Dropping to a 4 day week…any experiences?

[BigDahliaFan]

I’m 56, in a senior professional role. I’m considering dropping Fridays. I think I’d walk the dog, go to the gym, do some gardening in summer. It’ll be nice to have more time to go away for weekends and visit friends .

Less sure about the winter, we live in the north west and winters are long and wet and cold. There isn’t a huge range of galleries or museums or indoor stuff.

im worried I’ll be bored or fritter fritter my time away especially in winter.

I've worked 4 days for years. Enjoy it. Dh has just dropped to 4 days. You just get space. To yourself, to do admin, to enjoy, to meet a friend for a coffee. To do nothing but potter about at home.

Can your workload be adjusted to reflect the less hours or will you be expected to still do the same work.

It's great!

Personally, I think "frittering your time away" is a wonderful thing to be able to do! The joy of having a day to get up late, potter around the house, maybe light a fire and read. However, if you are you nto gardening I find there's always something to do!

I did this two years ago. I'm 59. Honestly it's just the best. I'm in London and I do sometimes see a matinee but usually I go to the pool and talk to me cats and read. And rest and be.
I do appointments then as well vets and plumbers. It makes me more productive at work , I think I do more in 4 days than I would in 5 because I'm not knackered all the time.

We both work 4 days a week and couldn't imagine only have a 2 day weekend anymore. I work 30 hours but partner does compressed hours. He work away so it really suits.

Do you currently work any (unpaid) overtime? You may find yourself doing 5 days in 4 if this is the case.

Conversely, when you honestly reflect, is there currently time in your working day/week where you can have a nice chatter with colleagues and / or take your work a bit more slowly? You will probably lose this - part time imo is much more full pelt, you lose any cushion you had before.

I did on balance love dropping from 5 to 4. It was lovely to have a day when I knew I wasn’t answerable to anyone. And you can have a much more restful weekend having got any bits out the way on your day off, it was great for family life.

But it did mean working later on some of the other days, so I’m fairly sure I wasn’t getting paid for a lot of what I did but that was already par for the course in a relatively senior finance role. And I hadn’t appreciated that it would squeeze out any of my small pockets of “fun” time at work - not that I was slacking before 😆 but I couldn’t just hang about for a nice chat at people’s desks in the same way.

Im planning to drop to 4 days as soon as my mortgage is paid off (within 5yrs, I’ll be early 50’s). I reckon it’s definitely worth it for things like a long gym session, get all the chores done before the weekend “proper”, I have family and friends all over the country so I spend a lot of days leave taking Friday or Monday off to travel to see them so I don’t think I’d miss the pro-rated holidays that I’d loose. I’m can’t wait!! My only hesitation is that Fridays tend to have less meetings so it’s often my “catch up” day to work through the to do list of things that have been added during the week but didn’t get round to.

Drop Mondays instead. You lose holiday entitlement for the bank holidays as you have to book these as holiday. As more fall on Mondays it's beneficial to not work a Monday. Example: 8 bank hols you will be given 6.5 days allowance for them (4/5) to book against bank hols. If you don't work Mondays you gain additional holiday. This year having booked the bank hols off you will have 2.5 days remaining to add to your normal holiday entitlement.

I'm doing compressed hours so a 9 day fortnight and it's wonderful! I hope to continue to do so. So far I've done stuff on the extra day but even if I didn't I still love it. Sometimes even weekends feel exhausting because there's so much to do but this way I get at least one proper day of downtime.

Assuming you can afford it, it's an absolute no brainer for me.
I work only the amount I need to including money for my pension.
I LOVE frittering away my time on hobbies and pottering far far more than I might enjoy an extra cruise when I'm 80.
Live life today.

I work 4 days. Those quiet, slow mornings are heavenly. Gives me chance to reset the house for the weekend too.

It doesn’t work like this. You’ll get pro rata holidays and bank holidays.

I am seriously considering this, but a PP’s question about whether your role scope would be reduced accordingly is so important. I am already doing extra hours in my full time job and still don’t get everything done; so I don’t see how I could drop a day or do compressed hours. I’m the only one who does my job so can’t pass any work on.

I think I would have to change jobs to make it work.

I have a toddler so in a different situation to you, but I love love love my fridays off. Never want to work a 5 day week again!

I've worked 4 days a week for years. My non working day is Monday, but I still get Bank Holidays pro rata. I highly recommend it!

One thing I have found is that you need to be disciplined in not checking in on your day off. You also need to negotiate a drop in workload- so often, people are expected to do 5 days work in 4.

I've seen this be more stressful. Everyone else is still there working and emailing. You go in on the Monday and just play catch up all week. The full time workload is still there, you just have less time to do it in. It definitely depends on the role and the workplace- and youth some extent.

YOU, not YOUTH - but that probably helps too!!!

They are calculating leave incorrectly then. You should get your normal entitlement and if your non working day falls on a bank holiday, you just don’t take annual leave. That’s how it would be if part time as well.

i dropped to a four day week but the work wast reduced so at my directors suggestion he restored me to full time hours but compressed them ( I was still doing the hours). It does work for me and I love having the Friday but I’m flexible so if there is an important meeting I do connect in

I dropped to 4 days when I was 30! It was brilliant. Ended up dropping to three days at 37 which was more of a problem in terms of feeling part of the work team and being given interesting stuff to do. I went back up to 4 days at 40.

Never got bored or ran out of things to do.

I did this at 37! Not once regretted it. Pulling on the walking boots or enjoying breakfast in bed when everyone else is heading for the office. Bliss 😊

I work 4 days, and although more money would be nice, I wouldn't want to go full time. It gives me time to do things I enjoy as well as life admin. Reading a book, going for a walk, visiting a National Trust house - all a great use of my time. And sometimes that time off really help productivity.
Occasionally I do catch a meeting on a Friday but mainly :because it's a one off and I'm really curious, or the alternatives clash with other appointments and it's really important.
But then I work somewhere where if you feel overburdened others will help out.

I worked for a while with Fridays off; I found that I missed my catch up/ quiet day. So I actually changed to having a Wednesday off. This worked quite well as I still had a quiet Friday. Obviously I didn’t get the long weekend; however I had sorted a lot of things on the Wednesday instead. For me it worked better. The problem in the end was that I didn’t get any less work so it was definitely the work of 5 days paid for 4.

I think if you don’t need the extra money, and aren’t aiming for promotions etc… then it’s a great idea!

Life’s not just about working!