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?

I would but loads of people will tell you that you can’t and it would be wrong etc

Why? They will get quality time with me. I will have a lot of days with no work.

Yeah, I think thats a bit sad for them.

Would be more enjoyable for them if mum took annual leave during the time work is so quiet it sounds like it doesn't matter if she is there or not so annual leave would likely be granted.

We already did the annual reviews.

What kind of work do you do? If you were in the office would they genuinely be ok with you coming in for just a few hours?

Because a. You can’t work and have a non boring (for the kids) summer with your children at the same time. Despite what your kidding yourself
and b. your kids will be aware that you’re “keeping an eye” on your emails every hour during the summer, but having time off when they’re not there.

I am not in the office. I usually go 2 days a week and at quiet times I don't have to go at all.

But what about your poor kids getting a break or going on holiday? Sounds a boring summer for them.

OP seriously? If you won’t have work to do you soeak to your manager and ask if you can have more to do as you are being PAID to do it. I can’t see how you can keep your job onky have a few hours a week.

You are not being paid or sit at home, do nothing and watch your kids.

As long as OP gets a “proper break”!

Yeah at 8 and 10 plenty of kids can entertain themselves/play/ go to the bathroom/ have snacks without adult intervention so really the OP will have plenty of time if needed, although it sounds like she won’t.

it annoys me too when people say they want to work a full time job with a toddler at home and it just won’t work!

Annual review time is the most stressful "downtime" there is if you are a manager 🤣 I used to look forwards to the lull until I remembered I had to go through all that. Thankfully I don't have staff anymore.

I'm an employer, my team all work from home, I would be fine with you doing this.

I understand your arguments, I just don't agree, as you said:

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 used to run teams, manage budgets and create new business income, and this was in the public sector for goodness sake. It's sometimes necessary in the public sector, and absolutely the point of the private sector.

You have a bunch of (presumably) qualified people who are not doing very much for 4-6 weeks. I understand that you cannot 'move the work', but what you could and should be doing is making use of your staff resource.

You are being paid to operate at 100% capacity throughout the year. Unless you are fighting wars or fires, you do not need to 'catch your breath'. I'm shocked, to be honest, that your managers think this is good business practice.

If you were comfortable it was the right decision, you’d be talking to your employer about it, not the internet. Would be gross misconduct if you were employed in my firm, regardless of whether you had work to do or not.

Good for you. You don't need to listen to anyone on mn, we'll al have a million different opinions and experiences, but your employer's is the only one that matters here.

But OP certainly isn’t doing training, catching up with filing etc. She is planning to have a good old skive on the company’s shilling whilst also justifying that she is essential to the business running. It sounds like public sector tbh. I cannot believe that any commercial company would be run like this.

I am required to take time off between Xmas and New Year. It’s only 1-2 days at most. I am a sole trader and sole traders don’t normally get paid annual leave. It’s fine with me as we ARE very quiet. I work for different companies within the holding company To take weeks and weeks off and then pop off on ‘real’ annual leave is a piss take.

I used to work for many many years for a FTSE company. In a senior management position. There is no way they would have allowed this sort of behaviour and someone would have clocked that Aug was very quiet and addressed that.

And if they say it's fine, then great, enjoy your time off.
It's the hiding it that is the dodgy behaviour.

Well I'm quite jealous because in my job, quiet times or not, we still have a non negotiable obligation to record 6.5 hours minimum chargeable time per day.

So if you're sure you're not slacking and your manager knows what you're up to then fine.

But I would be feeling very worried about my job security if there were regularly weeks where I had barely nothing to do.

Is the OP going to say what sector they are in?

Not bitter, more in tune with the unfairness of it all and epitomises the number of people wfh who are actually taking the p+++

Of course it isn't mentioned in your contract. Most people don't have to be told that they shouldn't be on days out with their children when they're supposed to be working.

How is she taking the piss if she genuinely has no work to do?

Do you genuinely think she should be sitting at a desk for 8 hours, staring at a blank screen and twiddling her thumbs instead?

As an employer I think this is skiving and wouldn't be happy with any of my team doing this, particularly as you then take annual leave in September. If it is as quiet as you say it is, you should take your leave in August and not take the piss.

If you are contracted hours, do you make up ALL the hours you intend to skive theough the remaining 11 months? And in a genuine way that can be evidenced?

WFH with kids of 8 and 10 needing minimal supervision is one thing (and even then I wouldn't approve it for a whole summer, more an ad hoc/ emergency situation) but taking them out and about all day as you allegedly only have about an hour or two real work to do and will do it from your phone? I'd be reviewing your contracted hours, performance and your value to the business over 12 months if you worked for me and I found out about your plan.

If she has no work to do unless this is public sector her role will be at risk. No commercial company with shareholders to satisfy or profits to make would allow one of their biggest costs to sit around doing very little for weeks at a time.

Unless they are all dimwits someone will be addressing this. The fact that the OP then skives around in Aug and then books leave indicates this is very very likely to be public sector (i.e depts taxpayers fund!).