If you were cutting your hours in work, what days would you work

[callingyouaflower]

I'm contemplating reducing my working hours down to 4 days a week. Problem is I can't decide the best day to take off?! Automatically I thought Friday but I'm now unsure if maybe a Wednesday would break the week up better?

What would you think?

I prefer a break in the middle of the week. I like working Fridays as somehow Friday evening feels more "weekendy" when I feel I've earned my glass of wine!

See I hear you! Typically my workload is quite light anyway on a Fri anyway and just knowing it's weekend spurs me on in itself.

I also don't want to use Mondays as all the bank holidays fall then and I'd be annoyed if I wasn't getting paid for them lol

Tuesday is just a rubbish day as it stil leaves 3 full days to work so it's between Wednesday or Thursday I think

I prefer to get my days done one after the other.
Having a day off in the middle I feel I would dwell at being back at work the next day.

If I had to! A Wed

Could you mix it up a bit? So Mondays one week and Wednesdays the next?

It would definitely be Mondays for me, even with the bank holidays. No more feelings of dread around 5pm on a Sunday afternoon, when you start thinking about what’s waiting for you. That doesn’t tend to happen on a Monday because you’re already in the working week and there’s only one day to go until you’re halfway through the week and on a countdown to the next weekend.

@callingyouaflower I think you misunderstand how bank holidays work. If you choose Monday as a working day, then you need to use annual leave to cover when you are off. If you don't work a Monday, then the pro rata bank holidays are added to your entitlement, and you can take them at another time.

You would still have the same amount of holidays but would have more choice on when to take them if you didn't work on a Monday

Wouldn't you get the bank holiday Mondays off in lieu?

I did it and took a weds off. That’s a proper day in so a proper day off.
Fridays people put less meetings in and the day is slower so it’s better to keep that one to get your work done

I'd take Friday as a first choice.

Wednesday second choice. If you take Wednesday, you're potentially giving yourself the back to work dread twice a week instead of just on Sunday.

I don't work Mondays. I get time off in lieu of bank holidays. It always works in my favour- it why our local authority won't allow PTers to have Mondays off.

Mondays and Thursdays off
Breaks the week up nicely

Depends on the job I think. I found Tue/Wed/Thr best days to work because that's when most meetings are on. Otherwise I was having to say "I don't work x" all the time. We get bank holidays as extra leave if not working Mondays and we can take those days any time. That's useful for summer holidays.

Oh yes I never thought about the bank holidays lol I'm a bit daft. I still wouldn't really choose a Monday anyway as I think it just blends into the weekend and you've nothing more to look forward to again until Friday. But I also understand taking a Wednesday is making Wednesday night harder at the return of work, but then you'd only have 2 days to push through and Friday is a slower day anyway.

I'd look at what you might do on your day off, if there is a course or exercise class or particular thing you want to do on your off day - check the days the thing runs! No good saying I plan to do Pilates and go to the library on my day off if neither of those are available on the day you choose.

If I was just cutting hours to wind down with no fixed ideas in mind for my time, I'd choose Wednesday.

How does this work in favour of PTer? Appreciate if you could explain.

I have often wondered. If a 3-day-a week PT who does not work on Mondays gets time off in lieu, is it a full day in lieu or is it 3/5 of a day in lieu?

If it is a full day, then the PTer is getting a good deal.

Put it this way, say a person working 5 days a week gets 20 days holiday a year. A 3-day-a-week PTer should only get 3/5x20 = 12 days holiday a year. If they are paid back Mondays, they get at least 4 full days in lieu, which gives them at least 16 days holiday a year.

Therefore, a FTer gets 4 full weeks holiday a year (assuming they don't wrap around bank holidays for ease of calculation). But the PT-er gets at least 5.3 full weeks holiday a year because they only work 3 days a week.

I dropped Mondays as most Bags are Mondays so it meant they owed me leave rather than the other way around.

Im FT now but depending on your workflow, I loved having Monday off. I could choose to take my pro rated BH Mondays when I wanted.

The only downside was that my hairdresser closed on Mondays in lieu of them being open on Sat.

I loved getting all my errands out of the way at the start of the week and Fridays were always quieter so I liked working those.

you should check your contract and terms as it can be different for different employers. I don’t work Mondays. Where I work currently I get a pro rata bank holiday entitlement. If a bank holiday falls on my working day I have to take it as a bank holiday. I can use the remaining bank holiday entitlement on a day near to the actual bank holiday eg the next day for instance.

some companies are more flexible about bank holidays and allow people to take them when suits them.

i worked somewhere else where there was a different policy, somehow I had days deducted because of when the bank holidays fell.

It’s hard isn’t it! I often think Monday makes the most sense as you can really utilise the 3 day weekend if you wanted to go somewhere etc.

But realistically (for my job anyway) Monday and Friday are the chill days where no one really chases you for anything. Wednesday would really break up the week and mean you’re only ever working 2 days in a row… but would you spend Wednesday thinking about the work you left on Tuesday and who will be chasing you Thursday?!!

Could you alternate every other Monday and Wednesday?

I'm doing just that at the moment. I've worked Monday-Thursday for around 2 years now, this month I'm dropping to Mon-Wed as I start my early retirement plans.

Probably Friday, if long weekends away are a possibility in your life.

If the kids are in school and you don't have that freedom, then perhaps Wednesday would break up the week nicely, and allow you to catch up with life and chores ahead of the weekend.

@blueshoes it shouldn't work out as more favourable for either PT or FT workers.

The minimum legal annual leave is to have 5.6 weeks including bank holidays so the numbers in your example are below the minimum.

However, if an employer gives 6 weeks annual leave including Bank Holidays to all Full Time employees then all Part Time Employees should get the same amount of Leave pro-rata so someone working 0.6FTE (3 days a week) should be receiving 18 days of annual leave including Bank Holidays. As they work 3 days a week those 18 days do represent 6 whole weeks of Leave. If they work on Mondays and 4 of their normal Working Days are Bank Holidays then they only have 14 flexible days to take on non-bank-holiday days and the other 4 are fixed but they can still have 6 full weeks of Annual Leave if they take the remainder days off in any week where there's a Bank Holiday Monday.

Any employer that calculates leave such that there is an advantage or disadvantage to part time workers is doing it wrong.

I've just done it and dropped a Wednesday and it's brilliant.
I have no where near as much burnout or stress now and I'm always only 2 days from a day away from it all. My colleague went with Friday but now wishes she had chosen a Wednesday too.

I will just say it did take a few weeks to get in to and really feel the benefit but it's made such a difference now.

You may find that your workplace has a view on this - there can be problems if a few people work 4 days and take the same day off. FWIW I have variously worked patterns where I had Monday, Wednesday and Friday as my NWD. There are pros / cons to all patterns. It can be nice to not have to work Mondays, but if you have DC to get to school, you are up and out anyway. Sometimes it can be nice to work Friday's if you are in an environment where things slow down towards the weekend and people head off early. And a day off in the week means you never feel over tired and are more on top of household stuff - but then you don't get the opportunity to tag onto the weekend if you want to go away somewhere.

Personally I'd do Friday because I have friends and family several hours away and spend a lot of my annual leave allowance on long weekends for either trips away or to go and visit them. So whilst I'd get proportionally less annual leave, it probably wouldn't feel like it.