to think I can get by without childcare in August because work is quiet?

[isitPeri1]

Every August, work slows down massively. It has always been this way. There is barely anything coming in, hardly any meetings or deadlines, and most of my team is off. My manager and her manager are both away for the whole of August, so it is very unlikely anything urgent will come up.

I have primary school-aged kids and I am thinking I might skip childcare this year. I usually only have about one to two hours of work a day in August, and some days there is literally nothing to do at all. Anything that does come up, I can usually fit around the kids early in the morning or after they have gone to bed. I have proper annual leave booked for September when they are back at school, so I will get a proper break then.

Has anyone else done this? Just managed without childcare when work was super quiet?

Where did the op mention seniority? She just said she’s not performing surgery and that everyone else is away. You have no idea what her job is. You just sound bitter she has the flexibility and dares to take leave without her children.

It's clear the OP is only interested in hearing from people who agree with her, so not really sure why she bothered posting?? Sounds more of a stealth boast than actually asking for advice/opinions.

In what way is it accurate?

Lots of jobs have periods of downtime where very little happens, it doesn't mean they're "such low level positions" - in fact, it's often quite the opposite.

Your comment was totally unnecessary and based on your own assumptions, nothing more.

Or maybe she didn't realise how narrow-minded MN can be when it comes to work.

OP - why don’t you say what industry?

This

Yes, I would have contingency plans for emergency requests.

Personally, I would also consider some vacation care, to give you a chance to really focus; but only you know if that would be useful to you.

I get you have asked your boss and they have agreed

what is this fab job that is so quiet in jan and August ?

Lots of jobs are, simply because of the number of colleagues taking leave.

I too am intrigued😊.

in my work, it is quieter in summer simply because it’s more difficult to schedule meetings with other peoples leave, and deadlines don’t tend to be in summer, but this time is used to catch up on training, staff development, work that requires more thinking time, prep work to get ahead etc. I also use the time to ensure I am up to date on industry developments. One to one meetings are also easier to schedule and people have more time to catch up over a coffee etc. summer is when I do a lot of my peer check ins.

So the ‘quiet’ times are actually productive - just not frantic. Granted I am not having to work crazy hours, so the working day looks more like a 8:30 to 5:30, which is lovely.

I get August due to people going away

but jan as well ?

Why not? Lots of industries have a lull after Christmas.

Why is it unprofessional? Try reading the thread. My manager said it is fine. The DC will not be bored because I will take them out everyday as there is so little work.

YABU for not reading the thread and making an irrelevant response.

It is not a low level position 😂

The people who are in lower positions or do very basic admin do not have this level of flexibility.

You are definitely catty like the other posters said 😹

Exactly

Try reading the thread. Only takes a minute to scan all OP's posts. Manager has it is ok.

Anything to do with hospitality, alcohol sales, retail, removals among others have quiet Januarys.

It's why a lot of companies in those sectors have their 'Xmas do' in January because it's quieter and so are the hotels/restaurants they book.

Really?

It was on hearing everyone's opinions who said I should check with my manager that I went ahead and checked.

Are mums not allowed to take time off work for themselves? Are you from the 1950s?

I worked in an edtech company, and it was largely dead throughout the summer holidays. 8 weeks of quiet time.

I absolutely encourage my staff to do long breaks, get house stuff sorted etc during the summer! The first six weeks and last six weeks of the school year were usually chocka, we did a bit of give and take, and always wanted one member of staff on the inbox, but otherwise it was literally 1% of normal volume traffic.

Retail? Are January sales no longer a thing?

It isn't accurate at all. Higher level jobs are frequently the ones with more flexibility in them compared to the rigidity of many minimum wage roles. I can do very similar to OP and am far from being in an entry level role. I am one of the 'mythical' 100k fully WFH employees who is able to flex my job to fit my life instead of life flexing round my work. I work extremely hard when I need to, I am efficient and organized as I go. I am not going to start creating 'busy work' like filing emails or any of the other stupid suggestions made on this thread in order to fill the quieter times.

I don't see OP being defensive. I see her being extremely patient in the face of some deeply unpleasant comments about her, her life:work balance, her parenting etc.

I used to work in retail - our sales started Boxing Day and we were busy until maybe January 2nd or 3rd - but as soon as schools went back, trade died off completely and the rest of the month (plus at least half of February) was absolutely dead as anything.

We had days where we'd maybe put 8-9 sales through the till, if that.

Thanks! When I worked in retail it was in the city of London (ie the financial district) so school holidays weren’t really that relevant and our January sale lasted throughout January.

This is a gazillion years ago though.

This was clothing retail in a touristy area, so January was always one of our quietest times of year. Lots of people would take annual leave, or do half days etc. We even changed our hours sometimes to close early as we were actually losing money just by having the doors open.