Flexible working after mat leave

[CrazyKitkatLady]

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I’m due back at work in June when my baby will be 11.5 months. I’m going to be having a chat with my manager later this week about what flexible working might look like when I go back to see what would work for both sides.

I’m wondering if people have experience of different sorts and whether it worked well for you. I will still be working full time hours.

A few things I am considering are:

A. Compressing hours to work a full 10 days in 9 meaning a full day off every other week or a half day off every week (either will work with our childcare arrangements) my concern with this is I wouldn’t really see the baby on 4/7 days a week but a pro would be being able to go out / do something extra on the day off. This is the option I’m expecting the most push back from.

B. Offsetting my work hours so instead of doing 9-5 doing 8-3.30 (losing half an hour from lunch break) so that I can pick baby up early from nursery / grandparents and actually see her whilst she’s awake

C. Regular working from home. It sounds like my company will be pretty open to this as they want to reduce office space but not sure how many days per week to ask for... 3? 4? My commute is about an hour. Nursery and grandparents are both within a 5 min walk of home so very close.

My husband has put in a request to work 10 days in 9 and have every other Friday off to be with the baby but we’re waiting to see if it will be approved

Are there any other things that have worked well for you that I haven’t thought of? I’m really worried when I go back I’ll hardly see my baby so old really appreciate anyone’s viewpoints who have already had to deal with this

• so I’d really appreciate anyone’s viewpoints

Could you drop a day and do B?

I have to keep full time hours for financial reasons unfortunately

I compressed and reduced my hours.
I work 32 hours across 4 days with a 30 minute lunch break. I work from home 2 days a week aswell, flexibly as the business needs. This works well for all

I do full time over 4 days so working 8-6 with a 40 minute lunch break. I work from home now due to Covid so although it's a long day, it's the same as 9-5 would have been in terms of time away from home without the commute. I get every Wednesday off so I'm never more than 2 days away from a day with my baby and saves us the extra day of childcare. They are long days and I really miss my baby but I prefer having a full day with her to really enjoy our time than an extra hour tagged on either end of the day.

I would try to do both b and c. Working 4 long days is rubbish as you don't have any evenings left. I would rather 5 evenings than 1 full day off, personally.
If it is at all possible to take a pay cut and reduce your hours, I would do that. Unless you are both in low paid work you can probably make some savings somewhere to enable a 4 day week.

If you could coordinate with your husband. The 9 day fortnight could work well. You don’t want to be paying for nursery unnecessarily and a full day off is much nicer. I have seen a fair bit of pushback/resentment about 9 day fortnights though. Many full timers work the same hours without the day off so doesn’t always go down well.

For me personally, a day off while I’ve got toddlers is important but then I’d look to flex hours once both of mine are school age to try and have a few early finishes. The 8-3.30 option would be nice when your child is older but doesn’t have as many advantages before school age in my opinion.

@Dustyhedge that’s a good point

@SnackSizeRaisin I don’t think my work would agree to me dropping so many hours, it isn’t really feasible to do my job less than full time

I dropped from full time (37hrs over 5 days) to 30 hours over 4 days and reduced lunch to 30 mins.
The net drop in pay wasn’t much as I then qualified for child benefit (full time salary was too high) and I dropped to 6.8% pension contributions from 8.5%. I also dropped to 20% tax instead of 40% on my BTL. So it is actually financially beneficial for me to work fewer hours overall.

I love having my whole day with DD (Monday’s in my case as better for my holiday entitlement), so any option that gives you a full day, even if every other week is good IME.
I plan to switch to 5 short days when she starts school.

@Megan2018

I dropped from full time (37hrs over 5 days) to 30 hours over 4 days and reduced lunch to 30 mins. The net drop in pay wasn’t much as I then qualified for child benefit (full time salary was too high) and I dropped to 6.8% pension contributions from 8.5%. I also dropped to 20% tax instead of 40% on my BTL. So it is actually financially beneficial for me to work fewer hours overall.

I love having my whole day with DD (Monday’s in my case as better for my holiday entitlement), so any option that gives you a full day, even if every other week is good IME.
I plan to switch to 5 short days when she starts school.

Apart from the pension hit.....

I do compressed hours. 4.5 days in 4 days so I get every Monday off. This meant only dropping to 90% of pay and by having Mondays the bank holiday allowance works out favourably.
I also work from home so don't have to allow for commuting time.

@TomHardyAndMe no pension hit really, it’s defined benefits so a mix of average salary and historically final salary. So pension commensurate to earnings, not my contributions.

Obviously reducing hours reduces it slightly, but I’ve so much final salary pension under the old scheme plus my BTL it’s not really a factor for me. I’ll be far better off retired than I am now!

I would request all 3 options I.e. 9 day fortnight, reducing lunch to 30 mins and WFH 3 days a week and use these to negotiate at least one option.

Consider having a Monday as your NWD, most ask for Friday and so businesses can find they struggle for resource on a Friday - sell this as a positive. Don’t go for 2 half days as you will find work encroaches and you will not get quality time with DC.

Be prepared to reduce WFH to 1 or 2 days as this is better than none.

Think about what your clients/customers want/need from the business and how your working hours would either maintain or improve service.

If you can financially afford it, my husband and I have both gone for 9 day fortnights (not compressing hours, just not working every other Friday). It means she’s just in nursery 4 days a week and can be a better option for companies as they are paying you 10% less.