Hello,

We have an employee who has always expressed the desire to work remotely since before the pandemic (they have not asked formally via a flexible working request.

As an organisation we have decided that we want staff to work 3 days in the office and 2 days at home. We have also moved in to a new office over the pandemic and a significant amount of money has been spent to ensure that it's a nice environment for all to return to though I appreciate that working from home has changed many attitudes.

The employee mentioned above has had a few issues since returning to the office, things cited as lack of sunlight, temperature etc and we have been trying to make adjustments but they are very clear that they want to work remotely. They have said they would be willing to come in one day a week.

I am fully aware of what we can and can't agree to if it were to go to a formal flexible working request so I don't need advice on this but what I really need help with is how do we deal with the impact on the rest of the team? The work can be done at home but we are fully aware that if we allow this for one employee, then there will be about 3/4 other members of the team who will want to do the same which is not what we want overall. I'm aware that we cannot use company culture/ethos as a reason not to grant the request if it's a formal flexible working request so how should we manage this for the team overall?