A hedgehog employed in the claims processing team at Brackenholt Facilities Group, a mid-sized business services firm on the outskirts of Telford, has had his request to work from home until March refused, after management ruled that three days a week in the office was “the minimum for culture”.
Malcolm, who has been with the company for three years and has never taken a sick day, submitted his flexible working request in October. It ran to nine pages and was accompanied by a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet contained tabs for output, turnaround times, and a detailed specification of the leaf pile at the bottom of a colleague’s garden from which he proposed to work. The pile, it noted, was approximately four feet across, mostly oak, and dry.
He asked only to be left alone from the end of October until the first week of March. He offered to remain contactable by email, in principle.
A team that thrives on collisions
The request was declined by Janine Hollis, the company’s Director of People and Culture, in a letter of two paragraphs. The first thanked Malcolm for his diligence. The second explained that the business could not support absence on this scale.
“We’re a team that thrives on serendipitous collisions,” said Hollis. “You cannot collide with someone who is under a hedge. Three days is the minimum for culture, and that is not a number I have invented.”
Asked whether Malcolm’s output had suffered during previous winters, Hollis confirmed that it had not, and that nobody had in fact noticed he was away until the following spring. She said this was a separate issue and one she would be taking up with him in his appraisal.
By way of compromise, the company has offered Malcolm one Tuesday in January, on which he will be expected to be “present and visibly engaged”. The offer was accompanied by a lanyard.
Occupational health has advised that a hedgehog in January is typically in a state of torpor, with a heart rate that falls to a handful of beats a minute and a body temperature close to that of the room he would be asked to sit in. A report seen by this newspaper concludes that “visible engagement” at that time of year would be medically inadvisable, and, in the view of the author, unlikely.
Rights, in due course
The dispute comes as employers across the country tighten attendance expectations, ahead of changes under the Employment Rights Act that are expected to require businesses to show that a refusal of a flexible working request is reasonable.
Dr Priya Raman, an employment law specialist at a firm in Leicester, said the existing statutory grounds for refusal included the burden of additional costs and a detrimental effect on the ability to meet customer demand. “Culture is not on that list,” she said. “Though in my experience employers are very good at finding the nearest ground and standing on it. I have not before been asked about a hedgehog, but I would say his position is stronger than most.”
Malcolm has declined to comment, and is understood to be in the process of gathering material for the pile.
His line manager, Graham Whitlock, said he had no personal objection to the arrangement and had raised it twice with HR, without result. He described Malcolm as the most reliable member of his team, and said the work was always done.
“I’ll say this much,” said Whitlock. “He has never once emailed back faster than he does in the first week of March. I have often wondered what he gets up to for the rest of the year, and I have decided it is better that I do not ask.”
