Requesting a change of hours at work

mrsrwallace

As some of you may know myself and my husband both work shifts and this has caused a severe upset in our work/life balance and messes our kids about quite a lot. So much so that I have now decided to request a change of hours at work.

I know some of you will say that I should be thankful we have work and we are and I also know that some will say we are lucky our children see us at all considering some parents work away from home (we know this and my OH worked away for ages when the kids were wee). Anyway...

Basically what I want is hours of work during the day - I am happy to start at 8.30am at the earliest and work until 6pm at the latest. At the moment I leave home at stupid o'clock in the early hours and am on til afternoon. This is fine for some but proving to be very difficult at the moment as my kids are still at school and need lifts sorted etc and their dad is also out at work all mental hours, usually really early mornings or all-nighters. So I need advice. How do I politely ask for a change of hours citing my lack of work/life balance as the reason?

I am in a job where duties have to be done at a certain time so that is why I do the hours I do and I honestly do not think that another member of staff would swap with me. I am happy to do the occasional evening IF I could get off the earlies.

Suggestions? I know directgov says folk with parental responsibilities have the right to request flexible working but I am not exactly asking for that. I want better hours basically so I am at work during school hours.

Sambucus_Nigra

That is exactly what you are asking.

What do you want to know?

Make a request for flexible working under the flexible working request rights. Remember that they also have the right to refuse.

Make it easy for them by giving them solutions and an advantage to the arrangement [ie you could answer the phones before and after the receptionist comes in].

Perhaps you need to read up a bit more on the rights to flexible working and what they are.

chanie

YOu do have the right to ask for flexible working and it is up to your employer to justify why they can't accommodate it. You need to put your request in writing and they will need to respond within a certain time frame.

You should state specifically the hours you want to work and how it won't have a detrimental affect on the business. However, you need to approach it from a business point of view if you want to be successful and not focus on the benefits to you e.g. if you work in a shop for example, you can't ask to work hours when the shop is shut and there is no work. I know this is obvious, but I have seen loads of flexible work requests where the individual has focussed on their own needs and not what the business could accept.

YOu should also try and address any reservations they may have and come up with solutions to these. For example, if you want to work day shifts it may mean that colleagues have to work the more unpopular shifts and they may refuse on this basis. YOu could suggest working weekends etc as a compromise (if possible).

Just a few ideas. Good luck.

mrsrwallace

i shall do that, thanks

Today was just a complete horlicks and i just reached the end of my tether with trying to juggle everything. Some people are great under pressure, I am not one of them! I just think that what I am asking is exactly what most parents want, to be at work while the kids are at school and home for dinner at a reasonable time with a proper night's sleep thrown in for good measure!

Jobs are so hard to get and the job I am in is secure-ish so I don't want to upset the applecart so to speak but I am just fed up with the shifts. I am very aware that my request can be refused and that is what irks me, I have watched others ask similar requests and be told no and then left the job. Leaving is not an option for me.

Sambucus_Nigra

mrsrwallace wrote: »

I have watched others ask similar requests and be told no and then left the job.

That is not a good sign I am afraid.

Be 100% sure that you have some answers to the reasons that they may give - read up on the reasons that they can give and find solutions before you put pen to paper.

elsien

I don't think citing a work/life balance as a reason is going to get you very far, you're going to need a bit more than that. Presumably you accepted the shift system when you took the job so unless they've changed a fair amount since, unless you can make a reasonable and do-able request re flexible working and come up with some solutions, don't hold your breath.
I'm not unsympathetic -I also work shifts and would love more time off at weekends etc when family are around - but as the person who does the rotas I also know that in some work places it's either just not possible or impacts too unfairly on other employees. And I tend to the opinion that if my staff accepted the shifts which were made very clear at interview, and little else has changed, then if they change their mind that's their problem, not mine.