- What is flexible working? Does my employer have to grant my request for flexible working?
What is flexible working?
Flexible working is the name given to any type of working pattern which is different from your existing one and it is an agreement that suits both the employer and the employee.
Flexible working arrangements may include:
- changing from full-time to part-time work;
- changing the part-time hours that you work, for example, from weekends to week days;
- changing working hours to fit in with, for example, school hours, college hours or care arrangements; compressed hours, that is, working your usual hours in fewer days;
- flexitime, which allows you to fit your working hours around agreed core times;
- home working for part or all of the time; job sharing; staggered hours, these allow you to start and finish your days at different times.
- This is often useful in the retail sector where it is important to have more staff over the lunchtime period but fewer at the start and end of the day;
- term-time work, so you don’t work during the school holidays.
