Trial periods

A trial period — for example, six weeks to three months — can be a good way to test out any proposed new working pattern to find out what works. There is support from the Acas guide, which suggests trialling a flexible working proposal where an employer is unsure of its business impact. In any event, joint periodic reviews are sensible, to see how new arrangements are working out. In practice, for many employees, their experience working from home during the pandemic will have been a “trial period” of sorts. An employer who rejects a request because of performance problems linked to lack of childcare during the pandemic risks engaging in sex discrimination.