To ask you a couple of questions about your working hours?

[Bibs2014]

Posing here for traffic and honest opinions and maybe some ideas on what I can do to change my current situation but still be happy.

I work 4 days a week and have Tuesdays off to spend day with DS.

I'm starting to think I can't do my job in 4 days. I'm a manager in a small, busy company and the only person who does my role.

I find Mondays I'm catching up with the work leftover from previous week, then Tuesdays I'm off. I spend Wednesdays catching up with Tuesdays work then Thurs and Fri more work is piled on (day-to-day tasks - mostly emails!) and project work gets left and lags behind!

Currently thinking maybe I should go back to 5 days and finish half an hour earlier instead so I get an hour every evening with DS - on the days I work I get half an hour with him before bath and bedtime starts.

What does everyone else do? How do you balance work and spending time with your DC?

I've been in this role for 6 months. Like I said previously it's a small company and they've never had anyone do my role before so there's lots I can do to make an impact and change things but I feel like I don't have the time.

I really like this job and don't want to leave.

Maybe I need to learn time management skills? I don't know. Would be great to share your thoughts and experiences.

I do four days with a Wednesday off. I find this works quite well, as I get a good chunk of work done before my day off, and then a good chunk after. (Plus I've always either just had a day off or am about to get one).

I found that I really needed to work on delegating, as I'm naturally a bit of a control freak who would rather do everything myself. I needed to try to bring people on, and trust them to do what they are asked. I also needed to set up good communication habits in my team, which was hard.

I do the odd spell of evenings and weekends, but these are the exception, maybe a few times per year.

I am quite lucky to have good support from my manager though.

Ali if you feel you are in essence being paid for the extra hours I wouldn't see that as an issue. Like I said, I would either expect to be compensated for the time or sort the working hours out. For me right now, I would only accept the second option because flexibility matters more than money to me at the moment. However, most employers will always prefer the first!

My own salary might be what you would consider 'average' (low 60s but pro rata). I have a slightly different perspective in that I do something very niche/ in demand and freelanced for years so I see the employment contract as very much a two way street, I.e. I would be prepared to shop around if I wasn't happy with it.

Right now I have gone for not the best paid position but the most flexible, with a company who are properly set up for flexible/ home working. I think this really important. When I worked for a company that were happy for me to work flexibly but didn't have the proper systems in place, it was a massive pain and it hurt my career progression because I was out of sight, out of mind.

Would you consider working 5 days across four? I.e. Keep your day off but do extra hours on your work days after your DS is asleep? (For a full-time salary, obviously.).

Tremolo - most people wouldn't consider low 60s average (but is less than I get) as average salary in UK is £26.5k.

I completely agree with you that flexibility is really important - and if my employer wasn't flexible in return then I would also be looking for another job. They know I have to leave at certain times to pick up kids, are perfectly happy for me to come in late / go home early / have a long or late lunch hour so I can attend things at school or take kids to appointments. It works both ways and suits me - particularly as I get flexibility and the money!

My previous employer was theoretically quite flexible but I always felt people were thinking I wasn't pulling my weight if I went home at 4pm (even though I was frequently then working at home in evenings once kids in bed).

Think previous posters have covered it pretty well but I'll throw my tuppence worth in.

I think there are cases where you can't take it up with employers for paying less than full time and not arranging cover. I have once had reduced hours and twice had flexible working and on all 3 occasions the deal was I make it work and if it doesn't work I'm back to full time, they're not going to start faffing about recruiting someone for a few hours a week to meet my needs and wants.

If I was working from home and less visible I'd be damn sure to send e-mails either really late or really early so people could see I was hard at it after I went home. I might even put a delayed send on an e-mail I wrote at tea time so it went at 22.00 when I was fast asleep in bed.

We're fortunate that with DH's shifts and my flexible working we can both do full time hours and most days DS is collected by one of us when school finishes. I don't think you've mentioned whether there is another parent involved who could make it easier for you. Apologies if I missed it.

Thanks everyone for your replies, all really helpful.

The tip about email being a time thief really helped today - I made sure I didn't keep checking them and wasting time.

Had a meeting with the big boss today about something else and she mentioned at the end she knows she piles loads of work on to me and recognises it can be hard to keep up so that's good

Feel less like I was drowning today!

Alot of people do job shares. I used to do 3 days and my collegue did the other 2 covering the same job. I now work 2 days and spend the other 5 with dc. Im very lucky to be able to have this option and also be able to afford to work part time. Im not aware of your financial situation but if its possible maybe drop to 3 days and get a job share partner to do work on the other 2 days?

I do think you usually get a better deal, by dropping more than one day.
If you work 4 out of the 5, it's rarer to have someone specifically allocated to do that other 1/5th of the work, but if you are only there 3 days, or even 50% of the time, employers are more likely to have to find someone.

I have always worked part time term time since having DS. He went to my mums two days a wk I worked those two days, he went to nursery 5 mornings, I worked 5 mornings and so on. In fact I think it was years before he actually realised that I did work! I have been incredibly lucky to be able to do my hours and only work when he is in school. Now he is older I do four days Mon, Tue,Thu, Fri. I enjoy Weds off and the midweek break is great, suits my life and the work I do. It is balance though, whatever hours/days/pattern you work needs to be manageable and the workload appropriate to the hours you are paid for. If it is a question of keeping up with Admin type emails do you need to be in the actual workplace? Ie work four days in work and few hours on 'day off' homeworking to do admin. Of course being paid accordingly for hours worked? Good luck finding what works you.