How many hours can a single parent realistically work now?

[firstmentat]

Just interested in people's opinions. What do you think is a realistic number of productive hours per week a person can work during the lockdown in the circumstances below? An expectation of full time hours is probably unrealistic, but how much is reasonable to expect? Trying to manage my expectations re work productivity.

If there are suggestions of a tried-and-tested timetable, I would be really grateful.

• Single parent (the other parent is not involved);
• Two children, 4 and 6;
• Not a key worker (so children at home);
• Desk job (similar to data analysis / software development);
• Some light managerial / supervisory duties;

Thank you all!

I hear you op....same aged children but with DH and we are finding it super hard. I cry at least every day. My two have been great but work is so heavy that it's more busy than before but not the focused work time to do it.
My employer doesn't really get it and he tries to be all 'its all about flexibility' but then you end up with more on your to do list.
I am going to request to reduce my hours. If he says no, then I am going to see about signing myself off. Enough is enough.

X

So thinking it through

7-9 while kids get breakfast/ dressed and play - 2 hrs
Supervise school work
12-2 while they do lunch/ play etc 2 hrs
Supervise play / daily exercise
4-6 while kids watch tv 2 hrs
8-10 once they have gone to bed 2 hrs

So an 8 hr normal day but broken into two hour chunks throughout the day

And actually on your specific problem it seems that the school is causing more of a problem.

Your kids are young- couple of hours of maths and reading will be fine

Colourmydreams has just stated the cold hard truth that's all. I'm an employer and whilst yes I accommodate the best I can it can put extra burdon on the managing of staff and the other staff to cover. It can cause resentment in the workplace.

I have experienced it as an employer, a single person being asked to pick up the slack in previous employment and as a mum of 2 where family has clashed with work.
Ultimately it has always come down to the fact that yes efforts should be made to help but you as an individual have a contract to fulfil an there is only so much employere and colleagues can do to reasonably accommodate.

Like I said I'm lucky to see it from all sides and I'm not offended at Colourmydreams post, it isn't twatish it is just the stark facts.

@ColourMyDreams you sound like a genuinely terrible employer. The government has closed childcare, we're surviving through a pandemic and we are trying our best. I work in HR and I'm genuinely horrified by your attitude.

If you are a Manager of a team you were wrongly promoted. You do not have the people skills or the leadership skills to do your job effectively. I suggest you look into some training. If you own a company I feel sorry for your employees and the company culture you have created.

For anyone using the argument that this is what you are contracted to do, of course. But contracts weren't set out envisioning a global pandemic when the requirement is for everyone to stay at home.

Please don't resign OP. As we are heading for a recession your job security is paramount. This will pass. Ignore the shitty comments. If you're employed by someone like @ColourMyDreams then at worst, wait for them to fire you and then sue them for discrimination or unfair dismissal. Try and work (if you can) before they wake up and when they go to bed. Use the TV. Please do what you can to keep your job.

I'm not offended at Colourmydreams post, it isn't twatish it is just the stark facts.

It absolutely is twattish though. It’s only looking at it through the businesses lens when we have a very complex situation with lots of completing needs.

What about all the contracts we signed with nurseries and childminders that’s can’t be honoured?

No parent signed up to working this way, it’s a nightmare.

@Insideimsprinting it isn't stark facts it's a company culture and a decision made senior leadership to have that attitude in a global
Pandemic.

Sorry I don't know why the first message went so bold!

Insideimsprinting*

It is twattish because this isn’t a normal situation. Yes, in every day life a parent is no more special than another worker - but childcare has been suspended and there’s literally nothing some single parents can do. They didn’t expect this any more than businesses do.

A good business is one that supports their staff through hardship and in return will end up with a generally more motivated and productive workforce and increases employee retention.

By being flexible and understanding, the business shows they are a good employer to work for. This doesn’t mean leaving employees with children to do nothing on full pay - but working with the parent to be as flexible as they can between each other.

Just to add as a business owner during covid, my main concern is keeping my business viable, to many are failing at the moment. Thank god for furlough. When furlough ends and I'm trying to build my business back up I need people who can work at work as we can't work from home.
Single parents are welcome but they would need to be able to commit to work, if they couldn't then I will find someone who could. Its simply down to the fact that I need a job doing, they want that job, they need to fulfil that job.

Yes please don’t resign OP. Employment is going to be hard to come by.

Everyday just remind yourself you’re being asked to do an impossible job. And just do the best you can within that, in the knowledge that if you burn out now, it’ll be so much worse in the future.

I'm furloughed from work at the moment, my kids are 4 and 2 and I'm still recovering from Covid-19 so there's no way I could WFH full time with them.

Fortunately my employer knows in normal times I work very hard so I have the benefit of them knowing that I'm doing as much as I can
This is really what it comes down to. We have two staff with young children, a single mum, one with a key worker husband.

The single mum has always been totally dedicated to the job, will do everything to ensure work is done when her children are ill, will take initiatives to look for childcare, will work evenings. The other one is always full of excuses to have time off, refuse to take on work at home etc...

Sure enough, both working from home at the moment, the single mum is managing to produce twice as much work as the other who has been complaining non stop that she can't do anything asked.

It was becoming clear that the boss was starting to lose patience with her, but without a doubt, when things start not to go her way, she'll moan that she is a bulky and picking on her.

Single parents are welcome but they would need to be able to commit to work

They will be able to when childcare and schools open, so why not help lobby for that or be patient until it does.

