We are a small consultancy. One of our members of staff has asked if he can have 1 day a week at home. He and his wife have a 4 year old child and he wants a better work/life balance. However, we work in a competitive industry, and our clients generally want our staff to be on site 5 days a week. If we agree to this with one member of staff, are we compelled to provide it for other members of staff? We may (for a trial period initially) be able to do this for one person, but our business would suffer greatly if everyone wanted to do this, we simply couldn’t afford the loss of revenue or the loss of business if we can’t provide what the customer needs. I know you can refuse a request if it adversley affects business, but can you still use that reason if you have allowed one person to do it? We certainly don’t want to lose this person, it is a friendly atmosphere here with a great deal of respect for each other, but there is a limit to what we can do, and even more so if it means opening the flood gates to other requests. Generally we support flexible working and do promote it if the roles allow it, but some roles are not geared towards this.
Liz Ratcliffe