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?

Or maybe, just maybe, not all industries are the same and some very often have quiet weeks/months and much busier ones.

OP says herself she often works way beyond her contracted hours some weeks, and then has much quieter ones - very normal in many industries - even private ones with shareholders.

My workplace is very very supportive of wfh, flexing time and adhoc childcare while wfh if stuck, but even they would be pissed off if I wasn’t transparent about it. It would be a disciplinary.

If you are willing to take the risk and graciously accept the potential consequences, that’s up to you. I wouldn’t risk my job, especially in current economic climate.

You would be fine with learning that one of your full time staff only had 5-10 hours work each week for all of August? So output, delivery, etc isn’t important to you?

Most managers would find this quite poor management and not be fine with this. Myself included. If this was a member of my team I would be filling this time with things that need to be done or asking others in thr business if they needed additional support or their were future projects that could be started. They aren’t being paid to work part time and have a paid month off.

People who do this always think others don’t notice or claim everyone else is doing it too. I used to work with someone who was never available when an urgent client issue came up. Refused any calls after 1530. We all knew she was on school runs and additionally- no she never made the hours up.

When I left the company she was in the first stage of disciplinary.

Perhaps teachers could do this - book leave in September so they could be at home with their own children in August when there is less work to do (okay a bit of tidying and planning) and then have time off in September to have a complete rest away from the kids.
Certainly isn't NHS where staff with families book August leave the previous September and it is the big changeover time when all the new doctors and other trainees start although it is the one month where winter pressures are less

I bet the OP doesn’t make up the hours. With two children she just won’t bother but quite honestly if the company/public sector don’t address it her view is likely that she won’t address it either.

100% agree with this.
Completely get that some businesses are cyclical/seasonal, but if August is such a quiet month then that's when she should be booking her AL - and the fact her managers have both done this indicates that's probably what they think too.
Obviously, if OP is completely upfront and her manager agrees then that's fine.

Lots of other industries are seasonal and wouldn’t dream of such downtime. I’m in one of them and you can’t get much more seasonal!

Go for it. At 8 & 10 I loved pottering around without close supervision

It totally depends but I do.

We have 2 weeks off in the school holidays but aside from that I’m juggling with my partner.
My boss really didn’t want me to pay for childcare (I discussed in when I joined) and is fully aware and supportive. My boss’s boss knows and is happy and said he does the same. It helps that the organisation benefits from us working flexibly e.g the people we work with often prefer to have an evening meeting. This is all very open and I definitely wouldn’t be under any kind of disciplinary for flexibly working around my children. I have a contractual right to work my hours flexibly.

How we make it work it is that we alternate days between me & my partner. So if someone wants an in person meeting for any reason, we always have a 2/3 days a week we can offer to do that.

If it’s a day that I have the kids at home I tend to work 7-11am, do something fun with the kids in the afternoon and then work in the evening. So still do a full day if needed (but tends to be quieter). Again, totally fine in my work. We have two big in person events each week which I will always be childfree for.

In my particular role and industry it’s very much the norm and openly agreed, even if you have very young children. But mine are older.

Surely you’d need to discuss this with your manager? If they’re paying you to work a full day and you’re doing probably not even half, you’d be committing fraud!

So I work in HE. Some of my colleagues are on teaching only contracts and some (including me) are on teaching and research. I do my research in the summer but my teaching only colleagues have none so they have about three or four months with little to do (our teaching finishes in March and doesn’t start til September (leaving room for 1 month of marking and one for prepping for teaching) and they could absolutely get away with having no childcare during the summer and nobody would be checking up on them either.

Right but pissing around and going to a theme park whilst ‘working’ is also not in your contract but you’d be sacked for doing it if anyone found out

More to the point if it’s not agreed with her manager, she would be committing fraud!

I was going to say this. This is what I have done with my 8yo DS, we have a mix of us going away for a few days, I have some days off with him, there are a handful of days when I will have him when I wfh and a good chunk in holidays clubs. I have an only though so he’d be more prone to being bored without a playmate. Plus. The holiday club I send him to does loads of activities that he absolutely loves

I have proper annual leave booked for September when they are back at school, so I will get a proper break then.

But why don't you just use the annual leave during the school holidays to have a proper guilt free break with your children now, instead of taking extra time off at your employers expense in september & juggling work in the school holidays? This attitude really annoys me.

Wow what is your job? I hope this isn't too personal a question but I really need to change my career and I'm interested

And there may well be a clause that says OP must devote her full time and attention to her work duties during working hours. Pretty standard provision in employment contracts. Nothing expressly saying you can’t look after children, but looking after children means you are in breach of an “outside interests” clause.

I think if you were truly confident in "they always said it is fine as long as the work gets done." Line you keep parroting you wouldn't be on here asking and you would quite easily ask / inform them of your plans. But you know going on a day out while "checking in and answering emails" is massively taking the piss.

I used to have a role like this and had no problem approaching management to say I had emergency childcare that day and the response was always "no worries just do what you can" but I was sat at home and actively working (as much as possible) not pissing about at Thorpe Park or whatever you're planning.

It speaks volumes you've not used your annual leave for childcare too. You're avoiding deadlines by using it in September but couldn't use it now?? Lazy worker and Lazy Parent by the sounds of it.

I wfh full time (my kids are teens) but I wouldn’t dream of taking leave when they are back at school. I’m taking a week off and using the rest of my leave to have some long weekends over the school holidays. I won’t have any left to take days off when they are back at school.

Is all of your work really reactive and not proactive? Surely there are things you should be cracking on with?

It is one thing easing off the pedal during the quietest periods but to do very small percent of your working hours? Really?

Looks like you are looking for your cake and eating it. So, you are getting paid to work. You will not do what others do and take annual leave when it is quiet, you will wait until the kids go back to school and presumably your work is busier and then you will take leave. I bet your colleagues love you. Sounds like you are taking the piss massively.

I agree and to be honest the OPs employer has been extremely reasonable with medical appointments etc. All take and no give here.

I‘m surprised at the replies on here. I don’t see the big deal.

If it’s not in your contract that you can’t WFH whilst caring for children, then I don’t think it is a problem. Your DC will have a better summer with you working 2 hours a day than they would in childcare.

I‘m a teacher and will need to do prep work over the summer, an hour or two a day. We have no family nearby, and I’m not going to put my DC in childcare- they can play or watch a movie if needs must. They even come to school with me and help set up my classroom.

Also, I‘ve worked in jobs where you have set hours- but you’re expected to work more in busy times, and less when it’s quiet. I didn’t think that was so unusual!