my non-working day according to business needs.

I was told exactly that by my manager so I said ‘OK, I’ll submit a formal flexible working request then’ to which, he said ‘we can’t just refuse it can’t we’.

They didn’t have a leg to stand on with the refusal so it was approved but it made me wonder if others have experienced the same?

I put a flexible working request in, informally, at the back end of last year to work full time hours in 4 days 3 weeks out of 4 (because the 4th week the workload is too high). They countered with doing 9 days in 10, so 1 less day off a month than I was hoping. We trialled it at the start of the year and I’ve continued it informally since. I also swap the day if I need to, and agree to be contactable if something urgent comes up that can’t wait till the Monday.

What I found odd was that they said they’d agree but it was specific to me in my current role - so if I change role, I don’t get to keep it automatically, and anyone coming into my role wouldn’t get it either. They also asked me not to tell my colleagues about the agreement. It was all very weird, but on the whole it has been working.

Slightly strange but a good outcome! Glad it’s working for you @Tillow4ever

Yeah all very odd - like they don’t want to tell people that they can start asking for flexible working? But they should remember that not everyone will want that - and we already have a TOIL system and work flexibly within our days anyway, so this doesn’t feel like a massive stretch. But every person that asks paves the way for it to just be natural to ask and be approved!

@Newmum738 It’s very short sighted as they miss out on talented individuals.

I also believe long term with the state pension retirement at 67 or higher many older workers will want an element of part time working as they reach the end of their career.

It’s also a lack of creativity from both managers and employees as to how you can effectively cover a role,

The government is shifting the law to be more in favour of flexible working in favour of employees...if organisations don't shift their workplace cultures in support of flexible working they will just lose talented staff. It's as simple as that really.