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Flexible Working
By Antonia Chitty
Do you miss your kids while you're out at work all day?
Or are you on maternity leave and desperate not to return?
There are a number of options if you want a better work life balance.
Read on to find out your rights to flexible working if you have a job.
Family Friendly Flexibility
If you love your job, but want more family time, and have a child under six, you can ask to change your hours. Anyone can ask for flexible working, but parents of children under six and disabled children under 18 have a legal right to ask. This right extends to anyone who cares, or expects to be caring, for a spouse, partner, civil partner or relative who lives at the same address.
Your employer has to take your request seriously, but doesn’t have to change your hours if it conflicts with the needs of their business.
You can ask for:
· a change to the hours you work
· a change to the times you workor to work from home, full or part time.
Even if your children are older, it is still worth asking your employer for a change.
Louise changed her hours so she now works from 7am to 2:30pm so she can be there to collect her daughter at the end of the school day. Her husband adjusted his hours so he can do the school drop off, and arrives at work for 9:30am.
Other ideas for family friendly hours
- Annualised hours
- Compressed hours
- Flexi time
- Job-sharing
- Self-rostering
- Evening & weekend working
- Staggered hours
- Term-time working
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