Jobs that fit around school hours

[randomsabreuse]

Really want a job as a bored SAHM but it needs to fit around school hours unless well paid. Financially me working is not essential but we can't throw money at the problem for very long. Even school hours will cost something until younger DC starts school but we can do that for a year.

Can't do evenings and weekends because DH has on call once a week (not consistent day) and every 4 weekends. We don't have local family (and even if we did in-laws are still quarantining their shopping and paranoid about Covid).

School admin would be obvious but actually the lack of flexibility for illness in term time would be problematic as DH does not have flexibility to collect/stay at home in case of child illness - his employer is pretty good policy wise but regulatory body requirements limit what they can do and there's just not enough other people to cover.

I don't like kids enough to be a childminder. I'm not a caring personality either.

Otherwise not fussy what I do so long as the hours fit. Industrial work is crying out for workers around here but rigid 8-5 and doesn't pay enough to cover wrap around x2 and balance the lifestyle implications for DC of general wrap around vs sports clubs after school.

Thanks for reading the essay/rant!

Another suggestion for civil service, I start on Monday and will be in the office everyday but my line manager said it’s up to me what hours I do…I even had the option of term time only working! I don’t have any prior experience in the role I’m about to start however I displayed all the behaviours so don’t be put off by the job titles on the website. It’s taken 9 months but I think the flexibility will be worth the wait. Good luck with your search.

I’m an IFA and work school hours and only PT in the hols (& take 6/7weeks leave). Always do school trips etc. own business

i’ve got 19 professional exams, but you can train after 6.

It’s a great job as a woman.

If you drive and have a car - AmazonFlex. It's very easy to sign up and you can choose when/if you want to work 2-3 hours. It's completely up to you and the rates are quite good.

Oh, and you can take kids with you in the car if you needed to!

I was in the same position, I’m now a Parish Clerk. Depending on the size of the Parish you can get ones that are just a few flexible hours a week to ones like mine. I do 24 hours a week, fully flexible apart from one or two evening meetings per month. My toddler comes to work with me sometimes (like today I had to go and inspect a footpath, strapped her in the buggy and off we went). My toddler does two days at nursery, if she’s sick I make up the hours in the evenings or at weekends. Highly recommend for a flexible, child friendly job!

Haha, I agree with this. The more dc I’ve had, the more I very much believe in a spoonful of calpol, a brunch bar in the car & if you’re really sick, I can pick you up at break-time…

Miraculously they manage fine once they see their friends at the school gate 🤷🏼‍♀️

Yea, I read this as possibly a Consultant/hospital Dr etc too. A few hospital dr’s I’ve worked with are married to nurses or Drs, so it must work ok somehow.

That’s also why I was asking about what job OPs husband does. You’ll be surprised how many men actually can leave their work in an emergency. I know many double doctor families and they seem to make it work.
I’m guessing he could be a pilot or air traffic controller or something?

I mean no offence to school admin staff but as a former city lawyer, you are ridiculously underselling yourself to go for that. What about a different type of legal job? Lawyer for a charity/local gov/etc?

What about signing on the bank at your local hospital then you "book" shifts to suit you?

My only objection to non medical part time professional roles is that in the private sector they're part time only as far as the pay is concerned unless you are VERY good at setting boundaries. Even friends I know are really good at standing up for themselves tend to work more hours than they're paid for in their professional "part time" roles. Paid 0.6, work 0.9. Paid 0.8, work 1.1. Yes it comes with the private sector professional role to work more than your hours but it's particularly crap when you're paid a lot less for the "flexibility". I'm crap at standing up for myself so would definitely not set reasonable boundaries on availability.

I'd happily do 2 or 3 days 8.30-5.30 (to fit within wraparound) but that's also tough without starting full time. Need to believe in myself that someone might want to give me a job, because it's difficult selling yourself if you have no clue what you want to do!

As I mentioned up-thread, you can always get a job with AmazonFlex without an interview as long as you have a car. And you can do as many or as little hours as you want.

I'm not sure what area of law you were in but it seems to be a real employees' market at the moment - we've been trying to recruit for over a year now and colleagues in other teams are being poached left right and centre. It'd be worth speaking to a recruiter. If it's an in-demand area you might be able to negotiate more flexibility than you were expecting?

