Going down to 4 days - which day off works best?

[Nesski]

I'm about to start mat leave and want to go down to 4 days a week when I go back, however, I'm not sure which day would work best. There will be a trial period to see if it would work for my company, but I'd like some insights. Friday for example is a bad day because it's delivery day (I work for a consulting firm), Wednesday's could work well because I'd start the week off with the team and be able to leave them to get on with it on Wednesday and then pick it up again until the end of the week. Monday because bank holiday usually falls on this day (these days a pro-rated).

I love having a Monday off! Works much better to get the extra Annual Leave to use when you want to for Bank Holidays.

When I dropped a day I dropped Mondays. I’m now retired but work Wednesday and Thursday. Friday is a much busier day for shopping, supermarkets are quieter on Mondays. I feel you get more benefits from having a 3 day weekend rather than 2 days on 1 day off 2 days on 2 days off that a midweek day off would give you. More people I know have Friday off, though so nursery places are more likely to be available.

Mondays and Fridays eat into your bank holiday allowance if you get them pro rated onto your leave days, and tend to be easier to get childcare days as a lot of people don't work them. I'd go for Wednesday, it feels like two 2 day weeks then.

@Mindymomo

Don’t do Mondays. I did that and missed out on bank holidays each year. A day mid week is good for shopping and housework and catch up with friends or hobby.

You don't miss out on bank holidays as the pro-rata bank holidays will be added to your holiday entitlement for you to take at another time.

I've worked 4 years at a small place part-time, not on a Monday but I was never offered the time off pro-rata'd for bank holidays.

As long as you got 5.6 weeks worth of holidays then you were getting the bank holidays included within your annual entitlement

I would opt for Fridays or Wednesdays

I've done a real mix since having my first baby 17 years ago, and currently work 4 days, try to take Wednesday off, but with a lot of flexibility as to when I take that day.

Do consider the cycle of your work week. In my last couple of roles Monday is a busy and focused day after the weekend with lots of scheduled meetings and for this reason I rarely take it off.

In my last role I took Fridays off, but struggled to get the impetus from my team to close off tasks or seek feedback on a Thursday, as it's there's not the same end of week 'drive' like there is on a Friday.

I then shifted to taking a mid-week day off, which gave me and my children some good time together mid-week, which was important as my work days were long.

Now my kids are older I value that mid week break to keep the house ticking over til the weekend, restock the fridge, catch up on laundry etc.

I have Friday as it’s our quietest day but I’d prefer a Wednesday!

@AnOnly

I've worked 4 years at a small place part-time, not on a Monday but I was never offered the time off pro-rata'd for bank holidays.

That’s poor .....I have Monday’s off and get an extra 6 Hrs added to my leave for each BH Monday ( normal days work is 7.5hrs)

I’ve worked a four day week before, firstly with Wednesdays off and then next time with Friday off.
I’d vote Wednesday every time. It really changed the way I felt about work because it broke up the week perfectly.
Fridays is good though if you want to plan weekend breaks away.

If I had the choice again though it would be Wednesday 100%

And if your company is flexible like mine was, for the odd time you need a Friday or Monday off just switch it for that week.

I have Wednesdays off and it's lovely.

I think it also depends on your job and your personality and how you feel about work generally (which also changes when you have a baby as a rule).

For me Wednesdays didn't work that well. By the time i had ramped up and got into it mon and tues, i found that i was distracted/stressed/not fully switched off on that mid week day off which wasnt good for me or DC and then had to go through the whole ramp up again thing on Thursday.

I personally enjoy the workplace atmosphere on a Friday of everyone being in a good mood.

Mondays was brilliant for me. Just because chunks of days off and on worked better for me and how i deal with work and time off. Its quiet everywhere too. And you miss everyone being grumpy in the office!

Also depends how you are doing childcare. My childcare was already broken up into two days gparents and 2 days nursery so i didn't need the mid week day off to
Split it up myself. I also chose my working days because of my mums as she wanted to help do some childcare which was also a driver.

You have many many months to figure this out and of course it can be changed if it
Doesnt work so relax and enjoy your pregnancy.

