It’s impossible to work 1 day a week and be effective

[yoghurttops]

The company I worked for reviewed everyone’s hours and I went from 25 hours to 8 hours a week - which I do in 1 day (agreed before my mat leave).

I am job hunting and do other projects in the week to maintain income.

I work for a small company and they are under financial pressure. I have asked for more hours (because they are throwing money at consultants when I can do the work) but they say no. I did extra hours for a particular project, instead of being paid they added it as time in lieu.

I do everything within my department (we are that small). I find that doing one day just about allows me to put a schedule together, then I’m out of the loop for a week.

AIBU in thinking that it’s impossible to work 1 day and be effective as a 1 person team when you are in charge of strategy and day to day outputs.

Sounds like a piss take to be honest. I’d be out as soon as I could be

They've cut your hours so severely you can't do your job effectively & they're giving your work to an agency?

Sounds to me like possible constructive dismissal but this is not my area.
Maybe speak to ACAS?

Sounds pretty difficult tbh…

Get a copy of your employment contract and check if they’re compliant.

This sounds difficult. Time off in lieu on one day a week? Is your day in the office? Would it help to maybe do 5 or 6 hours in the office on one day and the rest from home another day? Are they not giving additional hours to you because the time required would wax and wane (if so, could they just treat ad hoc additional work as overtime at same rate you’re on)? You’ve said it’s a small company, so I guess it’s unlikely to be a headcount budget scenario. Do you think they want to get rid of you? Could they be thinking you might be going on maternity leave again in not too distant future? It sounds like you need to look around elsewhere - a start might be to contact the agency they use and offer to subcontract to them!

Thanks for this. I know they have cashflow issues, but the board has pointed out that they keep wasting money when I could just do the extra hours. On the days I’m not there, my role is subtly given to other members of the team - but they are absolutely clueless.

The did hire someone new who does 3 days, her role is different but methyl crosses over mine.

I am job hunting right now and I’ve had no luck. Great interviews but no offer - but positive feedback.

I will raise this with ACAS.

Totally different scenario but I was once employed on a 7 hour contract and it was horrendous. By the time I'd factored in team meetings and even mundane things like sorting out a jam in the photocopier the time available for actual work was much less than 7 hours. Fortunately for me I got extra hours after a while which meant I could actually do the job properly. So yes, very hard to be affective on one day a week.
Good luck with the job hunting.