Mention flexible working request informally before maternity leave?

[kate76]

I'm about to go on maternity leave for the second time. At the moment I work full time, although I do one day from home. When I go back again, I'd like to do one day from home but also have one day off, so do a 4-day week. My manager is nice although fairly new, so hasn't granted a flexible working request before and I have no idea as to what he will say, which is why I wanted to sound him out now rather than fret about it while I am off. We are really busy at the moment, which isn't an ideal situation, although who knows what things will be like 9-12 months from now. My company on the whole is not great with flexible working (city, very corporate), which is partly why I'm feeling apprehensive.
I am happy to be as flexible as necessary. It would just be good to get an idea before I go on maternity leave as to whether he thinks it will be possible when I come back...
Any advice appreciated!

If you are sure about what you want to do then being open with him would probably be good.

I didn't put my request in until I was halfway through my maternity leave, but that was because I hadn't made a decision until then.

IMO, the felxible working legislation is difficult as it requires a request to be put in writing, a meeting to discuss and a response, in writing withing a set time frame. However, it could be much more beneficial to have a reasoned conversation about it with your manager, talk through the options and come up with solutions to work towards that everyone is happy with. If you are going to broach the subject, I would suggest you do this with a strategy in mind.

Think about how your role / another role would work on three office days and one home day. How would the other work get covered, (a one day a week temp, one week a month temp, a lower level employee to work along side you, possibly shared with another area, work removed from the role through automating procedures, shared resource from other areas). Think about how much the one day a week saving would be and how this money could be used to get the rest of the work done or whether there is overlap / duplication / under untilised resources in other areas.

Think about what compromises you would be prepared to make, eg would you go three days if that made it easier to find a job share partners (do you know of anyone who would job share?), would you do 5 days in 4 (I'm not a big fan personally) would you compromise on your day working from home. Suggest that you as a team can use the next 9-12 months working towards the end game - ie how to reduce the role to 4 days or suggest returning full time for a short period so that you can re-engineer the role to 4 days.

Give your boss time to think about it and come back to you at a subsequent meeting so he is not put on the spot.

Good Luck.

I think it is a very good idea to discuss it before going off on mat leave, as because you already have a DC your manager will probably assume that you want to continue with the status quo.

In order that you don't spend your early mat leave worrying if the initial response isn't positive, then maybe you could couch it in terms of you aren't expecting an answer or even a reaction at this point but this is what you are thinking about and wanted him to know now rather than come as a surprise to him.

Just a small aside I work 4 days a week and your workload won't reduce from f/t unless you have an exceptionally good manager or are forthright about your capacity and hours,having said that though I do prefer it to full time

Hope it all goes well.