to think I can get by without childcare in August because work is quiet?

More to the point if it’s not agreed with her manager, she would be committing fraud!

Right but pissing around and going to a theme park whilst ‘working’ is also not in your contract but you’d be sacked for doing it if anyone found out

So I work in HE. Some of my colleagues are on teaching only contracts and some (including me) are on teaching and research. I do my research in the summer but my teaching only colleagues have none so they have about three or four months with little to do (our teaching finishes in March and doesn’t start til September (leaving room for 1 month of marking and one for prepping for teaching) and they could absolutely get away with having no childcare during the summer and nobody would be checking up on them either.

Surely you’d need to discuss this with your manager? If they’re paying you to work a full day and you’re doing probably not even half, you’d be committing fraud!

It totally depends but I do.

We have 2 weeks off in the school holidays but aside from that I’m juggling with my partner.
My boss really didn’t want me to pay for childcare (I discussed in when I joined) and is fully aware and supportive. My boss’s boss knows and is happy and said he does the same. It helps that the organisation benefits from us working flexibly e.g the people we work with often prefer to have an evening meeting. This is all very open and I definitely wouldn’t be under any kind of disciplinary for flexibly working around my children. I have a contractual right to work my hours flexibly.

How we make it work it is that we alternate days between me & my partner. So if someone wants an in person meeting for any reason, we always have a 2/3 days a week we can offer to do that.

If it’s a day that I have the kids at home I tend to work 7-11am, do something fun with the kids in the afternoon and then work in the evening. So still do a full day if needed (but tends to be quieter). Again, totally fine in my work. We have two big in person events each week which I will always be childfree for.

In my particular role and industry it’s very much the norm and openly agreed, even if you have very young children. But mine are older.

Go for it. At 8 & 10 I loved pottering around without close supervision

Lots of other industries are seasonal and wouldn’t dream of such downtime. I’m in one of them and you can’t get much more seasonal!

100% agree with this.
Completely get that some businesses are cyclical/seasonal, but if August is such a quiet month then that's when she should be booking her AL - and the fact her managers have both done this indicates that's probably what they think too.
Obviously, if OP is completely upfront and her manager agrees then that's fine.

I bet the OP doesn’t make up the hours. With two children she just won’t bother but quite honestly if the company/public sector don’t address it her view is likely that she won’t address it either.

Perhaps teachers could do this - book leave in September so they could be at home with their own children in August when there is less work to do (okay a bit of tidying and planning) and then have time off in September to have a complete rest away from the kids.
Certainly isn't NHS where staff with families book August leave the previous September and it is the big changeover time when all the new doctors and other trainees start although it is the one month where winter pressures are less

People who do this always think others don’t notice or claim everyone else is doing it too. I used to work with someone who was never available when an urgent client issue came up. Refused any calls after 1530. We all knew she was on school runs and additionally- no she never made the hours up.

When I left the company she was in the first stage of disciplinary.

You would be fine with learning that one of your full time staff only had 5-10 hours work each week for all of August? So output, delivery, etc isn’t important to you?

Most managers would find this quite poor management and not be fine with this. Myself included. If this was a member of my team I would be filling this time with things that need to be done or asking others in thr business if they needed additional support or their were future projects that could be started. They aren’t being paid to work part time and have a paid month off.

My workplace is very very supportive of wfh, flexing time and adhoc childcare while wfh if stuck, but even they would be pissed off if I wasn’t transparent about it. It would be a disciplinary.

If you are willing to take the risk and graciously accept the potential consequences, that’s up to you. I wouldn’t risk my job, especially in current economic climate.

Or maybe, just maybe, not all industries are the same and some very often have quiet weeks/months and much busier ones.

OP says herself she often works way beyond her contracted hours some weeks, and then has much quieter ones - very normal in many industries - even private ones with shareholders.

If she has no work to do unless this is public sector her role will be at risk. No commercial company with shareholders to satisfy or profits to make would allow one of their biggest costs to sit around doing very little for weeks at a time.

Unless they are all dimwits someone will be addressing this. The fact that the OP then skives around in Aug and then books leave indicates this is very very likely to be public sector (i.e depts taxpayers fund!).

As an employer I think this is skiving and wouldn't be happy with any of my team doing this, particularly as you then take annual leave in September. If it is as quiet as you say it is, you should take your leave in August and not take the piss.

If you are contracted hours, do you make up ALL the hours you intend to skive theough the remaining 11 months? And in a genuine way that can be evidenced?

WFH with kids of 8 and 10 needing minimal supervision is one thing (and even then I wouldn't approve it for a whole summer, more an ad hoc/ emergency situation) but taking them out and about all day as you allegedly only have about an hour or two real work to do and will do it from your phone? I'd be reviewing your contracted hours, performance and your value to the business over 12 months if you worked for me and I found out about your plan.

How is she taking the piss if she genuinely has no work to do?

Do you genuinely think she should be sitting at a desk for 8 hours, staring at a blank screen and twiddling her thumbs instead?

Of course it isn't mentioned in your contract. Most people don't have to be told that they shouldn't be on days out with their children when they're supposed to be working.

Not bitter, more in tune with the unfairness of it all and epitomises the number of people wfh who are actually taking the p+++

Is the OP going to say what sector they are in?

Well I'm quite jealous because in my job, quiet times or not, we still have a non negotiable obligation to record 6.5 hours minimum chargeable time per day.

So if you're sure you're not slacking and your manager knows what you're up to then fine.

But I would be feeling very worried about my job security if there were regularly weeks where I had barely nothing to do.

And if they say it's fine, then great, enjoy your time off.
It's the hiding it that is the dodgy behaviour.

But OP certainly isn’t doing training, catching up with filing etc. She is planning to have a good old skive on the company’s shilling whilst also justifying that she is essential to the business running. It sounds like public sector tbh. I cannot believe that any commercial company would be run like this.

I am required to take time off between Xmas and New Year. It’s only 1-2 days at most. I am a sole trader and sole traders don’t normally get paid annual leave. It’s fine with me as we ARE very quiet. I work for different companies within the holding company To take weeks and weeks off and then pop off on ‘real’ annual leave is a piss take.

I used to work for many many years for a FTSE company. In a senior management position. There is no way they would have allowed this sort of behaviour and someone would have clocked that Aug was very quiet and addressed that.

Good for you. You don't need to listen to anyone on mn, we'll al have a million different opinions and experiences, but your employer's is the only one that matters here.

If you were comfortable it was the right decision, you’d be talking to your employer about it, not the internet. Would be gross misconduct if you were employed in my firm, regardless of whether you had work to do or not.