Perhaps the easiest solution is just to chat with the person and go through all the issues.

I second chatting with the employee. She's unwell due to pregnancy (not to be underestimated, I spent three months of one of my pregnancies bedridden with HE), add to that unstable housing situation, stressful at the best of times, and it sounds like this employee needs some serious support right now. Have you done a pregnancy risk assessment? Is there something in the workplace she's anxious about needing to do/be exposed to whilst pregnant? Etc. Lots to do.

The most important question:

*How is their work?*

If the employee is doing the job you need them to do, to a standard that meets your needs, then don't worry too much about it. Agree on an interim basis, but have a meeting to see if some sort of FWR should be discussed and agreed, perhaps with input from OH.

You haven't said what the company's policy is on remote working. But if EE's work is good and they have real MH needs that can be alleviated with a consistent approach to remote working, then why not do it?

If, on the other hand, their work is poor, then you need to have a separate conversation with them about standards. By all means still agree a FW approach with them to help alleviate their anxiety issues but be clear that, if their work continues to be poor, their employment will be at risk. Remote working is not an excuse to shirk.

Hi Chris,

Presumably, this is the same employee you asked for advice on in March?

 WFH on Mondays... 

You received some top advice. Did you adopt a different approach? What, if anything, has changed?

I do appreciate you coming to the Community for support. That's what we're here for.

In reply to Steve Bridger:

Hi Steve,

Thank you, I do really appreciate the community support.

Yes the advise i got from the tagged post was very helpful.

The approach i decided to take was utilising the informal flexible working clause. Their Hybrid working is a formal agreement. However, in the policy, they can also request informal flexible working requests. So I provided flexibility under this, but I did stress it was occasional. additionally i advised them that they could submit a formal request to extend the working from home days and see if this would be accepted.

At the time they advised me that they feel it is temporary, as they have a lot going on outside of work. So, I will monitored the situation, tried to be as flexible as possible and see how it progressed.

IT transpired that they were pregnant. So i continued to be as flexible as possible. However since March, i have had 15-20 request for additional WFH days. Usually relating to morning sickness or anxiety. All requests have been granted. A majority of these request have been on a Sunday for the Monday.

Now i have received a message, asking if they can WFH every day for a unspecified duration, this is due to them finding out that they need to move from there rented accommodation in 2 months time. They stated that they need to work from home due to this making them anxious and them needing the time on their lunch to "get stuff sorted"

So i was just seeking advise around the mental health element.

I have had a wellbeing meeting with them today and they advised that they just feel anxious due to the current circumstances. I asked if they have sort advise from their GP, they advised they do not want to.

I asked how the office has an impact on their mental health, they said they could not provide any reason to how it has a negative impact. I offered to swap their WFH days to Monday and Friday, as they seem to request these days 70% of the time, they refused and said they don't want to work three days in a row in the office. I asked again, what is causing them to not want to, they could not advise any reason other than they did not want to.

I asked them what they felt would help, they said they just want to work from home so they can make calls on there lunch. I have previously offered a private room that they can do this on their lunch, they said they just didn't want to do it at work.

I offered to help them look for rented accommodation in my own time if it would help, they advised that they didn't want to as they don't want to pay rent as they are saving up for something big.

I asked if they had contacted the local council to see if they could help with their housing situation, they hadn't and advised that they would look into it.

I will see if i can agree the WFH request on an interim basis, they are also wanting to take maternity leave as early as possible, so this will be around mid September. When they are due to return i will see what the circumstances are then, as i can only presume that they will be retuning full time on there original T&C's

In reply to Chris:

they advised that they just feel anxious due to the current circumstances

Do be aware that "feeling anxious" and "Generalised Anxiety Disorder" are not the same thing. To feel anxious about an impending event (a forthcoming redundancy exercise, or the completion of a project, or a big presentation) is a completely normal and, indeed, healthy response to unfamiliar stimuli. An anxiety disorder, meanwhile, is when you have the same exaggerated physiological responses to things that should not normally cause anxiety, such as making a cup of tea for a colleague or remembering to take the right turning to get to work.

If someone tells you they are anxious, find out what they're feeling anxious about. If they can't articulate it, present them with some normal scenarios from their working day and see which ones prompt anxiety.

We aren't psychiatrists, of course. But it isn't that hard to take a quick temperature measure on whether someone is merely worried about stuff or might actually benefit from a medical professional's opinion.

Given that this employee is pregnant and has issues with permanent suitable housing, I would say they might be quite reasonably anxious about this.

they could not advise any reason other than they did not want to

Do remember that there is no obligation on the part of an employee to offer a reason they want flexible working. The only real consideration for an employer should be whether the request can be accommodated or not.

I offered to help them look for rented accommodation in my own time

For your own mental health and wellbeing, do not commit personal time to assisting colleagues. For a start, it runs a risk of crossing professional lines by unintentionally signalling personal interest. But it is also the start of an erosion of the boundaries between work and personal that we should, especially as HR professionals, resist at all costs.

Your colleagues are adults who are accountable for their own life choices.

In reply to Chris:

I came here to say similar to Robey - the reasons for anxiety are only relevant if they are work-related that you can mitigate. Once you've confirmed they are not work-related, there is no need to probe further if the employee doesn't wish to discuss and you put the business at risk of damaged relationships if you do.

It is very reasonable and common for leaving home to increase anxiety even if the place she is going (work) does not have specific factors that increase it.

Your post reads a little like a Q&A/interrogation - I assume this is because you have taken the "fluffy" side out for the speed of posting/reading and for clarity. But I would advise on keeping any questions truly open - instead of "how does the office impact your mental health", just "how can we support you?". The former could be taken to indicate scepticism or cynicism no matter how supportively it is intended, because the onus is being put on her to justify that leaving home is impacting her mental health, which she has already told you. The latter indicates that you have already accepted this.

Is there anything, other than it not fitting the policy, that actually makes WFH an unreasonable request from her? If she were to WFH 5 days a week, what would the actual business impact be? Ignore that "it's against policy" and ignore the reasons why, just evaluate whether she actually could WFH whenever she wants for the rest of her pregnancy, provided her work remains at its current standard.