Anyone managed to ask to return part time after mat leave?

[SassyPeachShark]

I’ve been browsing for hours and can’t seem to find any posts with a similar situation.
for context, I work for a small business and manage a portfolio of leasehold properties. My portfolio has been given to other PMs whilst on mat leave and my manager has stated before that I will get a new portfolio on my return.
i won’t be able to afford childcare full time nor do I want my baby to be in nursery 5 days a week. Initially me and my partner were each going to take a day off during the week and work only 4 days a week but we now can’t do this because my partner can’t drop his hours or days. So I need to return only 3 days a week.
problem is I keep seeing mixed things, some people say you have a right to request it and don’t need to overly justify why but others say you must tell your employer how it’ll work. Well to be honest I don’t know - my job is very stressful and demanding and I’m not sure how it can be mitigates me going back part time only, other than saying anything urgent people can pick up on the two days I’m off and letting clients know my working days, and asking for a small portfolio.
sorry if it’s a bit rambly, I just wondered if anyone in a similar role has managed to have a request approved to work part time?

You need to do a flexible working request if you want part time hours. You need to show how it will work for the business.

Many millions of mothers have returned from mat leave PT.

They have to have a good business reason to say no. As you will be allocated a new portfolio upon your return it seems pretty clear you can be allocated a 0.6FTE portfolio.

Dont faff around with promising to do stuff on your day off. Just be clear you want to return 0.6FTE on xyz days (or say you’re flexible on days if you are).

The onus is on them to reject it for valid reasons, not you to “prove” why you need it

Pretty standard to request this. You need to put in the request and they have to give a good reason if they can't accommodate. You definitely shouldnt be passing work to other people to do, you should have a suitable workload for the days you do

As you're getting a new portfolio, you can ask for 60% of a full caseload.

When you do submit the request, you need to give an explanation of how it will work for the business, I definitely wouldn't say that "other people can pick up emergencies when I'm off" because that's creating more work for the full time employees and would be a potential reason for rejection.

You should consider the days you'd like to work, and present them to your employer with minimal impact on the rest of the team. For example I wouldn't choose two consecutive days to take off, as this would mean your caseload of customers has 2 full days with no support.

I work 4 days per week, and take my non working day mid-week. This way my customers are never waiting for more than 24 hours without a response from me.

What was your plan when you were originally planning to go back 4 days a week? Just use the same business case / solution you would have for that request and be flexible as to which days you have off.

Thanks everyone.

im not trying to pass on more work for others, i was just trying to say that the biggest issue i foresee them mentioning is despite having a smaller portfolio, not being available every day of the week to deal with issues/clients (leaks and such dont wait). I was planning on taking a Monday and Friday off but i guess its the same issue as mentioned about it being consecutive days but to be honest i can be flexible on the days really.

im still confused because half the replies say I need to tell them how ill make it work for the business and others say it’s not up to me to explain and the onus is on the company. I’m still confused.

ps I know I need to submit this in writing but due to the nature of the business I’m having an informal chat with my manager first but she can be difficult so wanted some advice. Thanks

I work 4 days per week and spent a long time writing my flexible working request. Basically you need to present them with a solution, not a problem. You need to explain how it can work and how any risks can be mitigated - that way you make it harder for them to say no.
Being flexible on which days you take off is helpful, I have a Monday as there are no regular meetings on a Monday but there are on every other day of the week. I would have picked Friday but it was obvious Monday is the better choice.
Be prepared that a compromise of a request to drop to 3 days is to settle at 4 days. That’s what I did and I’m actually fine with that now. I wouldn’t be able to do enough of my job in 3 days

That’s the issue tho, it’s childcare. I don’t really know how to mitigate he issue of me not being there any time an issue may pop up on the other 2 days (or even day) - any suggestions?

It’s tricky and I don’t know your field of work. Would it be essential for people to get a response same day? I’ve found that in my business people often want to get things finished for the end of the week - so Friday would be tricky to be off however so far nothing has cropped up on a Monday that wasn’t so urgent it couldn’t wait until Tuesday - in the 2 years I’ve been back.
Could you agree to check emails on your days off and send a holding response to people saying you’ll get back to them the day after? That would only work if both you and the company could abide by those boundaries. I do check my emails and messages on my day off - it’s my choice to do that and doesn’t interrupt my time with DS. It just means I can send some things on or clear things before coming into work the next day.

It’s not essential for same day responses in most cases, but we deal with emergencies such as leaks or broken locks, windows etc which need attention the same day - if someone is off, it’s usually covered by anyone who picks up the phone and sometimes admin workers help out with these issues when the property managers are very busy - hence why I mentioned previously about others picking up urgent issues because this is how it usually works. Our policy is emails are responded to within 5 working days however we deal with leaseholders and clients over the phone - they phone and say which block their call relates to, and the call is then passed to whoever’s portfolio it is. I hope this makes sense

To add to everything, my boss is making it very difficult to even have a conversation about it all. My messages and calls are if no ed for over a week and I have no idea where I stand. I’m so stressed

Yes it makes sense, my field of work is different so I’m not sure what other advice I have. It’s definitely worth trying to speak to your manager in advance of doing the written form if you can. I guess you just need to be prepared for them to say no to the request.

What happens if an emergency happens outside normal office hours?

https://www.acas.org.uk/statutory-flexible-working-requests/making-a-request

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/flexible-working/applying-for-flexible-working/

I'm curious about whether your husband put in his own flexible working request? What went wrong there?

I thought it changed recently where the employee doesn't have to explain how it would work, it's now entirely on the employer.

I managed to go to 3 days after mat least 16 years ago.

Thanks everyone.

Outside normal office hours, a PM (although most of the time it’s the director) has the out of hours phone and deals with anything urgent or emergency but it gets passed to the relevant PM in the morning / on Monday if it’s the weekend.

regarding my husbands flexible working request, his contract was recently changed (company wide change) to make everyone come into the office at least twice a week (previously remote) and so he’s changed his hours there to line up better with the commute etc. it probably would be possible if we wanted to work ourselves to death but I’d also rather not put my child in nursery 24/7. It would be hard to make the 4 days work and my preference is to go back part time anyway so as to spend more time with my son.