Flexible Working - Hearing

[positivethinker77]

Hi

I have a meeting, which my company are calling a hearing for my flexible working application on Friday. I just wondered if anyone knew what is likely to happen in the heaing as I've put so much in my application letter I'm struggling of further points to make.

I know the MD is very much against my case, but my immeidate boss and HR are very supportive and a 6 month trial has gone very well with no issues.

My MD's major issue is that I'm a line manager for 3 direct reports and they have a total of 8 under them and I'd be out of the office from 2.30pm 4 days a week. But I've been available outside my working hours and my line manager doesn't have an issue.

Any advice or positive points I can make or about what is going to be asked?

Thanks

If things have been going well, it may just be a formality. Did they set out that there would be a review after 6 months?

I would go prepared with as much evidence to show how well things are working as you can. Speak to your direct reports and ask them how they think things are going. Give examples as to how your leaving early has had mimimal impact. At least this way you will be prepared and able to respond if the MD does raise any issues.

Hope it goes well.

Don't be scared by the word hearing. It's just a formal way of saying meeting. The content is no diffent.

What pdog said about the preparation

If you've had a successful trial period and your manager is supportive that's really positive. The advantage of a trial period is that the employee can make sure they demonstrate during the period how well their proposal will work. The employer has to come up with one of eight business reasons why it won't work if they want to refuse a request, and obviously if it has worked successfully for six months, it will be difficult for them to do that.

However if you're worried, you might find it easier to break it down in terms of the reasons your employer could give for refusal and make sure you are prepared for each one. the reasons are:

burden of additional costs
detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand
inability to reorganise work among existing staff
inability to recruit additional staff
detrimental impact on quality
detrimental impact on performance
insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work
planned structural changes

Some of those definitely won't apply, or you can do nothing about, like structural changes. But you can certainly be prepared and able to demonstrate that the proposal hasn't cost the employer more, that any internal or external clients or customers are satisfied and have not suffered any detrimental effect, that your performance is good with your objectives being met or ideally exceeded, and that there is no significant or unacceptable burden of extra work on other staff.

I'm sure it will be fine, as I say, a successful trial period makes it very difficult for an employer to refuse a request, so as long as you can demonstrate the quality and lack of negative impact, you should be fine.

Hi positive....sorry to gatecrash your thread but i would be very interested to see how this goes for you as i am going to start this process off myself.

I have asked to go term time only but i have been told that ,that is not likely to happen as they could not cover me while i am out of the office on the school holidays, but my son is autistic and my Mum and Dad who look after him in the holidays are finding him just too much to handle (Mum and Dad are 65 and 73) so are no spring chickens LOL!

I have printed off the policy for the right to request flexible working for parents and carers, and there is a bit in there about the responsibility of bringing up a child aged 6 or under or 18 if they are disabled.....i would class autism as a disbility but he is not disabled in the sense that he needs a wheelchair...does that make sense???
I dont know how i can prove that autism is a disability do you???

I would be glad of anyones help on this and sorry again for gatecrashing your thread and hope all goes well for your in your meeting on Friday

Nattynoos

Erm, well there's a double answer there.

The good news is that you don't need to have a child with a disability for flexible working any more. You can do it for any child up to 18. It's a fairly recent change and it sounds like your company's policy hasn't yet been updated.

The bad news is that, where the rights are restricted, you need to be in receipt of disability living allowance to count as disabled (like for being able to take parental leave)

Hi Ribena

I work for the local autority in Plymouth and this was the only one i could find....do you have any idea when the new policy came into play?

I am in receipt of DLA and i did take parental leave last year but was also told that i could not take any more as ive had my quota!

Many thanks for your reply!

Nattynoos

Thanks for your comments and I hope you can get some help with your process natty noos.

I'm getting everything ready tonight, preparing the background ready, for Friday. It's hard not to repeat everything but the agenda I've been given states that I have to talk through the points in my application and then give further background information.

I think the biggest bug bear for my MD is the number of hours I'm out of the office with the number of staff under me - well here we go lots of prep to do!

One point that I think I'll be asked is how I'd handle a staff dispute when I'm not in the office. Bearing in mind, as a Manager, I've had one to deal with in 8 years I feel like saying well in the very unlikely event that it does happen I would suggest the same procedure is followed as if I were on holiday i.e. my line manager would deal with it and I be brought into the loop asap.

Parental leave is here: www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Moneyandworkentitlements/WorkAndFamilies/Parentalleaveandflexibleworkin g/DG_10029416

You might have used your quota - it is still only 13 weeks in total and the employer can limit it to four weeks a year. The difference if you get DLA is the age up to which you can use the leave.

On flexible working, there was a typo in my last answer, it's up to 16 currently (i.e. up to 17th birthday) and 18 if disabled. Flexible working is here www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Flexibleworking/DG_10029491.

Both links are a government website, direct.gov. Worth having a look on there if you have more questions. The change was sometime in 2009. Can't remember exactly.

Positive - I think that sounds good if it's once in 8 years! What about more informal day to day disagreements though. Surely you've had more of those?