To ask to reduce my hours at work

[RollerCola]

And what hours do you think are preferable, given my situation?

I'm currently working full-time temporarily & it's starting to stress me out because I feel like I never see my children. They are 11 & 6.

I do take them both to school in the mornings but don't get home until 6pm. They go to a mixture of after-school care/grandparents/holiday clubs and dh & I manage the rest of the holidays between us.

Dd starts high school in Sept & I'm thinking of asking to reduce my hours again to coincide with this as I feel I need to be around more to support her. I'm trying to decide whether to ask to do 5 short days and therefore be home at 3 each day in time for school pick up, no after school care needed (but same travel costs & same no. of days to cover during holidays) or go back to doing 3 or 4 full days (less travel costs but after-school care still required etc)

Can anyone advise how they decided and what were the important factors? I think that my work will be ok with it as up until 6 mths ago I was working 4 full days, I'm just not sure about changing it to 5 shorter days.

Is there anything I've not thought of?

After DS1 I went back 4 days, dropped that to 3 days when he was 2 as felt I was missing out. Stayed the same after DS2z Then as of Jan this year I went back up to 4 days as a) 3 days meant I was spending lots of time on the Blackberry and b) I was (still am!) pg with DS3 and struggling to manage DS's x 2 on my two days off c) felt like I was spending time at home doing drudgery not spending quality time with DS's and d) boss want extra cover whilst a colleague on mat leave. As I knew it would only be for 6 mths I went for it. DS1 starts school in Sept and I will be back at work in Feb/March time and will prob do 4 shorter days til 4 so DS1 will do a short after school club. Luckily my boss is v flexible which has helped. Financially we have had the freedom to allow me to do this. You just need to strike a balance with what works for you.

For you short days would be good.

However employers take advantage of part time employees

I work part time at 32.5, and my argument atm is that to ask a part time employee to work more hours without pay is immoral.

i think it really depends on your job, your team etc

but if you think it can be done, and given you had 4 days before. go for it!

Could you work from home at all?

I've recently gone from 4 days to full time as dh was made redundant and now only has a temp job.

I am really struggling to keep ontop of everything, I also feel like the d'cs are suffering, I didn't think 1 extra day at work would make this much dfifference. .

Go for 4 days if you can,

Gemini but full time staff work extra hours. Is that immoral too?

i work 5 shorter days. i start at 7.30 so my dc go to gps until its time for school. that way i feel like its not asking too much of the gps as my dc are away by 8.30 and then i finish at 2.30 so i am home for them coming home, tea, homework and clubs which i also feel would be a lot to ask someone else to do.
i would love to drop a day but i'd still want my short days and work cant accomodate that. luckily dh works shifts and is around a fair bit in the holidays so we muddle through with him gps and odd days off

Missmapp I'm also finding the same sense of struggle which surprises me as I didn't think I did that much on my one day off but obviously I must have caught up on housework/food shopping etc which is what I'm now struggling with.

I liked doing 4 days as it gave me the extra day to 'catch up' but I'm aware that I've not been around to pick either child up from school for years now and I wonder if now would be a good time to try to be there for them at least a few days a week if not all.

Work is very good & I'm sure will be flexible whatever I decide so hopefully that part should be a problem.