The pandemic redefined the workplace in modern Britain. Across almost all sectors, people moved from city centre offices to bedrooms, living rooms, home offices or kitchens. We went from meeting in person to meeting online. As a society, we saw the benefits of working compressed hours, jobshares, new shift patterns or from home, all at a time when our ‘norm’ was upended. This interim status quo gave unpaid carers, women, disabled people and new parents the chance to balance their working and personal commitments properly for the first time.

But now, we’re seeing a slide back to the old way of doing things, with calls for workers to return to the office and lingering ideas that changes to the norm are ‘lazy’ or lesser. We cannot let this happen. We cannot let the progress we made in the past few years fall by the wayside. 

Flexible working is no longer a perk, conceived during a once-in-a-lifetime health event; it’s not a ‘nice-to-have’ but a necessity – especially for women. For many in our labour market, it provides a genuine lifeline without which they would have to stem their career development. 

That’s why the fight for flexible working – a fight to give a voice to women, carers and others – is at the top of my personal and political agenda, as my Private Member’s Bill passes through the Commons in its third and final reading today. This bill provides real support for employees new and old and poses the opportunity to change perceptions of what flexible working means – it is much more than just working from home.      

Analysis from the Trades Union Congress found that a lack of good flexible working opportunities, coupled with the unequal division of caring responsibilities, can force women into working arrangements that result in loss of pay and poorer working conditions. 

Research shows that if women can work flexibly, then they are twice as likely to remain in the workforce post-pregnancy and are also twice as likely to excel in their career if their husband or partner supports them with childcare. But they can’t do this without the framework to do so, and there are countless examples out there, like Laura, a new mother, who had to place her career on hold because her employer removed the flexible working arrangements she needed for childcare purposes. 

It’s not just individual female employees who would benefit from this flexible working right, but the wider British economy. A study from McKinsey found that if we fully utilise women in the UK by 2030, we will add £150 billion to our economy. This translates to almost a 7% jump in our Gross Domestic Product.

The same goes for those with disabilities, who are often adversely impacted by an employer’s requirement to commute and work in the office when they can just as easily carry out their responsibilities in a more accessible way. Take Trishna, who lives with multiple sclerosis. She found that having good, flexible working policies from her employer means that she can stay in work longer; it means she can work from home with flexible hours and can manage her workload around her fatigue. She can start work early and finish early when she needs to, banking hours for days when she does not have the energy or strength to work.

Unpaid carers, usually women, who often give as many hours supporting a family member as they do to their full-time job, have also felt the benefits of flexible working. They can work from a family member’s home, at hours that suit them, or from their own home, allowing them to better balance work and caring. They can provide breakfast, lunch and tea visits to that family member without it impacting their productivity and ability to innovate, all while improving their wellbeing. 

I know first-hand the benefits of how flexible working can allow employees to support their loved ones while holding down a full-time job, as I was an unpaid carer for my mother and later my brother, both of whom had complex health conditions. But when I was caring, I was lucky; lucky that I could move meetings online, work strange hours to suit my schedule or work from multiple places. The truth is, that not everyone is this fortunate, and that is what I am campaigning to change.

As it stands, the legal framework to make requests for flexible working is simply not adequate for our workforce. Employees can make just one request a year to work flexibly and only when they’ve been employed by the organisation for six months. While many employers offer flexible working as standard, some refuse to modernise, and it is working mums, unpaid carers and disabled people who miss out. 

I also fear that as time passes and we move further away from the pandemic, attitudes to working will revert to type, and people’s needs will be ignored. My bill, therefore, seeks to change not only the legal framework but to challenge (small-c) conservative attitudes to the workplace. Too often there is a stigma around flexible working requests – that staff shirk responsibility, are lazy and, above all, are less productive. We need a complete cultural rewiring to ensure that attitudes towards the workplace change to support some of the most vulnerable people in our country. In my view, the role of any politician is to stand up for those who often go unheard.  

A recent trial of a four-day working week was an overwhelming success, so much so that 56 of the 61 involved in the trial extended it further for their staff. Of the 2,900 employees who took part in the pilot, 39% said they were less stressed, 40% were sleeping better and 54% said it was easier to balance work and home responsibilities. The number of sick days taken during the trial fell by two-thirds and 57% fewer staff left the firms taking part compared with the same period a year earlier. It has been a win-win for both employers and employees and shows that flexible working does in fact work, contrary to stereotypes. 

Supported across the House of Commons and by all parties, including the government, this bill will make provision for employees to request variations to particular terms and conditions of employment. This could include a job-share with another colleague (ideal for new parents), compressed hours to work three and a half long days or the ability to work from home most of the time. This provision has no cost to the taxpayer and the estimated business cost is less than just £2 million annually.

This bill, by amending existing legislation, will introduce a new requirement for employers to consult formally with an employee before rejecting their flexible working request and will allow an employee to make two requests in any 12-month period, doubling the existing allowance. It will also, crucially, remove the requirement on the employee to explain the impact that their flexible working arrangement would have on the business. This is key because the implication of the existing legislation is that flexible working is a hindrance on the business, and the onus is therefore on the employee to explain their reasoning. By flipping the perspective, we can make a positive argument for flexible working, rather than employees being forced to defend their reasoning and justify the business need.  

I’m not just preaching about this, either. I actively try to practice it in my own parliamentary office, supporting my staff with their requests. I’ve allowed staff to work compressed hours, to job-share and have encouraged staff to study alongside work to upskill themselves. At no point have I seen a drop in productivity. In my experience, the standard of work was in all cases actually higher. 

A little bit of trust and empowerment can go a long way and the data backs up this anecdotal experience. People working flexibly report higher productivity and wellbeing when their employer supports their requests and trusts them to tackle the task at hand. 

In short, it makes business sense to provide flexible working rights as standard. Staff retention rates increase and absentee rates decrease. Worker productivity increases, providing an economic benefit, and wellbeing increases, generating a social benefit. It encourages a more diverse workforce, empowering businesses to see different perspectives, increase innovation and solve problems quicker. From where I am sitting, it seems like a no-brainer.

As this bill will now progress to the House of Lords and onwards towards royal assent, we have a real opportunity to shift the dial on flexible working by placing day-one rights for flexible working requests. By encouraging employers to support women, new parents, unpaid carers and disabled people with their unique needs, we can improve productivity and wellbeing in Britain – a two-pronged benefit.  

I hope Stylist readers will support my campaign and this bill. If you are an employer, I’d ask that you take the same leap I did and support your staff in their requests and, in time, I know you will all reap the rewards. Finally, when this bill finally receives royal assent in May, I’d ask you to tell your friends, family members and colleagues that you are legally entitled to request a change in working conditions from day one of employment. Politicians pushing for progress and introducing legislation is all well and good, but if no one knows that they can use them, it is all futile. 

Yasmin Qureshi is the member of parliament for Bolton South East, first elected in 2010, and serves on Labour’s frontbench team as Shadow Women and Equalities Minister. 

Images: Getty