The civil service aptitude test is a bit weird, I remember my brother doing it and him picking answers that I think make total sense unless you're in the civil service already. I'm not sure how often you're allowed to do it but I would keep trying as I know a lot of areas who would love to have someone with your background.

I'd definitely consider software engineering and the paid wrap around care.

It'd require research and training - but mostly you'd only need to invest time. The job market is madness right now, there isn't enough supply to meet demand so wages are high. It also lends itself well to WFH, flexible pick ups/drop offs etc. I think it's a great job if you are logical, enjoy problem solving and don't mind being at a desk for most of the day.

The wages are good enough even at entry level to pay for wrap around care and holiday cover for 2 children. You'd want to Google things like; software engineer, front end engineer, services engineer, mobile development engineer etc if you wanted more information.

I'm a midday Supervisor I work at lunchtime for 1.5 hrs.Its easy and relatively enjoyable.

In a primary

I once met a lady at baby sensory who had literally set up a whole business (some kind of manufacture) on the basis that the hours were 9.15-2.45 and the majority of her staff were local mums. I have no idea why more employers don't do that.
How often are your kids ill? Schools will give you the day off if that's the case I'm sure. And admin roles can be more flexible than teaching (which I do). You may be able to WFH if that happens.

Support worker? (Aka carer, p.a).

My support worker is a mum. I was worried her availability would be an issue, but it's really not as I am flexible. It would not suit someone with very complex care needs, but for me it is fine.

She drives me in my car, cooks, cleans, does errands, takes to to visit family, laundry etc and whatever else needs doing.
Under direct payments with the council, where I get funds to pay her wage.
Dont do agency as they rob you with fees.

Dog walker

Are you near a large city with a government hub? My department of the Civil Service - the VOA - are recruiting soon. You need 4 GCSEs including English and Maths. Hybrid working. 2 days a week in the office, full training given, flexible working.
Look on the Civil Service jobs website and see if there's anything near you.

How about temping work?

I 'temped' for years when studying and I loved it. It was always admin/reception work but the joy was never having to stay in a place too long. Although one temp job I did for 3 years....until I was made permanent.

Best thing with temping is you're not committed to anything. Someone calls you up and says - hi, x place needs a receptionist for a week, hours are x-y can you start Monday. And you're in control on whether you can or not. You can say - I'm not available between these dates and if your kid gets poorly you just finish up and say you have to go home. There's no contract.

It's as easy as passing your CV to a couple of recruitment agencies that do temp work and waiting for the phone to ring.

One thing though is that the more available and reliable you are the more the recruitment agent will put you forward for work.

If you can work Monday to Friday 9 - 3pm and you're willing to take on any job and you do a good job and your recruiter can rely on you and you build up a good relationship with them, you can really set yourself up. It's usually pretty good money, you meet new people and if a company particularly like you they may well just keep you on.

Project manager? You set meeting times, your lawyer skills would help, and noone wants the job.

Or bar work on 0-hour contract with a good manager.

Or get dh to get your name in for bank work at the hospital (non medical roles obviously)

I work civil service and the flexibility is priceless as husband works late most days meaning I can't. Unless you are close to a government building though it way not work as a way of spending time with adults. I work mostly from home. If you rethink your availability there would also be millions of options... I worked in a pub for years and the social side was brilliant. If you are actually available three weekends in four and 6 evenings a week many would happily give you part time hours around your required time off

I'm in the same boat OP. Shop work is no good, as you say they always want at least one weekend and holiday cover availability.
The only real option is working in a school, I am considering training to be a TA. I know I'm dry capable of doing the job, but have no experience working in schools which they always seem to want! I may try volunteering at the school and go from there.

DH thinks I'd be good at this or cyber but I'm nervous because I'm a right in the generation that didn't get brought up with computers but had them wheeled into the classroom as a special treat. Got my first computer in 3rd year at uni...

I can do intermediate excel with the help of google but have never done a pivot table in my life. I'm usually very solid with problem solving big and broken Word documents though!

I'm generally good at logic though.