Anyone else find 2 work days a week tricky?

[milkyman]

Everyone says im lucky working 2 days a week and having a long 5 day weekend (well people at work with no children say this...) I have a 16mth old DS and teach - I am given three days work in 2 days, never have time for lunchbreak etc.. And find teaching overwhelming (im only semi qualified at an FE college).

Should I thank my luck but I dread it so much. I love ds but couldnt stay at home. Feel I do everything badly...

[SaltyGoodness]

I'm on mat leave now and will be going back to 2 days a week... same as you, they'll be getting at least 3 days work out of me in that time!!

How long have you been on 2 days a week? Would it help to think about it as a medium term solution, you'll probably move onto something with more hours in a few years, so if you can just stick it out while DS is small... it won't be forever

[justabigdisco]

Yes. I'm used to do 2 days, but found it too hard. I increased to 2.5 which helped a lot, but it often becomes 3...

[justabigdisco]

I used, not I'm used.

[nerofiend]

I'm on two days a week with one job and do another job on Sundays. Find working two days a week extremely hard. People think you have an easy life but in reality you're very vulnerable and likely to be blamed if things don't work.

Also, I'm in a job share, which is also a nightmare, esp if the other person is trying to dump all the work on you.

I'm nearly at breakdown point here but have to continue as I need the money and escape from domesticity for my own sanity.

I have two children, one at nursery, the other at school.

[janey68]

I would imagine 2 days is tricky because you're likely to be giving more than that without getting very much gain. I worked 3 days a week from when my dcs were 3 months to 4 years. Psychologically I think doing over half time makes a difference... You're in the office more than out and taken more seriously. I also took the opportunity to step back up to full time when mine started school which was a lot more satisfying in career terms. I would hang on in there but try to negotiate more hours

[manchestermummy]

I do three days - it is currently a nightmare. I do the work of four full-timers in that time. I am very, very efficient, and never miss deadlines, but my stress levels are unbelievable. I think more hours would be available if I wanted them, but currently I don't. Fortunately, I am able to say no to some things (obviously within reason) if I don't have the time: my managers respect me a great deal in that respect because I would never take the proverbial. I'm not talking about not doing work, by the way. Recently someone decided I needed to go on a course 400 miles away. As it was a full day, I would have to spend the days either side of it travelling: my entire working week. In addition, the day of return was a non-working day for me. I work with some people who do almost nothing, so something I'm working on is getting others to actually do some work so that I don't have to do it all myself.

I never switch off from work and frequently do stuff on my days off, even if it's just forwarding messages so they get answered (in most cases, someone else can deal with things to a degree).

Not entirely sure that's helped you!

[Viviennemary]

I think a lot of hours crammed into less days is more difficult. I know you can't pick and choose but next year try and get the hours spread over three days. That would be a lot easier to manage.

[Metalgoddess]

I do 2 days and find it great for spending time with dcs and dh but quite difficult at times, feel like I have to be extremely organised when at work. I'm currently trying to decide whether to go to 3 days per week, more money but less time!! Just don't know what to do!

[BranchingOut]

I say try to go up to three days if you can..

[DraggingDownDownDown]

Could you afford to stick at 2 days but put DS in childcare for another half day inorder for you to get your admin jobs done?

[BrandNewIggi]

I have had a variety of work patterns, and two days was the worst. Three was much better for getting things done and still having a proper "break" from work.

[PrincessScrumpy]

I went from 5 to 4 days - same work load less pay! Now I do 12 hours which is 2 days in my current role but I do it flexitime so check emails pretty much daily so I can respond and clients don't know I only work part time. Doing this role works but I remember in my previous role other staff didn't get part time work and would put urgent stuff on a colleague's desk even though she wouldn't be in for 5 days then get cross she hadn't done it. It is really hard :(

[apermanentheadache]

3 days is much, much easier IME. I have done all sorts of working patterns over the years. I am currently doind 2 days per week in two different jobs, so 4 days in total. Hour commute each way. Nightmare.

I also found 2 days tricky as no time to do any admin or housekeeping at work. You know, the boring crap that needs doing. I always ended up taking home work.

[justabigdisco]

That's exactly what I found permanentheadache. It's still hard with 3 days, but much better than 2.

[not2nitedarling]

I think if you work 2 days then you end up doing a lot of it in your free time so in effect you are working almost a day a week for free!! If you went to 3 days a week you would get the same amount of work done but with pay iyswim x