Working from home request

BellaBoo0512

Hi I currently work 2 full days per week. In my contract this should be one day from home and one day in the office. I suffer with chronic pain so my employer has been allowing me to work from home ongoing until I am in less pain and able to go in to the office. 

The thing is, I don’t see my pain improving any time soon. I have to ask every week if I’m okay working from home because of the pain. Am I within my rights to request to work from home permanently or could this cause me problems? I feel like messaging my employer every week that eventually they are going to turn around and say I need to go back into the office. 

I’m in no less pain working from home than I would be going in to the office but I’m struggling with driving and if I go into the office it means getting up an hour earlier and having to drive there and back home. 

Alex_Alumni

Hi @BellaBoo0512 is this something you're able to speak about with HR, or your manager? It sounds like you've got flexible working in place as a reasonable adjustment.

I don't think there's any harm in reviewing this adjustment if you feel you need to to work at your best. Perhaps you can ask for a meeting with your employer to chat about this.

Are you a member of a union at all? It may be helpful to have a union representative, or else a trusted colleague, with you. They can support you in meeting with your employer.

If you'd like to read guidance on reasonable adjustments, ACAS has information on reviewing reasonable adjustments, which I hope is helpful. 

If there's anything I've missed, please let me know  

JeannieF

Alex_Scope said:

Hi @BellaBoo0512 is this something you're able to speak about with HR, or your manager? It sounds like you've got flexible working in place as a reasonable adjustment.

I don't think there's any harm in reviewing this adjustment if you feel you need to to work at your best. Perhaps you can ask for a meeting with your employer to chat about this.

Are you a member of a union at all? It may be helpful to have a union representative, or else a trusted colleague, with you. They can support you in meeting with your employer.

If you'd like to read guidance on reasonable adjustments, ACAS has information on reviewing reasonable adjustments, which I hope is helpful. 

If there's anything I've missed, please let me know  

Hi Alex, I have a similar issue. It’s a small company and we have no HR dept or a union. Do you know if I can get someone from somewhere to attend a meeting with my employer to help support me? I don’t think my boss will listen to me but if I had someone there with me he might listen. 

Hannah_Alumni

Hello @JeannieF

Welcome to the community! Unfortunately, Alex doesn't work here anymore but I see MW123 has given some great advice As for having someone with you for anything in person, you can join a union yourself if you feel that would be beneficial.

Hannah_Alumni

@Cressida But you can join a union for further advice and see where they could support. They can also have a lot of information pages available, but some are only able to be accessed once a member.