Employer insisting I attend training courses on my days off

Frogling

Spendless wrote: »

If I've got your rota correctly you work
week1 - Sat and Sun

week2 - Thurs and Fri

week 3 -Off

Why can't you ask your childcare provider to take your child on the Thurs and Friday of either week 1 or 3 when you wouldn't be working those days and do the course then?

I work a Sat/Sun, have 3 days off, then work the Thurs/Friday, then have a week off, then back to Sat/Sun - Thurs/Friday shift.

I don't understand how it is anymore difficult than arranging childcare for the days you normally work? All you need to do is find out what days you need to attend the course and book your child into the nursery on those days also. There is no need for it to be difficult or cause you any stress...

The nursery is currently fully subscribed, so no, it's not simply a case of booking him in as and when I need. If it were that easy, then I wouldn't have posted asking for advice. It seems some people are assuming things and judging me based on very little information. I simply put the basic facts in my original post, there is a lot going on in my life that isn't relevant to the advice I was asking for, therefore I saw no need to include it.

FBaby

Have you actually asked the nursery? We are not assuming anything, you are not providing any detail of the efforts you've put into try to accommodate doing these training dates so it's difficult to gather whether your company is being unfair or not.

takman

Frogling wrote: »

I work a Sat/Sun, have 3 days off, then work the Thurs/Friday, then have a week off, then back to Sat/Sun - Thurs/Friday shift.

The nursery is currently fully subscribed, so no, it's not simply a case of booking him in as and when I need. If it were that easy, then I wouldn't have posted asking for advice. It seems some people are assuming things and judging me based on very little information. I simply put the basic facts in my original post, there is a lot going on in my life that isn't relevant to the advice I was asking for, therefore I saw no need to include it.

This is the first time you have mentioned that they were fully booked so it didn't seem like you had tried that option. Plus you said this situation is causing you alot of stress so i'm saying there is no need to be stressed about it, i wasn't commenting on any stress caused by situations that none of us know about.


Basically my point is that this situation is very simple. Your employer states you have to go on courses while you have no other arrangements in place for childcare. So the solution is to find childcare for your child. So now is the time to be visiting new nurserys that have space and finding one that you happy with and getting your child used to the new nursery.


Telling your employer that you can't do the courses is only going to cause tension at work and cause yourself alot more stress. In my experience people who are able to organise their personal life to meet work demands without causing a fuss are much more likely to get payrises/promotions and goodwill from their employers.

Undervalued

Frogling wrote: »

I work a Sat/Sun, have 3 days off, then work the Thurs/Friday, then have a week off, then back to Sat/Sun - Thurs/Friday shift.

The nursery is currently fully subscribed, so no, it's not simply a case of booking him in as and when I need. If it were that easy, then I wouldn't have posted asking for advice. It seems some people are assuming things and judging me based on very little information. I simply put the basic facts in my original post, there is a lot going on in my life that isn't relevant to the advice I was asking for, therefore I saw no need to include it.

It is very easy to get the wrong advice if you miss out something that is relevant. If you are absolutely certain what is and isn't relevant they you probably don't need advice!

So, with that in mind one other thing to keep in mind (that may or may not be relevant)......

Your husband has just as much right to request flexible working as you. Also, when it comes to emergency leave for dependants (i.e sick child) your employer is fully entitled to expect that the burden is shared equally between you and your husband. Without being sexist or making assumptions, if it is the case that your husband is higher paid it is naturally tempting for you to take any necessary unpaid leave rather than him. If your employer wants to be difficult they could monitor that carefully and insist it is shared equally. So, maybe not all the flexibility is one way as you seem to believe.

Assuming you value your job and given that the qualification will be yours and portable, I would suggest you make every effort to fit in with the training courses.

Frogling

takman wrote: »

Telling your employer that you can't do the courses is only going to cause tension at work and cause yourself alot more stress. In my experience people who are able to organise their personal life to meet work demands without causing a fuss are much more likely to get payrises/promotions and goodwill from their employers.

I have organised my personal life to meet work demands. I stepped down from a full-time position and took a 2-day week so that I could fit everything in without disruption. And I'm not causing a fuss, or refusing to attend courses, I was simply asking my employer whether there were any alternatives. Asking for advice seems to have spiralled into something else entirely, which was not my intention at all. I am trying my best to fit in the training courses.

Thank you to those people who replied to my initial question, your advice was much appreciated. I am meeting with the head of training next week to talk everything through, he was very positive that we will be able to find a solution between us.

Undervalued

Frogling wrote: »

I have organised my personal life to meet work demands. I stepped down from a full-time position and took a 2-day week so that I could fit everything in without disruption. And I'm not causing a fuss, or refusing to attend courses, I was simply asking my employer whether there were any alternatives. Asking for advice seems to have spiralled into something else entirely, which was not my intention at all. I am trying my best to fit in the training courses.

Thank you to those people who replied to my initial question, your advice was much appreciated. I am meeting with the head of training next week to talk everything through, he was very positive that we will be able to find a solution between us.

Yes, but that works both ways too. Your employer did not have to agree to you doing that. It may well be less than ideal from their point of view yet they agreed. I'm sorry but I am not sure it is as one sided as you seem to think.

Spendless

Frogling wrote: »

I work a Sat/Sun, have 3 days off, then work the Thurs/Friday, then have a week off, then back to Sat/Sun - Thurs/Friday shift.

The nursery is currently fully subscribed, so no, it's not simply a case of booking him in as and when I need. If it were that easy, then I wouldn't have posted asking for advice. It seems some people are assuming things and judging me based on very little information. I simply put the basic facts in my original post, there is a lot going on in my life that isn't relevant to the advice I was asking for, therefore I saw no need to include it.

But the bolded bit is very relevant to what you asked, so needed to be included for people to be able to give you suggestions which could solve your issue.

The nursery might be fully subscribed as in they can't take an additional child on on a permanent basis but children go on holiday and it may be that there's a space available for a week or two due to someone being away. I'd get a list of potential dates of the course from your employer and then go and talk to your childcare provider. See what they say first.

Spendless

Also you say family don't live nearby. Is there any possibility Grandparents or other relatives could come to stay for a few days or alternatively little one could go and stay with relatives for a few days to enable you to do this course?

takman

[QUOTE=Frogling;72150700]I have organised my personal life to meet work demands. I stepped down from a full-time position and took a 2-day week so that I could fit everything in without disruption. And I'm not causing a fuss, or refusing to attend courses, I was simply asking my employer whether there were any alternatives. Asking for advice seems to have spiralled into something else entirely, which was not my intention at all. I am trying my best to fit in the training courses.

Thank you to those people who replied to my initial question, your advice was much appreciated. I am meeting with the head of training next week to talk everything through, he was very positive that we will be able to find a solution between us.[/QUOTE]

Stepping down from a full time position and taking a 2 days a week job is the complete opposite. What you are doing there is organising work to meet your personal life demands.

So when you have your meeting with the head of training next week and they ask "have you been able to find childcare for the days when we need you to attend the course". When you answer "No I havnt even tried looking" then start asking them to rearrange the courses to days you want them to, I doubt they will be very happy with that.

Why should your workplace have to rearrange courses when you haven't even bothered trying to make arrangements so you can attend on those days.

The only reason you are not happy with my reply is because you wanted people to tell you how your workplace should bend over backwards to meet your needs and can't accept any other answers.

I wouldn't be surprised if your making a thread on here soon about how your being made redundant or being dismissed from your job because the most difficult employees are always the first to go!.

unforeseen

Since most of the courses appear to be external to the company then I doubt whether your employer is in a position to change dates as these will be set by the training companies.