Pressure from employer - what are my rights?

[Fragolina]

Long rant and request for advice

I work for a local authority, and am currently on mat leave. I recently had an interview for my boss' old job (he's moved one step up, so there was a vacancy for his old job), and was offered the job However, the week before the interview, he kept phoning asnd we kept missing each other one the phone, and when I finally got to speak to him, all he had wanted to tell me was not to be complacent about the interview. After the interview, I brought my lo one up to the office to say hello to my colleagues, and my old boss and the other person who had interviewed me asked me to come back to the meeting room as they'd made their decision. So they told me I'd got the job, I said I wa shappy to hear that and that we'd sort out the details by phone as lo was no screaming and I couldn't concentrate. Old boss insists on walking me out of the building, to 'help' (although I kept saying I was fine) and just before DH came up to us, said 'You're stronger in some areas than in others, but anyway, we'll sort that out later'. Then followed this up with an email saying it was a difficult situation in the interview when 'you know that I know what you know' whatever that meant, and was I coming back in August and how about the 4th.

I had never said exactly when I was planning to return to work, and had previously said 'sometime after the summer'. Anyway, I wrote backand said that I would be thinking of doing a slow return to work from October, and using my 'keeping in touch days' to do two days a week.

With the Keeping in touch days - he wants me to use them for my new job, but be paid at my old rate, as I can't have a start date for the new job until I am officially back from maternity leave.

From November, I said I was happy to do three days a week in the office and two days working from home.

My boss then phoned me and asked if this was due to childcare, and I said yes, but also said I feel sure that I can do the work, due to the super-flexi arrangements (no core hours and can log in and out however many times you like - and could in theory work an hour and go home until the next day, or finish all your hours for the week by Thursday and then not come in on Friday). I made it clear that I did not want to do a flexible working request, but wanted these arrangements to fall under the flexi scheme (at the discretion of the line manager). I asked my boss what he though of my proposals, and he said that it wasn't up to him (it is).

I had previously asked about arrangements for a slow return to work, and he responded by copying me in to an email to HR asking if I could use my annual leave to allow me to work a shorter week, although we had not discussed anything about my leave. HR said that I could, but obviously I shouldn't use all my leave to do this. I am NOT happy doing this, at all. Would rather work fewer days and be paid less.

Anyway, my boss said he would check my proposal for 3 days in the office and 2 days at home with HR and get back to me. He then followed this up with an email a couple of days later saying HR haven't got back to him, but he feels that the demands of the job (managerial responsibilities) wouldn't allow me to do this, and that doing my own childcare on those two days would be too demanding for me. His suggestion is (again) that I use 30 days of leave over 5 months to work a shorter week. If the business can't cope with me doing 2 days at home (and actually working) - then how is it going to cope with me using my leave to do shorter weeks?

Now, I haven't received the formal offer letter re: the new job yet, and don't want to create too much of a fuss until I do, but what flexible arrangements can I reasonably ask for? Re: the demands of the job, my counterpart in the other section of the team has been working 3days a week for the past 4 years, and has now been given additional sataffing support as he's cut own further to two days.

I feel that I am being pushed into going back full-time, when its not what I want, and feel that my boss is creating difficulty where there doesn't need to be. I feel it would have been fairer to try my proposal out of a couple of months and THEN say it wasn't working, rather than dismiss it out of hand. Interestingly, he has flexible working arrangements relating to childcare as he as every alternate Friday off, so you would think he would be more accomodating.

Anyway, enough ranting...anyone know what my options are?

Well surely it is tricky to manage a team from home 2 days a week and look after your daughter?
Could you just wait until they offer you the job and then formally ask to do a job share?

Thanks posie, I'm sure it would be tricky - although its not managing a very large team, only four people (one of whom is half-managed by another department and based in another office). You're right, I'll wait until I have a formal offer, and then see how to go about requesting a job share.

I'm just being a drama queen really Not looking forward to leaving DD and going back to work and worried about being maneuvred into going back full-time. Just needed to have a bit of a rant and let off steam.

Child care issues just aren't an acceptable reason to work from home. There's no way you can be fair to your child, your employer or your self if you are being paid to do a job while looking after your child.

yes looking after a child is a full time job - otherwise why would people need childminders and nurseries.
If I had an employee ask to work from home I would expect them to have childcare sorted. Also there are some jobs that just aren't suitable for working from home, and the higher up the management tree you go the harder it is.

Agree with others that it would be unrealistic to think you can work from home without childcare. If your lo decide to start screaming during a meeting, you can expect the same working form home. It is not professional if you are on a phone call.

Agree that your boss is dragging his feet.I suspect he is either trying to push you back into ft work or possibly trying to drag it out long enough to lead you to resign instead.

Some points:

If you accept that you cannot work from home without children for those 2 days, are you happy to work and be paid for 3 days?

If so, you should submit a flexible working application (after you have safely accepted the promotion - congrats BTW).

Once submitted, your boss is legally obliged to consider it. None of this fobbing you off with using your annual leave.

He can only refuse if there are business reasons for doing so. Ask your self honestly - can your job be done in 3 days, instead of 5? It is for you to convince your employer in a well-thought out business case.

What you have in your favour for a 3 day week is:

(1) your boss has already tentatively agreed to a 3 day weed (with 2 days covered by annual leave). If there was a true business reason, he would not have suggested it to begin with

(2) your colleague has set a precedent. It is prima facie discrimination for your boss to then disallow you having the same arrangement, provided your jobs are similar.

If you ask for a job share, that would be easier for the business (assuming the job can reasonably be done as a job share). Do you have anyone else in mind to do the other 2 days? If not, are you prepared for your employer to say no until the other half of your job share is found?

sorry, lots of typos. If you accept you cannot work without childcare for those 2 days ...

Thanks for the comments everyone! Can understand that working frmo home without childcare could be a nightmare e.g. with phone calls.

If I submit a flexible working request to do a 3-day week, how long does this cover, i.e is it forever?

What if I wanted a slow return to work, to eventually build up to full time, over lets say 8 months or so - what would my options be then?

The job share idea is very interesting, and I'll look into it.

You are entitled to submit a flex working application so long as your children are under 6. But once it is accepted, you and your employer would be treated as though you have varied the original contract. The new arrangement continues forever unless and until it is renegotiated by agreement of both parties. You can reapply under the flex working regulations to further vary your terms but only after a year has lapsed.

Therefore if you want slow build up over 8 months, you need to work that into your initial application.

I personally think a slow build up is not feasible unless your job can be done in 3 days to begin with or your employer really wants you to work ft and is prepared to accommodate in the meantime even though it is less than workable. Otherwise it becomes difficult to plan around for an employer, almost ruling out a jobshare because it will be very difficult to find someone who is prepared to do the ever decreasing stub of your work week.