Work 3 days a week or 5 days a week - same money

[GalaxyInMyPants]

I've currently been doing a secondment at work and upped my hours from 3 days to 4 days to do this. Secondment is on the same pay grade but quite a lot of responsibility and involves training my colleagues. It looks great on my CV and could be seen as a stepping stone, etc. it really should be paid at a higher pay grade but isn't. Because its normally 9-5 even though I upped my hours I haven't seen any extra pay. The normal job is shift work so I've lost my unsocial pay.

Lately we've been short staffed and I've had to ignore my secondment role and go back to shifts. I don't want to do shifts 4x a week and its killing me. Nobody does my work for me while I'm unable to and its stacking up and stressing me out. People still approach me expecting me to sort stuff out related to my seconded role while I'm doing the original job as well.

We're just about to have our hours changed at work to a mix of long shifts and short shifts. Working 13 hour shifts is going to kill me and I want to drop my hours but I'd have to give up the secondment to do so.

Bosses do keep saying that me having to do shifts won't last, etc. great, but its been nearly a year now.........so not sure i believe it. Other problem is that if I do go back to my office job my working shift will be 30 mins shorter every day. Which means every other week I'd have to do a 5 day week to make my hours up rather than a 4 day week.

If I dropped my secondment I'd go back to 22.5 hrs a week, so some weeks might only have to do 2 shifts on these new long shifts. I'd have to work nights and weekends which I shouldnt be having to do at the minute, but I am doing some. But I'd do more if I went back to normal job. I hate nights, don't mind weekends.

At the minute I have two training days they want me to deliver next month with no time to prepare, etc. I can see it been like this long term and I feel a bit sick.

Perhaps more importantly it would be total career suicide. Game over as far as any promotion chances go. My boss would be furious. But I'm beginning to think there's more to life than been stressed out trying to climb the career ladder and getting nowhere. I can't move to another company without moving city.

Oh and my immediate boss who I like has recently retired. I'd always hoped when he left I might get his job but it doesn't look like they're going to replace him.

I can't see any other managers retiring in the next ten years, so no hope of promotion for at least ten years. People here don't leave, its dead mans shoes only.

Based on your thread title I would say three days a week but I got a bit confused about your hours and shifts.

The 'career suicide' bit makes me think you should hang on in there as long as possible. I struggled with the demands of a job for two years but looking back it was the right decision to stay even though I eventually reached a point where I could not do it any more and it all fell apart.

With the stress, is it constant or does it go through peaks and troughs? I used to find really stressful times then a period of adjustment where things were calmer. The bottom line is, is it so bad it is making you ill?

Sorry it is confusing.

Basically I could either do 22.5 hours doing the basic job which would be worked in a mix of 12 or 7 hour shifts.

Or I can do 30 hours a week which at the minute as they have me working on the "shop floor" would be a mix of 12 and 7 hour shifts. If I eventually get back in the office it would be 7 hour shifts, so I'd have to work an extra day every other week. 4 days one week, 5 the next.

Both jobs are stressful. The office job from having to deliver, work training packages, study days out on my own with no support. The "shop floor" job is stressful as its so busy and paperwork is audited and if you haven't ticked a particular box due to been busy youre hauled over the coals for it. Big finger pointing culture.

Is it making me ill? Yes, both jobs are making me ill. I figure if I can minimise my hours there I might be less ill. I'm on leave this week and am feeling tearful at the thought of going back.

I think you are being very melodramatic re: career suicide. If you have the skills to be promoted that will still be the case in a couple of years.

I think it will be viewed badly by senior managers if I stop doing my secondment. That sort of thing will be remembered.