If everyone takes your position, we’ll have thousands of single parents unable to provide for their children. What do you think the government should then do to support them?

@firstmentat

I am going to be hiring my neighbours 16 year old from Monday for 3 hours per day, my kids are 5 and 9 and I'm a lone parent.

60 percent of my team are redundant or furloughed so I need to pick up loads of work and prove my worth. I'm exhausted trying to work full time, no home schooling is getting done, so teenager is now essential. Both families have been isolated for weeks.

In my business, I have kids, no child care at moment due to covid. I have one off shielding, another who was off sick but thankfully back and one other who has been working through. If the single mum didn't come back after sick (thankfully her kid is 16) or she had to stay off to look after a younger child indefinitely we could not have stayed open with just the third member of staff. I would have closed. Yes I could have looked for someone else to temp but due to me covering the absences with the third and my own family circumstances I could invest time.
I wouldn't have re opened, we would have gone under eventually. I would also then risk loosing my home.
Things are different at the moment yes, hopefully this post will help you see that itvisbtvascsimple just to support single parents at work, during normal times yes I would probably give more support by now many businesses are in such a precarious position and with owners having their own families, homes and income to worry about many will be going back to basics in the hope they can ride the storm.
We aren't all big corporates, rich directors etc. The situation is very complicated and employees may be only seeing this from one perspective. Having been both I'm seeing this from both sides.
It's also easy to offer suggestions and opinions from the outside not getting the fact that all businesses are different.

@Insideimsprinting

What are you doing at the moment then? You say 1/3 of the workforce would be off. What will you be doing about childcare if schools and nursery's don't open.

Lauriemarlow
Lobby- I'm frantically trying to keep my business afloat to feed my family
Be patient - I might have gone bust by then and list everything

@LaurieMarlow - again with unwarranted insults and rudeness and the implication everyone has to agree with your world view. It's a shame that you feel incapable of displaying the behaviours and attitudes you would like to see from your ideal employer.

Nursery contract? Yes, I've signed one too - and no doubt the one you signed has a similar clause to mine, allowing the nursery to close because of circumstances beyond their control and still charge parents fees. (People are obviously upset about the latter and did something useful - instead of hurling abuse at others about the unfairness of life - like complain to an organisation that will do something, hence the Competition and Markets Authority investigation.)

"The rules have changed" - what rules, exactly, are you referring to? I'm very happy for you to point out laws and regulations that have changed, as that would be helpful information for many to have, including employers.

Actually, as a matter of fact, my limited personal experience does include "pre schoolers, SEN, demanding jobs, home schooling requirements, kids who don’t do screens." What can I say, I guess some of us are just lucky in the life lotto! However, as I've referenced more than once, I am fully aware that others may have had different experiences and I don't feel the need to berate or insult them for their different experiences, requirements or opinions. Bullying is not acceptable @LaurieMarlow.

Yes, I completely agree, you can't give 100% to work and 100% to family at the same time. One or the other has to give and, if you'd read my post, you would see that my suggestion was to (temporarily) give more to work, if that was what was necessary to remain employed in the current circumstances. The great thing about sharing points of view is that you hear opinions different to your own and, if you specifically ask for advice online, you will receive suggestions from different sources, whose different experiences inform their world view and responses. You are then free to act as you feel fit (including ignoring suggestions that don't work for you, or adapting them).

I am sorry to hear your friend is struggling. Many of us have friends in similar positions, or are struggling ourselves. A good reason to be as kind and respectful to others as possible.

I'm frantically trying to keep my business afloat to feed my family

Look, I do get that. We all are, including the OP. It’s very difficult.

I’m just very concerned with this position that because of current conditions, single parents get thrown under the bus. I understand it. I totally get where you’re coming from. But the implications are terrible.

Wowthisisreal
If my staff still couldn't work I would unfortunately have to reassess their suitably to the role as we can't keep going the way we are now it just isn't viable. We are struggling. We need staff in to operate and we need at least 3 plus me to function properly.

"The rules have changed" - what rules, exactly, are you referring to? I'm very happy for you to point out laws and regulations that have changed

The rules of how we organise society and facilitate work. I’m sure you actually do know this, you’re being deliberately obtuse.

We all took jobs on the understanding that we’d have childcare. We now don’t. That changes everything about how we manage and how much we can commit to a job.

Surely you get that?

@Insideimsprinting sorry if I wasn't clear.

I'm asking what you would do personally.

How would you juggle childcare and work if childcare facilities are not allowed to open but businesses are.

I have my business, I can do so much with the kids off school. But without the other staff I'd try and scale it back down to basics, if that didn't work I'd have to claim uc.
I have in the past left some preferred jobs for ones I gave disliked purely because it fit family life and I couldn't commit to my original career/jobs. I have made hard decisions before and managed I would do again if I had to.

With a 5 year old I am managing as a lone parent to 6 hours per working day.
It involves a lot of prep though as the school are providing nothing. So I have to make sure all learning materials and resources are set up.
I always have a "nice" activity for after the formal is completed, painting, playdoh etc.
I time my days around the conference calls, so lo gets a break during the major planned meetings. This helps.
As does some garden play.
Too many opportunities to tablets and TV lead to a deterioration in behaviour, so it's limited.

Regarding your colleague's comment, I think that I would let them know you'd heard and that until they have walked a mile in your shoes, you'd appreciate if they kept their comments to themselves.