Take a pay-cut at work for more holidays?

[VenusOfWillendorf]

I work a 40 hour week, exclusive of breaks. Our main office is West Coast US - so most of the meetings do tend to be late afternoon.I've been finding the work day to be feel very long.We are required to take at least 30 mins for lunch; if we don't take a break, the 30 mins is deducted anyway (so work day is 8.5 - 9 hours, depending on lunch break - you can take as long as you like).
My work hours are calculated with a clock in/out machine - so for me it's essentially a 8.30am - 5/5.30pm work day - usually working till 6 or 7pm a few days (and then the odd half day here and there if the 'time balance' is in credit - we have flexi-time).

My manager just asked me if I'd like to work at 90% (36 hrs/wk). I'd probably still do 40 hours, but it wouldgive me an extra 26 days holidays/year (I already get 26 days - so 52 in total). The suggestion was purely for my own sake (not a business need particularly - I currently have a manager who is very big on mental health and burn-out prevention).
I could afford the 10% pay-cut with some budgeting - but I'm really not sure if I'd be better off earning as much as I can now (and my work day is not that bad, even if does feel very long, especially in Winter), and saving towards retirement (am late 40s - and pretty happy with current pension pot,though more is always better).

Would it be unreasonable to take the pay cut and have more holidays?!
Unreasonable is probably not the right word ... more would it be foolish I suppose? WWYD?

As I assume you have to use your holiday or lose it, so you would be able to bank that amount of hours in the first year, but year 2, you will be out of the office for over 12-weeks (annual leave, bank hols and time banked) so the following year you would have standard leave and maybe a few extra hours banked.
Do you have to hand your work over to your team when you are out of the office? you may find that your request to take time off gets limited.

They presumably calculate [possibly with some justification] that you will do roughly the same amount of work in the reduced time due to better morale, feeling more valued etc.
Yes - this is probably very true!!!

unless you can continue to work 40 hour weeks and put 4 hours weekly towards extra vacation days
Yes - this would be the plan, and what my manager suggested to me.
We have very flexible working - there are no core hours, and all overtime can be taken as days off, as long as it fits in with project deadlines etc.

I do think I'd probably have the same amount of work to do. We do get ALL overtime back (to the minute) - so I would have the extra days as days off. I guess there would be the concern of being to busy to take them all though.

Yess I would defiantly! 52 holidays a year sound amazing

I’m a bit confused.

Are you saying you’ll officially work the shorter day, but actually work the hours you’ve always been doing so you bank 4 hours of flexi-time each week?

can you afford it?

I would absolutely do it!

I'd jump at it

Sorry- cross-post. On that basis, I wouldn’t. Flexi-time isn’t a statutory requirement and is treated as a benefit so can be taken away.

Are you saying you’ll officially work the shorter day, but actually work the hours you’ve always been doing so you bank 4 hours of flexi-time each week?

Yes, just that.

But it's a valid concern that I wouldn't be able to use all the days, if we were too busy.
And I suppose, there is always a concern that if I was not sufficiently visible, they might wonder if they need me at all!!

I would 100% do this if I could comfortably afford it and knew I wouldn’t be coerced into making up the hours.

I’d want it absolutely written in stone that my employer understood that I was planning to convert the flexi time to so many days off. In my team, this would quickly lead to resentment in the rest of the team. Everyone is a little bit busier when there is holiday to cover - they would soon feel like they were constantly covering your work. (Not an exaggeration for nearly a week off every month!) 10% before tax is so little to lose, that lots of people would want it - and my team couldn’t sustain that. Of course, we are talking about different teams, so maybe your boss had thought it through an it’s fine. There’s a big difference between a bit of flexi and someone doubling their holiday entitlement though!! I’d jump at it - but only after confirmation of how I could use it.

Put the figures into the take home salary calculator. You would be mad not to.

Flexi-time isn’t a statutory requirement and is treated as a benefit so can be taken away.

Well no, but it's a company benefit at the company I work for.
I would not be unique within the company - other people are already doing this with agreement from HR. Of course, HR could always say No, but if my manager was supporting me, I'm don't think that they would.
How I'd use the time -> my mum lives on her own a two hour flight from me. Dad died five years ago, and she is getting older and I worry about her more. I'd probably visit more regularly for a week at a time - but would still have a enough time to take a 'proper' holiday then as well. And I could also work a few hours from my mums to keep on top of things, so work wouldn't fall behind - but I wouldn't need to worry about counting hours.

I wouldn’t

It sounds fab to me, butbeing a cynicI'd be worrying that they were trying to demonstrate that the time required to do the full job is actually 10% less than currently assessed.

I would.

I used to ‘buy’ extra holiday. It gave me more time off and I paid less tax as the amount was deducted from my salary every month, but if I needed a mortgage letter etc they stated my full salary. It was totally optional though and we had to apply every year so I could easily change.

God you wouldn’t see me for dust! I would totally do that and take a half day every Friday or a long weekend every few weeks.
I dropped to 4 days from 5 but it was 20% pay cut pro rata. It is AMAZING! I can’t tell you how brill it is to have a whole extra day - even if just to break the monotony.
I have DCs so it’s a day when I don’t need to worry about child care, can make a proper dinner, have a few hours to myself.

I would ask for it to be regular time though - the same half day each week on A weds or a Friday maybe otherwise it might be tricky to take. Other staff might be hacked off at your seemingly ‘endless’ holiday.
If you take the half day option tho - make sure you leave on time. Don’t let a 1pm finish drag out to 2pm, 3pm.
If you’re off then you’re off.
Also - doesn’t have to be permanent. You could trial it.
Dropping to 4 days I was productive and hit the highest success rate in the team. I was happier, more balanced, more focused. There are very few office jobs I think that people couldn’t do just as well in3/4 days instead of 5.