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Forty years ago I worked for a firm which did a duty-solicitor gig in the local Magistrates' Court - the firm and the court are both long gone.

About one weekend in five those who did it, four employees and a partner, had to take the Saturday court, which often yielded a lot of legal aid applications - which was of course the point of doing it.

One of them went on maternity leave and a locum was found; it may not be irrelevant that she was a far more effective lawyer than the one who was off. When the time came to discuss her return the new mother explained that her husband, who was a civil engineer, had taken a contract job in the Gulf where he had gone on single terms. We were in London, her family were in Manchester, she had little support network, childcare was scarce on Saturday and expensive if you could find out, and the long and the short of it was that she "could not" take the Saturday court.

No, said the partner, you come back to the job you left, that's your right, but that includes the Saturday obligation; I can't tell other people to take more Saturdays (nor will I myself) to cover for you.

And she gave way and managed to take her share. (The partner hoped she would quit and he could offer a permanent job to the locum - he told me so years later, long after I had quit his firm; we remained in touch socially).

Ms Blacklaws, who do you think was right then, who would be right if the same case arose now which it obviously could? I don't hide my view that "flexible working" must never be at the expense of your colleagues' private life; it's as important as yours, even if they have no family responsibilities and you have as many children as the old woman who lived in a shoe.