Compressed hours options: 4-day week or 9 days in 10? Help me decide

[MongoIsAppalled]

Does anyone have experience of compressed hours? I currently work 8:30-16:30 mon-fri.

My two options are

4 days in 5. 8:00-18:00 mon-thurs

or

9 days in 10. Week 1 8:00-17:00 mon - thurs 8:00-15:30 fri. Week 2 8:00-17:00 mon - thurs. Fri off.

I WFH. My kids are grown, i just want more down time. I work late most days already in a target driven role. Which is better and why? I have a meeting today, planned for a week, i thought i would have decided by now, but im still torn over which is better.. Please help me decide. Thanks

YABU - 4 DAYS
YANBU - 9 DAYS

I dont manage people, and we all have individual case loads so that doesnt affect the team. Im also an early riser, up at the gym for 5am so an 8am start is fine. Its more tthe 6pm finish and loosing momentem. But if im stricter over having a break it would be ok i think. Im often on till 17:30 anyway

I work a four day week and it’s amazing. I have fridays to do extra freelance work, book long weekends, get on top of housework, study, meet friends, or just lounge around reading and crafting. Highly recommend!

4 days. WFH makes that manageable, if you were commuting it would be too much.

I do a 9 day fortnight, it’s nice.

I do 10 days in 9, but that’s because i do have secondary school aged children who still need a bit of input in the mornings (in the case of the youngest) and the evening.

I think if I didn’t have kids at home I’d do 5 in 4, as it’s not that bad when you haven’t got other things to fit in around it.

10 in 9 is very easy as it’s less than an hour added to each day. And then you get a whole day back! Albeit I seem to use it for appointments etc alot

Also i’m 60% office, but my office is just down the road so it doesn’t add on too much

I do a 9DF and it works well for me. But that's because I have other factors which would make it difficult for me to do a 4 day week full time. We have a dog which needs to be walked, plus I sea swim several mornings a week which in December and January means I can't get home in time for an 8am start. I have considered it but the day would just be too long for me, plus I do several things in evenings which means I often don't get home until late.

If you're able to do the 4 day week without it compromising the other areas of your life, then go for it

The one thing I would add is that I used to have Monday as my day off and then had to change to Friday. I much preferred the Monday as it felt like a genuinely restful day, whereas now that I have alternate Fridays I seem to be rushing around getting things ready for the weekend. I'd go back to having Mondays off if I could.

Can you trust yourself to finish at set time? Eg 15:30 on the Friday could easily creep later then you’ve lost your benefits.

For that reason I’d do 4 days and be STRICT on the day off - no work at all

Do you ever have to commute in? 6pm is quite a late finish everyday. If you’re used to it anyway, that’s absolutely what I’d do, or I’d try and start at 7.30.

DH works a nine day fortnight, but we have young DC and if he’s gone for 5 in 4 would never have seen the kids. It’s a great compromise, but if you do the hours, I’d def go for 5 in 4.

No fully remote. Occasinal inperson training but in major cities and we get back all hours for them anyway, but 2 or 3 times a year maybe.

5 in 4 because you say you often work late anyway. If this is the reality might as well be paid for it and have a whole day off each week to compensate. People will learn X doesn’t work Friday they will willfully ignore X finishes at 3.30 if the culture is you all work into the evening.

If you often work over your hours anyway will you still need to do that. That could lead to some very long days.

Same here. I have Fridays off and love it. I predominantly wfh tho, so dont have the commute as an additional hassle but I am job hunting now and struggling with the idea of a 5 day week again, if a new employer doesnt offer a condensed working week.

Is that 10 hours a month free work, you are giving them?

I'm about to start the 9 day option as I didn't want to work really long days every day. Looking forward to alternate short weeks 😀

I was just about to say the same. Always best to have Mondays off for that reason.

Definitely a 4 day week OP, a long weekend every week.

I do 4 days compressed hours, love having my thursdays off. I used to work in the office, but since lockdown I now still work from home and its made it easier as I can start earlier if I like or just work a bit later.

If you're OK with the longer days, 4 days. It'll give you a bigger sense of extra time

If you are remote then 5 in 4 could work better. As I have a commute each day I went for a 10 in 9 because the days are really long otherwise.

I do compressed hours of 4 days, officially 8am to 6pm Monday to Thursday but I’m in senior role so no one is monitoring my exact hours. I also keep an eye on emails on a Friday and will dial in to the odd important meeting. I love having Fridays off.

I did 4 days but a Thursday off. Randomly I found Fridays just as busy as weekends and wanted free time when the world was less busy! Worked for me and the wider team as I was there for the start and end of the week. Where as when I had the Friday off I felt like I was catching up more. It also broke up the long shifts. WFH is even better.

Enjoy!

When I was working what now appear to called "compressed hours" (was just a standard option at our company, even back in the 80's when I started working), if your day off fell on a BH, your annual leave balance was credited with a similar amount of hours so you never lost out.

When I first started work, a standard working week was 42hrs which is when the 9-day fortnight worked best but by the 90's, the working week was 36hrs so easily manageable on a 4-day week.

I asked at work last year to move to a 4 day week (but still 37.5 hours) 3 weeks out of every 4 (we work on 4 week periods and our week 4 is too busy so I was prepared to do a normal week for that reason) - work came back to me and counter proposed 10 days in 9 as a trial. it meant only doing an hour extra per day, and the Friday I worked I only had to do a normal length day.

I very much enjoyed it - but then a few things came up and I ended up choosing to work normal weeks (eg when I had holiday, or busy times eg work, etc). It was then announced we were to start to go back to the office 2 days a week from Jan 2026. I decided to go back to a standard week and just work the hours daily that worked best for me. I couldn’t do the extra long days in the office plus the commute as I felt it was too much, plus I wanted to be at home for my youngest who’s 14. It was different whilst working from home.

I did find the extra hour a day easy as I was often working late anyway - and having every other Friday off was awesome. I think I preferred it to every week in the end because I like to go out for a walk in the evenings and an extra 2 hours a day would have ruined that.

I have to say, I have now made a 5 day week work for me - bloody peri is making me wake early (I was always a night owl and struggled in the morning) so I’m logging on as early as I can to get finished early, meaning I have from 3pm onwards most days now to enjoy as I see fit.

I've been thinking about the same for a while and I am leaning towards 4 day week. You actually just helped me to figure out how it might work with your post so thank you.
I've had some AL to use up this year so took every Friday off in March and the difference in how I am feeling is immense! I don't think 9 day fortnight will have nearly the same effect.

I work a 9 day fortnight and love it. I was usually working longer hours than expected, so it's virtually working the same but having every other Friday off. I can swap my NWD to tag it on to leave, which makes a massive difference too. My job feels too busy to be able to do a 4 day longer hours week - there are always meetings I would need to attend so would feel resentful pretty quickly I think, but with a 9 day fortnight I tend to be able to use the working Friday for any Friday meetings. I think I'll keep doing a 9 day fortnight until my last year before retirement and then ask to compress to 5 days in 4. Two years to go!!

I did 5 in 4 initially after my first mat leave and loved it, I had Thursday off which was great because it meant I could come back in on a Fri and pick up stuff that needed sorting before the weekend, but also lots of other people off/a bit more relaxed on a Friday meant that day was never too pressurised for me.

I now have Fridays off and no longer compress my hours as I couldn't make it work around the nursery run with 2 kids, and I do enjoy being back on shorter days (I was 7am-4.30pm before, now 8.30-5pm) and I have said to DH I literally never want to work 5 days again ever in my life.