Work part time or work full time and take parental leave?

[Missmummy88]

I currently work part time ( have done for last three years ) three days per week have 3 children 10,6& 18months.

While baby is under 3 I will continue to work three days and consider going up to 4 when he is at nursery with 30 hour funding.

I always assumed I would work part time so that I could spend some time with kids during holidays. This obviously effects my pay quite substantially- 1. Because I work part time so get overlooked for head of x roles because of need to always be around to lead 2. Because i work 3/5 of my salary 3. I struggle to find a new job with salary jump part time (recently got offered a double salary job at a massive company but only wanted ft)

I just discovered about parental leave my understanding is up to 4 weeks per child per year with a max of 18 weeks per child over 18 years?

With three children I could take an extra 4 weeks holiday per year to cover Easter / summer and spend some time with my kids whilst also working my way up the ladder as a full time employee.

Has anyone done this? Obviously I would loose 4 weeks pay a year but they pales into insignificance when I look at the potential up swing working full time on double salary.

Aibu to go full time and just take lots of parental leave? Is there anything I should be aware of?

@WouldIBeATwat the amount of people on this thread who haven’t actually read any of the previous responses is actually shocking!

Laughing at all those authoritatively telling OP she won't get time off when she wants. There are many industries where everything slows completely at Christmas and for a while over summer. I work in a large consultancy and have never had to deny people Christmas leave. It's preferred as there's bloody nothing to do usually! I can see why it would be problematic in retail or frontline healthcare but many B2B businesses predictably ebb and flow over the calendar year.

I agree with everyone else that relying on parental leave for this could leave you vulnerable because it's at the discretion of your employer.. Another option to consider is could you request a term-time only contract?

@Missmummy88 I just take unpaid leave when I need it, could that be a option?

[quote Sleepdeprived42long]@WouldIBeATwat the amount of people on this thread who haven’t actually read any of the previous responses is actually shocking![/quote]
Just realised it’s in AIBU, not Work/employment Issues. Explains a lot.

I used up my unpaid parental leave in school holidays. No one else in my team wanted school hols off, I certainly never did before I had kids. Far better than dragging the dc's crying to holiday clubs.
But it's why I certainly wouldn't change jobs as I'd lose parental leave entitlement for two years.

@2TurtleDovesInARow

Laughing at all those authoritatively telling OP she won't get time off when she wants. There are many industries where everything slows completely at Christmas and for a while over summer. I work in a large consultancy and have never had to deny people Christmas leave. It's preferred as there's bloody nothing to do usually! I can see why it would be problematic in retail or frontline healthcare but many B2B businesses predictably ebb and flow over the calendar year.

I think people are just telling OP not to rely on getting parental leave at set times each year - which is quite sensible IMO.

In other words, if she is going to go down the road of using parental leave to help cover the holidays (which is fine) she needs to have a back-up in plan in place in case she's not granted what she asks for.

Annual leave for all employees would take priority over a parental leave request. So I imagine you’d find yourself denied much extra leave ( parental leave) over peak times. But you’d get as much annual leave as anyone else at those times ( just nothing extra, I expect)

Why don't you speak to your employer about buying additional leave and when you would like to take it?

If you can agree something your contract could be amended to say 47 weeks of the Year September to July or similar?

I take my full four weeks of unpaid parental leave every year to help cover the school holidays, it has never been a problem, I just tend to spread the four weeks out so I don’t have one month without pay. My employer does January to January where holiday is concerned, so its nice knowing by the second week of January all my leave is booked, approved etc and I don’t need to worry about it.

As for someone claiming you’ll be managed out, I’ve had two promotions since becoming a parent.

@2TurtleDovesInARow

Laughing at all those authoritatively telling OP she won't get time off when she wants. There are many industries where everything slows completely at Christmas and for a while over summer. I work in a large consultancy and have never had to deny people Christmas leave. It's preferred as there's bloody nothing to do usually! I can see why it would be problematic in retail or frontline healthcare but many B2B businesses predictably ebb and flow over the calendar year.

It's not just the industry, it's also the size of the company.

Internationally we are a large company but our London office is fairly small, our team are just 4 people, 2 of them with school age children.

Our job can't be transferred to other teams, nor to other locations. It is just not possible to have so much extra time off every year.

Christmas is actually the worst for us, I think I never do as much work as in December and thanks to planned leave but unplanned illness we were understaffed for nearly the whole month. I always love when my friends tell me about their leisure time in December. I am glad if I don't fall asleep during Christmas lunch.