Do I want a Monday or Tuesday off?

[DonkeyFacedCunt]

having had a difficult year with lots of things, I have just gone down to working four days a week. I have been offered a Monday or Tuesday off. Which do I choose?
children are older so don’t need to worry about childcare.
obviously a three day weekend would be great, but so might splitting up the week a bit?
it is in a school so will only affect one bank holiday.
I do sport/exercise so having a Tuesday off means that it’s easier to split up workouts away from the weekend?

wwyd?

I don’t work Mondays.
I like that it gives me an extra day of “weekend”. So I can spend Saturday and Sunday with the DCs without worrying about all the crappy house jobs that need doing because I know I have all day Monday to get them done.

Go for the Tuesday. It will break up the week and it will be nice knowing you only have to work one day then you get another break!

Also if you're never there on Mondays I think it makes colleagues irrationally think you're slacking / throwing a sickie to get a long weekend, even if they KWOW that's just your work pattern.

Monday. I think you'll relax more having the 3 days off in a row.

100% this

Check how your employer does bank hol allowance! I have a weekday off to break up the week, my old employer did 0.8 x the main annual leave allowance plus 100% of bank hols, but my new employer does 0.8 x bank hols too so my AL is dramatically reduced and it's galling!

Yes this! That way I only had the back to work after the weekend dread once a week. I also got to take my "lost" bank holiday day on another day. 🌹

Funnily enough I used to have Tuesdays off and now have Mondays off, which is better.

I would definitely recommend Mondays off. Normally, it's a no brainer purely because of the bank holiday pro rata allowance as others have mentioned, but it sounds like that may not be so relevant for you?

In any case I prefer all my days off and working days to be in a row, it feels simpler and less disruptive. It's easier for other staff to understand that when you're in, you're in rather than being in on Monday, off the next, back in on Wednesday etc.

You can go away for long weekends and only get that "back to work" feeling once a week.

Tuesday to get the bank holidays. That's 4 extra days every year and possibly more depending how long Charles has on the throne and how long you are working.

Take Tuesday. But find out how they allocate bank holidays.

when I worked part time Mondays-Wednesday, I got absolutely hammered on the bank holiday issue., having to use my annual leave to cover the bank holidays.

Re. The BH pro rota allowance - it’s not enough if you work Mondays and part time, so you have to use your annual leave hours to make up the difference. I had to use 20 hours extra to cover all BHs last year - for days off that I didn’t even want off in the first place!!

I don't think they have to give another day off for bank holidays if you don't work them:
Monday bank holidays are:
Easter Monday
May Day
May Half term
August

Then there's the flexible ones round Christmas and New Year.
The only guaranteed one you'll have is Good Friday (although you would also have one of Christmas day/Boxing day), but if Christmas/New Year falls on Saturday/Sunday/Monday the bank holiday will also be a Monday, that means nearly half the time those will be effected.

I'd prefer most of the time to have Mondays off, but I think that would tip be towards having Tuesdays unless you can get them to agree that if Bank Holidays are Mondays, you can have Tuesdays off.

Take MONDAY!!! Sorry I got it wrong in my first post and just contradicted myself 🙄🙄

In my old work place, yes they did give you BH hours if you didn’t work them.

So my colleagues who also worked part time but not Mondays would scoop up loads of BH hours that they could add to their AL entitlement. They would gain over a week which they could then use whenever.

BH policy does vary so worth finding out what it is first before deciding.

Tuesday. Breaks up your working week.
You won't get that Sunday night feeling if you know you've only got one day to work before your day off.
If you take Mondays off, the extra will be less noticeable as it will just be absorbed into your weekend.

Part time staff should always get something for BH even if it's not usually their work day. I think it's normally added to their AL allowance. Usually it's pro rated (so if they work 3 days a week, they'll get 3/5 of bank holidays added)

I'm pretty sure companies aren't allowed to not do something, otherwise they are discriminating against part time workers

Fair enough. I hadn't thought of that.

What if all the workers are part time though? That takes that argument out. (not that I think that's relevant here. Just wondering)

If it was Monday or Weds I can see how the day off midweek would break things up, but I’d find doing one day and then off again really disruptive. Would much prefer Mondays off.

Agree

@MargaretThursday
I don't know how other places do it, but I work in a team where we are all part time (scattered over the week). We all have BH added to our AL, those that work Mondays normally book it off, if you don't work Mondays then that is a day for you to take elsewhere.

The bank hol rules are a bit different as a teacher, as nobody works them. I work part time and the only ones I can claim for are for the Queen’s funeral and the Coronation - I work 0.4 so can claim 0.4 hrs pay for each of those days.

Regarding INSET, technically I have to do 0.4 of all INSET, parents’ evenings etc. However, you can’t be forced to go in on a non-work day. The way we work it is I go to at least 0.4 INSET (I’ve actually done all but one this year) and because they all fall on days I don’t work, I claim the hours. This is actually quite lucrative! I have also claimed for the three parents’ evenings I’ve attended. If these events were to fall on a day I would normally be in work, I wouldn’t be able to claim the additional hours.
Hope this helps.

Definitely Monday. Having a longer break off is more restorative and you can make more out of it than a Tuesday off - like if you have a multi-day project you want to do or going away for the weekend.

I have Mondays off and it works really well with the way my employer does bank holidays.

As a part time employee, I'm entitled to 6.4 days of the statutory 8 bank holidays. Then for each one that isn't a Monday (so a working day for me) a full day comes out of that allowance. As at least 4 every year are Mondays, I always get at least 2.4 extra days holiday. And a year like this one where there was an extra bank holiday for the coronation on a monday, and Christmas and New Year's Day fall on a Monday too, I'll end up with an extra 5.2 days holiday, which is over an extra week on a 4 day working week.

Compare that it if Tuesday was my non working day, I'd be given my 6.4 day bank holiday allowance and then have to take a full days holiday for each bank holiday which isn't a Tuesday. Only Boxing Day is a Tuesday this year, so I'd end up needing to use 0.6 of my normal holiday allowance to cover bank holidays

Just seen you're in a school so only one bank holiday involved so ignore my overly long bank holiday explanation

I still prefer Mondays off - less bitty

This