I came back from Mat Leave and used my holiday allowance to work part time. I put in my flexible wiring request and everything changed. Previous I was told a promotion was available and I was ‘perfect’ for it, had the most experience and it was basically mine if I wanted it. I applied. Now, my boss boss came into our office and said it ‘wouldn’t be worth it’ for me. I withdrew my application.

My flexi was then put on a trial basis, that kept getting extended. It was around 8 months in total that I was on a flexi trial (and I thought this was while they were putting a business case together to get more staff). The company then had a company wide policy change where we were on a hiring ban and this led to my flexi working being rejected, as they couldn’t hire someone to fill the extra time. HR informed me of all of this as their final’ decision.

I then wrote a long email to them explaining that I felt this hiring ban and subsequent rejection of my flexi working (that had worked for 8 months) was a sexist policy- as most flexi work requests are made by woman so to reject because they have now chosen to have a hiring ban means they didnt give it a fair chance and this policy will negative effect more women than men. I stated that they never tried to hire someone. I explained that they were now forcing me out of my job and had been stringing me along for months (and I had allowed it to ‘help the business’ and be a ‘team player’). I also reminded them of the promotion issue, which I stated was also discriminatory in hindsight.

Two days later they back tracked and told me they had never rejected my flexi request, refused to put that they had in writing and allowed me to have my request. The whole process took about a year and was horrible. I stayed with the company for a further two years and felt like I had a red mark against my name for being difficult. I start my new job next month, where flexi working is standard.