Don't think of it as adding extra holidays as they may just give you your leave without talking about bank holidays. The legal minimum is 5.6 weeks worth of holidays so if you work 4 days that would be 22.4 days holiday. The bank holidays can be lumped in with that figure or can be added on top.

With my job the busiest days are Wed and Thurs so I have monday and Friday off. I used to work 4 shorter days and had Friday off. But I can get more done in 3 longer days so have Monday off too.

I work 2 days just now, going up to 4 days but don’t have set off, but my husband has. Wed off which he really likes, like a wee mid week break and he only ever does 2 shifts in a row

When I was working 4 days, I found that Wednesday was the best day off.

Monday. I work one day less to help mum (in normal times) and for things such as going to the garden centre with her, it is quiet, and train back fairly empty.

Less inconvenient for others at work my case, so no negative comments and 100% respect from colleagues.

If you can wfh i'd advise Doing it in your own home and not your mums. Distractions of hearing your DC aside, you can sling the vacuum round between calls, invest in a wireless headset so you can empty the washer, do your ironing and sort the dishwasher out all whilst in an online meeting etc. Might also mean you can nip out for a walk etc. Its really quite nice to feel 'alone' occasionally when you have children.

Friday day offs isn't going to be an option given the industry I'm in, but also I enjoy Fridays in the office!

I am in house lawyer and have Monday off. My catch phrase is no one has a crisis on a Monday! Friday is either manic or relaxed so either I am really glad to be in or can catch up on everything and finish in good time. No Sunday night feeling and as my boss is flexible I sometimes switch my Monday to a Friday before a holiday so I get 11 days off for 4 days holiday.

DH and I have not worked pretty much every day of the week over the years. Monday is far and away the best day to take off because of the bank holiday pro-rata thing. Wednesday makes 1 week feel like 2 and disrupts the flow of the week, it's also an unusual day for PTs to take off so many meeting happen on a Wednesday whereas e.g. Fridays are much quieter for me at work although if you have Monday off you end up having lots of Friday catchups if you are in charge of junior staff to make sure they get on with their work on the Monday.

It depends a lot on the rhythm of your workplace. I work 4 days and have Fridays off, it works really well for me as a GP as Mondays and Fridays are the busiest days, and it means I get a 3 day weekend, and have Friday to recover from a busy work week and have a chance to think about what I want to do at the weekend and prepare for it. Pre COVID it allowed me to travel more easily as soon as my child finished school for a weekend to see family elsewhere in the UK and also inset days at school are often Fridays so in school holidays you can get away on Thursday night rather than Friday night/Sat morning which can make a huge difference in pricing for holidays in school holiday time. My child’s primary school used to have about 90 percent of their special events on a Friday so previously when I worked on a Friday I was constantly missing them unless I specifically took annual leave for them.

I used to have Mondays off and found it just didn’t work for me because I still got that Sunday night dread as my kid was going back to school anyway, and all my colleagues were back at work and patients in “right let’s get things done” mode and calling up chasing letters and reports they have requested etc. which I might not have had a chance to do yet. Which annoyed my colleagues and made me look to my boss as if I wasn’t on top of my workload when really people were chasing these things almost immediately when they’d been told it would take 3 working days. Whereas nobody calls and chases those things on a Friday unless it’s super urgent (in which case it will be done anyway).

At one stage I was working 3 days a week and I experimented with Monday and Thursday off which was ok but the Mondays were an issue and Fridays at work were so horrendous that it still felt like they completely ruined the weekend. Later on I had a Wednesday and Friday off which worked really well for me.

Basically I vote you think hard about whether Friday could work for you. If not then I think Wednesday is psychologically good as you never have to work more than 2 days in a row before having a break.

@anxietyanonymous I'd set up a permenant office in my mum's house, and she'd have the kid, I'm already inconveniencing her (even though she is more than happy to do it and spend time with him).. And she is an hour away so wouldn't be able to drive back!

I used to have Monday and Fridays off when I did three days and that was THE BEST.

My new job is four days and I love my Fridays off with my little girl. Bank holidays are all pro rated so I still get the same amount of days off (I work in HR so obviously I make sure this is all correct!).