A MUM-of-two quit her job after her boss refused to let her leave 15 minutes early – all because she wanted to pick up her daughter.
Anna Whitehouse felt forced to resign when she was barred from making the school run each afternoon – as her boss said it would “open the floodgates” to other parents.
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The 41-year-old offered to start her working day 15 minutes early so she could leave on time to pick up her little one from nursery.
But her workplace flat-out refused to be flexible.
She’d been forking out so much on nursery fees that she was left with a measly £5.45 a month.
Eventually something had to give. The mum felt like she had no other choice but to quit her job entirely.
Anna told the Mirror: “My boss said ‘we can’t do it for you because it might open the floodgates to other people needing flexible working’.”
Out of desperation and outrage, she walked out the door.
Now Anna is determined to make changes for other working mothers struggling to stay afloat as childcare costs rise and the working world returns back to the office.
The mum-of-two runs a defiant Instagram account called Mother Pukka where she calls for better flexibility in the office.
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In July she posted a photo with the caption: “Like this post if you’ve had to quit your career because you can’t afford to work after childcare costs.
“If you’ve had arguments about who quits in your relationship. If you’ve ended up almost paying to go to work after childcare costs? If you never felt you had a choice.”
The post rapidly climbed up to an eyewatering 14.4K likes and nearly 400 comments.
Anna continued in the caption: “I’m a quitter and it hurts to write that. In 2015 I was left with £5.45 a month after I’d paid nursery fees for someone else to look after [my baby].”
She added: “I’m no childcare expert, I’m not an Early Years spokesperson, I’m – like many of you – a hacked off mother who feels the current system is pushing/ shoving women out of work.”
As the start of the school year is just around the corner, Anna told the Mirror how she became the voice of working parents.
After quitting her job in frustration, she vowed to make sure her daughters, now five and nine, would never have to sacrifice their careers to become mothers.
Anna said: “It wasn’t that I particularly thought I was the right person to step up and speak up but I remember thinking about how I was going to raise the girls – build you up to work hard in your ABCs, work hard in your GCSEs, in your A levels, to perhaps go and fight for that career that you wanted, to then have somebody else shut the door in your face.
There are so many women who’ve been pushed out of the workforce and I need to do something about it.
Anna Whitehouse
“There are so many women who’ve been pushed out of the workforce and I need to do something about it.”
She explained how flexible working is not just working from home which can bar employees from opportunities or relationships with colleagues.
Anna praised the pandemic for opening up a dialogue around work-life balance but wants workplaces to capitalise on the moment now.
She added: “I’m very nervous to say that the deconstruction of the working world in the pandemic was the silver bullet we were looking for.
“I had companies two weeks before we went into lockdown saying ‘it won’t work in our industry’.
“Two weeks later, if they didn’t log into Zoom, they had to shut down.
“They had no choice so it’s very interesting to see what is possible when money is at stake.
“But it’s not about those two polar opposites ways of working. There’s so much nuance to core hours, job shares, and compressed hours.
“There’s a whole different way of working that is being missed at the moment.”
Sadly Anna is not alone in having to give up her career.
‘I feel like I’m working for free’
Earlier this year, women shared their stories of sacrifice due to the crippling costs of childcare stretching families to the limit.
One third of parents are paying more for childcare than their rent or mortgage with a part-time, 25-hour nursery place for under twos costing ON AVERAGE £7,160 a year, according to a 2021 Coram Family and Childcare survey.
One mum-of-three Katharine Storr, who lives in Tooting, South London, paid her whole monthly salary towards childcare – double the amount of her mortgage.
She said: “Once childcare is paid out of my salary, there’s still £3,600 a year to find. It’s frustrating because I feel like I’m working for free.
“I earn £2,200 a month but nursery fees are £2,500, which is almost twice as much as our £1,300 monthly mortgage.”
Luckily, more than a million working families are eligible to receive up to £2,000 towards childcare thanks to the Government’s Tax-Free Childcare scheme – but not everyone is entitled to the cash.
The government did promise to tackle the issue and announced plans at the start of summer to increase the number of kids nursery staff can look after from four to five.
Childminders will also be able to look after children in more locations, like community halls, and the government says the plans, which still have to be approved, could save parents as much as £480 a year.
For others battling with their bosses to balance their kids with their career, employees should know their rights.
All employees have a right to request flexible working as long as you’ve been with your company for at least 26 weeks. This is known as making a statutory application.
There are different types of flexible working requests you can make, such as switching to part time hours or compressing your working hours into fewer days.
Your boss has to consider the request, but they don’t have to agree and you might have to take a pay cut for working fewer hours.
To make a request, you should write to your employer who will then consider your proposal and make a decision, usually within three months. If they agree, your contract will be updated to reflect the changes.
If they disagree, they have to give you a reason and you could complain to an employment tribunal if you feel it’s unfair.
The government has previously pledged to scrap the 26 week wait to make a flexible working request and allow workers to make it from their first day of employment.
However no date has been given for the introduction of the new rule.
Alternatively, employees are entitled to take four weeks a year of unpaid parental leave which is outlined below.
What is unpaid parental leave?
Parental leave is for employees to take time off work to look after a child’s welfare, this leave is normally unpaid, and is available for each child up to their 18th birthday.
The limit on how much parental leave each parent can take a year is four weeks.
You must take parental leave as whole weeks rather than odd days, unless your employer agrees otherwise or your child is disabled.
Eligible employees can use this leave to spend time with their kids, settle children into childcare arrangements, stay with their child in hospital and visit family members.
To qualify you must:
- Have worked in the organisation for more than a year
- Have “parental responsibility” for the child, as defined under the Children Act 1989
- Be named on the child’s birth certificate or have obtained formal legal parental responsibilities
What other help is available for parents?
CHILDCARE can be a costly business – here is how you can get help.
- 30 hours free childcare – Parents of three and four-year-olds can apply for 30 hours free childcare a week.
To qualify you must work at least 16 hours a week at the national living or minimum wage and earn less than £100,000 a year. - Tax credits – For children under 20, some families can get help with childcare costs.
- Childcare vouchers – If your employer offers childcare vouchers you can get up to £55 a week in tax and national insurance savings.
You pay for your childcare before your tax contributions are taken out.
This scheme is open to new joiners until October 4, 2018, when it is planned that tax-free childcare will replace the vouchers. - Food vouchers – If your child usually gets free dinners at school, you should be entitled to free supermarket vouchers to help cover costs. You can get £15 a week per child to spend at a range of supermarkets, including Aldi, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose and Marks and Spencer.
- Tax-free childcare – Available to working families and the self-employed, for every £8 you put in the government will add an extra £2.
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