What is flexible working?
Flexible working is a way of working that suits your needs, for example having flexible start and finish times, job sharing, or working from home.
Who can request flexible working?
Employees have a legal right to request flexible working. This applies from the first day of the job.
Employers can accept, partially accept or reject a request. The employer can only reject the request if there’s a genuine business reason.
If an employee makes a statutory flexible working request, the employer must:
- handle it in a reasonable way, in line with the Acas Code of Practice on requests for flexible working
- accept the request unless there’s a genuine business reason not to
- consult the employee and discuss any alternative options – unless they’ve agreed to the request in full
- make a decision within a maximum of 2 months
- not dismiss or cause the employee harm, damage or loss because of their request
You are only entitled to make a flexible work request if you are legally classed as an employee. You can Check Your Employment Status on this page from Citizens Advice.
What kind of flexible working can I do?
You might want to:
- reduce your hours to work part time
- change your start and finish times
- have flexible start and finish times
- do your hours over fewer days (compressed hours)
- work from home or elsewhere (remote working), all or part of the time
- share the job with someone else
You can ask for the change to be for:
- all working days
- specific days or shifts only
- specific weeks only, for example during school term time
- a limited time, for example for 6 months only
There is a really helpful guide from Working Families to work out the best new pattern to ask for, including a prioritisation exercise and how to calculate any changes to your pay.
What are some examples of flexible working?
Jas is a lettings agent.
She works staggered hours so that she can care for her mother in the mornings.
She works from 11:30am – 7:30pm but most of her colleagues work from 9:30am – 5:30pm.
Abi is an administrator, she works compressed hours, partly from home.
She works full time hours (37.5) spread across 9 days which works out to 8.3 hours per day.
She has every other Monday off and uses the day to catch up on life admin.
She works mostly from home, with Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the office.
How can I request flexible working?
Your request for flexible working needs to be made in writing – you can use this template letter from ACAS.
Before making a decision, your employer should set up a meeting with you to talk about your request. You can ask to bring someone to this meeting (a colleague or a trade union representative) but your employer doesn’t have to agree to this.
At the meeting you can talk about the reasons you want this change, how any problems might be dealt with, and suggest some other options if the change is not possible.
To prepare for the meeting you could prepare possible solutions and compromises, you could also speak to colleagues who already work flexibly to find out what works well.
Working Families have put together some Negotiation Tips to support your flexible working needs.
And they have a Webinar Recording for you to watch.
You could also speak to a coach to help with creating a positive and solution focused mindset for a meeting like this:
What next?
Your employer must make a decision within 2 months of you making a flexible working request.
If they do not agree, there is information from ACAS about appealing their decision.