If you could choose which days to work...

[Diorissimo1985]

...On a part time contract, which would you choose?

I am going back to work (starting a new job) after having DD and I have a 21 hour contract. They are not fussed which 3 days of the week I work as long as they are full days. As I can choose, i wondered what other people found to be the best days for being in work are? I was thinking Monday could be good as that's when the weekly team catch up happens.

I work in Marketing and it's an office-based role. Would appreciate your thoughts/experiences!

If your team mtgs are on a Monday, I’d work Mon, Tues & Weds and have Thurs and Fri off.

I'd go for Mon to Wed so you can make that catch up meeting but have the flexibility of long weekends away!

Same as SuperstarDJ.

Defends on your childcare. We use a nursery so avoiding Mondays is good due to bank holidays. I like wed-Friday. Friday’s are always more relaxed and everyone is more cheerful so I like working them and consecutive is a good idea or you’ll always be chasing your tail ‘catching up’ from days off.

I chose mon-wed which works great. But with bank holidays being pro ratered there have been a couple of years where I've dipped out a bit. Also with nursery being shut and still being charged for it. In hindsite wed-fri would better in my case

We are going to use a nursery but they only shut for Christmas week

I do weds-fri which I like. If you are a weekend away person then tues, weds, thurs would be ideal. Work out the effect of bank holidays though.

I do Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. It works really well. I do all my jobs on a Wednesday- shopping, washing, cleaning etc. and then on Friday I try to do something nice for a couple of hours. Coffee with friends or yoga class.
Although Monday- Wednesday sounds better, I felt that I was out of the office for too long in one go. However my company trades 7 day a week so too much had moved on in the time I was out of the office.
I used to work Fridays and although the atmosphere at work was generally happier, I found any part time friends were usually off on a Friday, and all school assemblies and parent helper days fell then so I couldn’t get involved.
Good luck with your new job.

I do Monday, Tuesday & Thursdays,

Worked best for me due to other things in the area,

Or we did swimming on Fridays and a playgroup on Wednesdays,
We now do swimming on a Wednesday.

It's whatever works best for you, and is there anything local you want to take your child to

I did it so I was never out for more than one day consecutively (eg Mon, Tues, Thurs), so less to catch up on. Originally because nursery couldn't do Wednesdays. Now I work 4 days and have Wednesdays off which balances the week nicely.

Check what your employer does about bank holidays. Working Mondays can be a real disadvantage, depending on how they calculate holiday entitlement.

I do Sunday (as it's nearly double time) a Monday and a half day Wednesday.

The Sunday and Monday are 12 and a half hour shifts so need the Tuesday to recharge.

I think it can be job dependent
I do tues, weds, Thursday - used to be Tues/weds but then I got more clients
Mine was dictated a bit by when nursery had a space. I'm self employed with project work so there is inherently some flexibility. Like this morning when I feel rotten so am having a slow start.

I think if I were completely free to set it up again I'd do Mon- weds but I do find work eeks into the end of the week and I'm often answering calls on Friday to solve things that came up on wed / Thursday and only get really resolved on Friday

Thanks all, I'm confused about bank holidays tbh - if you're off anyway does that mean you miss out on the holiday?

My bank holidays are very odd,

I would get 23 standard holidays a year if full time (25 as been there over 5 years) and being full time k would not work BH's so if full time I would get 33,

I work 3 days, mon, tues & thurs, I get the 25 days pro rata'd so 15 days I can book and the BH's if my work day falls on them, this year being 6 I think so I get 21 days off,
Next year I'll get 20 days including the BH's due to how Christmas & new year fall.

Hope that's makes sense

RE Bank holidays as I'm part time (3 days a week) I get a proportion of however many bank holidays there are that financial year and it's given to me in hours and minutes. So on my leave sheet I have my annual leave with the bank holiday allowance added on top to give a grand total. If a bank holiday is on a working day (mon-wed) I've to put it on my leave sheet and record it as annual leave iyswim. So depending how the bank holidays fall Ive sometimes lost out by a couple of hours. But working three days a week theresplenty of time to recharge so never feel like I NEEEEED time off