Hi there
Employee returned from mat leave November 2022 and we agreed under FW request to a trial of six months working remotely as struggling to get childcare and husband works away frequently. We have just done the review and asked her to return to the office a minimum of one day per week (ideally two days). Asked her to consider this but had point blank refused and stated she is not comfortable with leaving her children (has 1.5 yr old twins) with childminder (who comes to her home). She had previously asked to go to three days a week but has advised she now wants to remain full time as has a cleaner to help with housework. Has stated that she has a childminder for the mornings but struggles to get someone for the afternoon and has had to change a few times. We are concerned she doesn’t T have any arrangements in place for the afternoons. Has anyone else had this scenario? How far can we go in questioning her arrangements? She also has stated (for the first time) that she is still breastfeeding one of the twin. Any advice gratefully appreciated- thanks
Assuming the request was refused correctly for one or more of the legal reasons, her failure to attend work is misconduct. If you in invoke your disciplinary procedures, the investigation should collate all the available information and it will be for your employee to share as much details as she is willing for consideration.
With regards to breastfeeding, ACAS has a guide on this, however, the considerations would not equate to working from home full time permanently.
FW request is valid, and it will depend on what job she has and what the org's general culture is butgiven she did fully WFH, i taje that as her job allows full WFH. I am more of an advocate of WFH (with flexibility), so i would suggest if the org has something in place like "2 days a week in the office" i think this employee can have a chat with her managers and HR regarding the impact of full WFH and how to ensure her work availability/quality. And see if she can still come in once or twice a month for team meeting etc. Working and childcaring at the same time is not a committed work and this will need to be looked through the lens of performance management. Chilcare itself is not a good enough reason not to comply with the work requests if it's an all-day and every-day practice and the refusal could be subject to disciplinary.
I guess if this was the situation facing me I might wonder....
*Is it essential she returns to hybrid, what is the business reason for refusing & what performance issues have you encounter that makes a return to work necessary now?
*Assuming that's in place and we have discussed it and this person is a good performer the business wants to keep.....how can work accommodate/flex to some of her needs too?
*Childcare is in short supply and a worker will need time to find it, be happy with it and adjust to leaving twins with them. Is there any further emotional support your business can help her with...perhaps buddying her up with another mother who's successfully navigated this or return to work coaching for mat (or shared) leave returners?
It feels like this is getting quite entrenched and you're stuck in the middle of trying to broker a win/ win situation and potentially heading for a win/lose which might not sit comfortably with the business and management and with the individual or other pregnant women or workplace returners.
Good luck. It's hard to work your way through this but personally, I'd hold off the legal - it's misconduct route until you've tried all to broker a less hard core conclusion.
