Asking for Advice

Dear Jeremy

When should I tell my employer that I need flexible hours?

I have been made redundant from a university. I was a senior lecturer, and although I was employed full time, I was able to pick up the children from school and then work at home evenings and weekends. Now that I am unemployed, I am finding it difficult to get a job in the educational and social care sector - partly because of the restricted hours I am available, due to the lack of childcare in my village. Should I tell employers on application forms that I would like flexible hours or wait until I am offered an interview?

 Giving Advice 

A whole series of remote rejections can be hugely dispiriting - and I can quite
understand the temptation to withhold the bit about wanting  flexible hours until
you get to the interview. The hope must be that you make such a positive
impression that they'll do everything they can to accommodate you. 
But I'd still advise against it.

Put yourself in your interviewers' shoes. They've been through a great many applications, discarded most and invited you and a few others to see them. And then you disclose the fact that you need to be able to collect your children from school every day.

It may not be a case of bureaucratic inflexibility; in a great many jobs, that simply isn't possible. You'll have wasted their time - and perhaps even denied an interview to another applicant. You should be prepared for some brusque words of dismissal - and that's not too good for the morale.

If flexible hours are an absolute necessity for you, then make it clear on your application. At least you'll never be accused of misleading anyone. But if you haven't already done so, do ask the university that made you redundant to include in your reference the fact that you were able to do a full-time job by working in the evenings and at weekends. That should help a bit.

 

 Letter C