Jennifer's blog: Statutory flexibility

After lengthy and serious reflection, I finally had a discussion about flexible working options with my Manager.  After thinking about what kind of flexible working would suit and deciding what would work best for me and my employer – we discussed two different types: working from home and part time (but I still question if went part time would I just end up doing laundry that day!).

The discussion lasted a few minutes, no decisions were made and was left open for follow-up – which kind of suited me.  What followed next forced the situation anyway..

Unfortunately one of my parents fell ill very suddenly, our Nanny walked out, and I had a health concern to manage for myself.  Like many colleagues and friends, we are wholly reliant on external paid help as we have no family in the country.

Fortunately, there are in fact different types of leave available to us to support in these emergency kind of situations:

Dependant's leave: this is a statutory right to unpaid leave, typically to manage short duration urgent types of situations.

Compassionate leave: there is no statutory right to this type of leave.  The amount of leave granted and whether it is paid is at the discretion of the employer.

Parental leave: unpaid, up to 18 weeks, can be taken before a child turns 5.  Employer has the right to postpone requests, which can be taken in blocks of up to 4 weeks.

All employees (with 26 weeks' continuous service) can now make flexible working requests, and not just parents or carers – uptake seems to be poor on this however, probably because the Employer still retains the right to refuse requests (although only for the reasons specified in the legislation).

Sick leave: statutory sick pay available after four days of absence.  Employer may offer more generous contractual sick pay.  The employee generally needs to provide a "fit note" for absence of more than 7 days

Thankfully, the above logistics were managed swiftly with support from my Employer – and I probably used many of the above leave types to manage the situations.

I have since (temporarily) “shelved” progressing the formal flexible working request as am just relieved that the simple “status quo” has been restored to the daily routine.  I have promised myself to pick the topic back up again in the near future.

When we really need it, the flexibility is there and available to us, and when the Employer demonstrates support at the right time, typically they get a lot back!!

Jennifer is a Senior HR Manager currently working full time in the City and has a young son.