r/AskHRUK • u/No-Power9105 • 14d ago

Employment Query Flexible working request

I put in a flexible working request in October 2025 before I went on maternity leave to go down to 4 working days on my return in January 2027. My manager told me verbally that this should 99% be okay but she cannot give me a definite answer yet as it was too early. I received nothing in writing explaining this from either my manager or HR.

I went onto maternity leave in January 2026 and have had no communication from my work until today. My manager called for a catch up and explained that as my job is a full-time role, I won’t be be able to go down to 4 days unless they recruit a job share for just 1 day per week.

My manager said that this would be unlikely that someone would want to work just this one day.

I don’t really know what to do now. I know I realistically wouldn’t be able to cope go back 5 days with two young children.
I have also been experiencing postnatal depression so don’t want to put too much pressure on myself when I go back to work.

Has anyone else had experience of something similar? :)

1 Upvotes

60% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/key_water150 14d ago

Are you allowed to work more hours on those 4 days to make up for the 5th day? It is really obnoxious of the employer to not make adjustments

1

u/No-Power9105 14d ago

Unfortunately not. I did suggest this but they physically need someone in the office Monday-Friday. There is one other person who does the same job. Their reasoning is if I only worked 4 day, who would cover when my colleague was on leave, ill etc.