Flexi Working Request - Unpaid Leave

Undervalued

adamL said:

I'm sorry but you want all the parental leave, all your holiday and then 3 more weeks every year? I work for a very flexible and understanding employer with good policies to support staff. No way on earth would anyone approve this every year! As a one off, with a good case and an explanation of how this might benefit me as an employer / manager, then yes. But what you are asking for is very unreasonable and I would be amazed if any employer would accept such a proposal.

75% flexible working is a nightmare in many circumstances - it means you need a 25% person, and as you have already pointed out - you can't afford to drop too many hours, so you need to understand that others can't afford a job without enough. 

If these are the kinds of decisions your employer is being asked to make, I think I can see why they don't like making them. What you are asking is not flexible working. Your choice to home-educate your child is your choice, but your ask is that your employer basically underwrite it with loads of time of work. That is very unlikely.

Linlui, totally unhelpful.

Parental Leave and Annual Leave are my entitlements - Parental Leave is actually a right, and if I had 4 kids, I could take 4 weeks a year without any questions asked, And therefore wouldn't want anymore time off - but due to unfortunate circumstances, extra kids are off the table sadly so I'm stuck with 1 week parental leave per year. My employer doesn't care about stuff like that, they simple approve all parental leave with 3 weeks notice. I'm just a number at my place (1 of 1000+ and overtime is normal). I've got several colleagues who do take 4 weeks a year of parental leave, most of which take Christmas and August - now that's a strain although never actually an issue.

At any given point at my place, 15% of people out of the 1000+ are unable to do the job they are paid to do because simple over the counter medication makes them unfit to do the job, or their glasses prescription needs renewing etc. This doesn't include people on Annual Leave. Even sick pay is paid for something like 6 months at full pay. And if you become pregnant, you are paid for your entire pregnancy but don't actually do anything - plus of course a year off work and then a good few months of re training. My work is clearly a million miles away from your line of work.

There are other railway companies already offering 75% hours so that's not totally off the table either, but it's not the conversation I really want and the union is discussing that one anyway.

We have people accommodated on just one particular shift when we should all be working around the clock 24/7 and a full range of shifts. They made that decision to simply allow childcare. Others are accomodated on Monday to Friday 9-5, whilst I work a full range of shifts - 4am starts, 4pm starts, 10pm starts etc.

So I go back to my question, does anyone know whether Flexi working can include unpaid time off?

Unhelpful?

Why? Because it is accurate but not what you wanted to hear?

A bit like "If I had four kids........" Maybe so, but it isn't helpful because you don't!

You have certain legal rights, which I am sure you will exercise. This is an area where some employers do far more than the minimum the law requires. That is at their discretion. There is no automatic right for this discretion to be extended to all employees, unless the real reason amounts to unlawful discrimination (e.g race, gender etc).

Andy_L

adamL said:

Parental Leave and Annual Leave are my entitlements - Parental Leave is actually a right, and if I had 4 kids, I could take 4 weeks a year without any questions asked, And therefore wouldn't want anymore time off - but due to unfortunate circumstances, extra kids are off the table sadly so I'm stuck with 1 week parental leave per year. My employer doesn't care about stuff like that, they simple approve all parental leave with 3 weeks notice. I'm just a number at my place (1 of 1000+ and overtime is normal). I've got several colleagues who do take 4 weeks a year of parental leave, most of which take Christmas and August - now that's a strain although never actually an issue.

"Parental leave is unpaid. You’re entitled to 18 weeks’ leave for each child and adopted child, up to their 18th birthday.

The limit on how much parental leave each parent can take in a year is 4 weeks for each child (unless the employer agrees otherwise)."

https://www.gov.uk/parental-leave/entitlement

So I go back to my question, does anyone know whether Flexi working can include unpaid time off?

Yes, You can request to do less hours over the year and "compress them" into less of the year so you have the 4 weeks off you want 

"Annualised hours

The employee has to work a certain number of hours over the year but they have some flexibility about when they work. There are sometimes ‘core hours’ which the employee regularly works each week, and they work the rest of their hours flexibly or when there’s extra demand at work."

https://www.gov.uk/flexible-working/types-of-flexible-working

elsien

Is there a reason you can’t immerse your daughter in the culture using your standard annual leave, other than that you would prefer not to?