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If you can WFH and want to, your employer has to justify why you can’t and “because we say so” isn’t good enough.
@Cougar - do you have evidence of the legality of that? Or is it just policy where you work? Or your preferred approach?
If your contract of employment states your hours of work and place of work then your employer can insist that you return to the office full-time.
Hybrid working is discretionary.
that was how I understood it too
Legal - https://www.gov.uk/flexible-working
advice - https://www.acas.org.uk/making-a-flexible-working-request
as long as you;re been there for 26 weeks you have the right to make a request
This page deals with what to do if it's turned down
https://www.acas.org.uk/making-a-flexible-working-request/if-your-request-is-turned-down
the key section here is
Your employer can turn down your flexible working request if there’s a valid business reason for doing so.
By law, your employer can turn down your flexible working request if:
- it will cost too much
- they cannot reorganise the work among other staff
- they cannot recruit more staff
- there will be a negative effect on quality
- there will be a negative effect on the business’ ability to meet customer demand
- there will be a negative effect on performance
- there’s not enough work for you to do when you’ve requested to work
- there are planned changes to the business, for example, your employer plans to reorganise or change the business and thinks the request will not fit with these plans
Some of these reasons relate more to job sharing or reducing working hours, rather than simply working from home. Crucially though, "becasue I want to see you" is NOT a good reason. If you've ben WFH succesfully it's up to your employer to give yu a valid reason why you can't continue
EDIT - Official bit from gov uk website here
https://www.gov.uk/flexible-working/after-the-application
Reasons for rejecting
Employers can reject an application for any of the following reasons:-extra costs that will damage the business
-the work cannot be reorganised among other staff
-people cannot be recruited to do the work
-flexible working will affect quality and performance
-the business will not be able to meet customer demand
-there’s a lack of work to do during the proposed working times
-the business is planning changes to the workforce
this more or less mirrors the ACAS guidance - i've bolded the key sentence. Has anyone complained that you aren;t doing your job since WFH?
This is arse-backwards, for what it’s worth.
If you can WFH and want to, your employer has to justify why you can’t and “because we say so” isn’t good enough.
I think it is justifiable (by my employer) in my situation. Everyone I line manage is on site the vast majority of the time (as they are lab based scientists). Giving the option to managers of never coming on site and everyone they manage being in all the time would be a bit of a strange dynamic. Pre-covid, anything other than sporadic WFH would not have been considered, which is why I am grateful to have been able to prove it works well most of the time.
I had requested to WFH 3 days a week and was granted 2 (though my manager is happy for me to do ad hoc WFH in addition as long as I don't take the piss). I have a sneaking suspicion I might be given the option to work more at home when they run the sums on how many employee numbers have grown over the last two years, versus the number of desks available on site!
do you have evidence of the legality of that?
As nbt said, it's Flexible Working. You have a right to request it and an employer has to justify denying it. "A bit of a strange dynamic" is not justification if you've just demonstrated that it's been perfectly workable for the last two years. Needing to do lab work in a lab probably is.
Can you effectively manage your reports from home or not? If no then fair enough, if yes then what's the point of commuting other than a time sink?
If your contract of employment states your hours of work and place of work then your employer can insist that you return to the office full-time.
Hybrid working is discretionary.
This simply isn't true. An employment contract - indeed, any contract - cannot waive statutory rights.
Statutory rights will never usurp the needs (or wants) of the business. HR would not let that happen.
Ah Human Remains !!
I was at a meeting at Manchester University Business School where a lecturer/presenter used his favourite quote ".. HR has industrialised the process of being unhelpful"
I think most people can relate to that
The business will simply quote the famous 'business needs' which covers a whole host of possibilities of nothingness and then you'll need to decide if it's worth your time fighting tooth and nail. In my previous role I applied for flexible working with the reasoning that my role, as systems based, was completely non student facing and therefore could be easily done from home as we were already evidencing, I'm at a high risk of covid as I'm double immune compromised, I have a disability which makes office place working not easy for me and actually tends to mean I suffer more than I do at home health wise, oh and our occupational health provider also agreed that it would be beneficial for me to be able to work from home. And what do you reckon they said?
I'm in a new role now which as of Monday is going to be even more systems based and I start going back into the office every Monday and Friday with a constant review as to upping that to three, I need to decide how much I want to fight that somewhere down the line and see if I can get it agreed in writing to do two and only two.
@golfchick - start the new role with a defined, documented arrangement or it will be open to interpretation x months down the line
Yeah I have it in an email that we've agreed to those two days in person with reviews down the line but that line manager was temporary, the one from Monday is also temporary so I'm sort of waiting for somebody definite so I can ask for something more official. Problem is even if OH agree again which they probably will, the workplace can just say well 'for business needs'.
The enforced WFH has manifested in what I call Little Bo Peep Syndrome with some management teams.
They've lost their sheep and they don't like it. The Living With Covid directive gives them the opportunity to get us all back in our pens under their watchful eyes. Control freakery and demonstrating a clear lack of trust. Poor form really.
The enforced WFH has manifested in what I call Little Bo Peep Syndrome with some management teams.
They’ve lost their sheep and they don’t like it.
I shall be stealing this phrase!