Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think it’s ok to work 4 days a week if you don’t have kids

100 replies

letsremovethewap · 17/03/2022 22:49

I’m in my 20s, a teacher and don’t have kids, ideally I would like to have a teaching job with 0.8 hours. However people I’ve spoken to say that employers would find it weird that I’m not looking for full time work if I don’t have kids.

OP posts:
Theaveragewife · 17/03/2022 22:50

Not weird, absolutely fine.

ouch321 · 17/03/2022 22:51

Please yourself, it doesn't affect Joe Bloggs that you do a 4 day week. People work all different kinds of schedules.

AskingforaBaskin · 17/03/2022 22:51

Absolutely! Your life, time and happiness is worth no less because you do not have obligations to take your freedoms.

If you do plan to have children enjoy this time to discover yourself and enjoy your life.

And if you don't... same thing applies.

Kitkat151 · 17/03/2022 22:51

You can work as many days as you want...no ones business bar your own

HunterHearstHelmsley · 17/03/2022 22:52

It is absolutely ok! The childfree deserve a work/life balance too.

I work school hours and have had a few raised eyebrows. I have things to do too!

Mullercornershop · 17/03/2022 22:55

The only problem with working part time is that you are still expected to same the amount of work. You’d still need to do prep and your own professional development so it’s not always at part time as you’d expect.

GoodnessTruthBeauty · 17/03/2022 22:56

What your personal arrangements are outside work should be irrelevant. Either it works for an employer or it doesn't. This is the kind of request that if a man made whether he had kids would never even be mentioned.

HardbackWriter · 17/03/2022 22:57

Of course it's fine - you might get questions about what you do on your day off, but it's no one's business but yours!

I was delighted when one of my colleagues, who doesn't have children, went down to 0.8 at the same time as me - both because I knew how important it was to him to have that extra time and because it shut up my colleagues who felt I was getting 'special treatment' for having children! There's a really pervasive idea in my workplace, and I think in many, that people without children 'aren't allowed ' to go part-time but as far as I can see where I work this is self-imposed, they don't apply.

BeanStew22 · 17/03/2022 22:59

0.8 hours is a bit rubbish in many office jobs (FT workload, less pay) but maybe it would not be the same teaching….

You are quite young to be doing PT though - don’t you want to progress? I can see the appeal now but I am in my 40s and have worked FT for 20 years

I accept that teaching is a stressful profession though so maybe that’s a good reason to go PT.

HardbackWriter · 17/03/2022 23:04

Anecdotally, both DH, who is a teacher, and I work four days, and it works lots better for him in many ways - not absolutely everything was reduced down in workload for him (he has a TLR and that's the same amount of work) but he does only have 80% of the classes so he does come reasonably close to only doing 80% of the work. I have an office job, work 90% over four days and definitely have exactly the same workload that I'd have if I were full-time. Neither of us touch or contemplate work on our non-working day, though.

SquirrelG · 17/03/2022 23:07

Of course it's okay. Surely people can work whatever hours they want, and whether or not they have children has nothing to do with it.

Shoemadlady · 17/03/2022 23:09

You are well within your rights to put in a flexible working request and ask for four days per week. It has to be given serious thought and have a valid reason if rejected.
It doesn't matter why, you don't even need to declare why, you might just want to spend the day in bed!
Go for it!

Oysterbabe · 17/03/2022 23:09

I have kids but I don't intend to ever go back to 5 days.

VerityPJohnson · 17/03/2022 23:11

If you apply for an 0.8 role then why would they even ask?

If you want to negotiate 0.8, then wait til you’ve been offered something.

I work 0.8 and have no kids. Personally I think a four day week should be the norm.

Notlostjustexploring · 17/03/2022 23:22

I did a 4 day week in my 20s, pre kids, albeit compressed hours. I loved it. I think work got more out of me, as mon-thurs was all about work and I could get right into things, and a 3 day weekend was absolutely marvellous, having a Friday to run errands, or volunteer, or sleep in, or to just be, was absolutely wonderful.

I'm forever trying to persuade (usually male) colleagues to consider altering a working pattern to better suit them. I think so many want to, but I think they feel they just can't? It's like not working 9-5 is just an alien concept. I reckon a 9 day fortnight would be a thing of beauty for many, and they're really missing out.

More people who do it the better!

hogangog · 17/03/2022 23:27

if you can afford it, go for 0.6. i did 0.4 before i had kids, i loved it. always used to get asked what i did on my days off, i just told them the truth - things i enjoy. i did go full time for a while, but then 0.4 again after coming back from maternity leave. i would never go back full time now unless we absolutely couldn't pay the bills without the money.

lanthanum · 17/03/2022 23:31

I went part-time long before having kids. In the first school I worked part-time in (60-70%), one colleague just assumed I had kids. When he discovered I didn't, he asked why I worked part-time. I said "work-life balance" and he said fair enough! I was happy to have a less stressful job and a slightly lower income.

Finding part-time can be trickier, especially in secondary as it's trickier to timetable. I was happy to have my teaching spread across the week, with a mixture of late starts and early finishes, and that made things much easier. If you're only in three days a week then it's difficult to timetable without lots of split classes, particularly in core subjects.

RowanAlong · 17/03/2022 23:35

Oh wow, I think you can definitely please yourself if you don’t have kids! Go for it! There’s absolutely no reason you shouldn’t.

GrandRapids · 17/03/2022 23:36

Definitely do it. Who gives a shit what other people think. It's probably jealousy anyway. I know I would be!!

beautifullymad · 17/03/2022 23:40

I only ever worked 18 hours. It suited us as a family as I was available to do the home making.

If I had my time again I'd work more hours for longer to build up final salary pension. I was on an amazing one but didn't realise at the time.

converseandjeans · 17/03/2022 23:41

We have staff in my school who have asked to go 0.8 with no kids. It helps keep workload under control

Are the people querying it teachers? I don't think people understand how tiring it is.

I can't see me going back to FT when kids get older. Main issue is that pension will be rubbish.

Mariposista · 17/03/2022 23:45

If you can afford to, they why on Earth not! If I were able to do that, I'd use that day to work on personal projects, maybe a hobby, volunteer work etc, not just loafing about.

silentpool · 17/03/2022 23:49

If workplaces are truly flexible, your reasons for wanting to work 4 days are you own business. Just because you don't have kids, doesn't mean you don't need balance in your life.

MaChienEstUnDick · 17/03/2022 23:51

Of course it's fine. It's actually super-helpful because it normalises part-time work.

And who knows, if enough people do it who don't have kids and still manage to complete and excel in their busy important jobs, it may even catch on for dads!

0.8 though is a bit tricky, most people I know who have been on that pattern end up going back to full time as they've felt they've ended up squeezing five days into four, with only four days money.

Kite22 · 17/03/2022 23:51

Not weird. Very sensible in fact. Do most of the planning / marking / paperwork on your nwd, and keep the weekends free.

My only warning though is not to do 0.8.
If you are secondary it is very unlikely you will have a day with no lessons and you just end up with travel and trapped time
If you are Primary you will end up doing ALL the work for the class except the 6 hours of teaching on the one day (ie, the nice bit). Do NOT do 0.8 in Primary. Do 0.6 if you can afford it or FT if not, otherwise you are doing 99% of the work for 80% of the pay.