To not want to work crazy hours / weekends now I have a family?

[Bets2801]

I’ve recently gone back to work after maternity leave (9 month old baby). I’m self employed..work as a consultant for different clients. Some of the organisations I work for have a very family-friendly culture, therefore this attitude extends to even consultants - they don’t expect you to be working till 9-10pm every night.

However one of clients has a very non-family friendly culture but they also give me a large percentage of my work! They’re not a UK company so think it may be a cultural difference. They expect their own employees and consultants to be on hand working late nights and most weekends. I explained to the client that I was coming back on 4 days a week initially until my daughter was a bit older, he said fine I’ll take whatever time you have and booked me out till the end of the year..which is great! But even though I promised myself I wouldn’t I’ve already been working late most nights and I’m burning out. My daughter doesn’t even sleep through yet which I know isn’t there problem but it’s why I wanted to ease into things.

They have a culture of pride in working every single hour to meet a deadline..whereas I think if you’re organised and plan your work well you don’t have to work like that to achieve good results. Pre baby I just cracked on and did what they wanted but I’m really struggling to balance it. They asked me to work this weekend despite the deadline being 3 weeks away (and there being no issue in teaching this)..I said no I didn’t think it was necessary so far from the deadline and they were very cold and quite dismissive. If im working late nights all week I want time with my daughter at the weekend..if I thought the job required it I would do it..say week before the deadline if they had an issue but they just seem to want people around as a comfort blanket.

Just a rant really.. not sure what to do as in self employed so very different situation. I can’t sustain working crazy hours and weekends / I don’t want to be that sort of parent but I think anything less they just view as a lack of commitment and may not invite me back.

I think your wellbeing is important. Realistically they can take their business away at any time. I think you are right to set boundaries.

I guess only you can answer how much you need their business and are therefore prepared to dance to the clients tune. The problem is that they are used to you doing it so it’s a change for them. Whether it’s a change they are prepared to accept only time will tell. If you don’t need the money then force the change through and risk losing them, if you do then you’ll have to suck it up.

As a consultant it is tough but they are paying you for your working day. You were clear you have to put the boundaries in place.

The risk is that they could decide not to hire you again however they are working the long hours for promotions and to be noticed.

I working on bidding and use a number of consultants I love it when people will work all hours however I have respect for consultants that put boundaries in place.

Maybe charge they double/triple time for your weekend and evening working. I know it is not about money but it might make them respect your time more or means you can work less next year.

Because you are self employed, can you not just give yourself Monday and Tuesday as the weekend instead of Saturday and Sunday? You don't have school schedules to work to so your weekends don't need to be rigid. I work for myself too, and if a client needs me on a Saturday, which they usually do, then I make myself available. I always made sure I had one day mid week (pre covid) that I kept free for the children.