Going part time when childfree

[EnterFunnyNameHere]

Hi folks,

I'd be interested in others' opinions on this.

DH & I are both good earners and not really big spenders, so doing fine. We don't have kids and don't plan to have any, so have no outgoings in that regard.

As a result, we could afford for me to go part time, but I'm really struggling to decide whether to do it.

Reasons for:
Work is stressful & life is short!
We can afford it without significant paring back of lifestyle.
DH all for it on my behalf.

Reasons against:
Whilst DH is keen, I worry eventually he'd resent it on some level, or just feel guilty that I would be getting an easier life.
How can you ever be sure you'll have enough for retirement/future? Should I be working when I can to build up funds?
I suspect on some level it will be viewed negatively at work, as most people go part-time to look after their DC, so worried it will make me look less committed to my career.

I never thought I'd be in so much angst - I'm in a position to make my life so much easier but don't seem to be able to reconcile myself to just do it!

Any help to get my head straight, or thoughts on either side of the argument??

@fitzwilliamdarcy I think my employer will be fine with it - big corporation who can't really be seen to be flexible for parents but not anyone else. I do wonder about the response of people I work with - like you I am the "always there always reliable" one...

@Unexpectedlysinglemum my aim would be that DH doesn't need to support me, as I'll still be able to cover 50% our outgoings. He is also 6yrs older than me so would probably be working after he has retired!

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain weirdly the idea of people being snarky to my face doesn't really bother me. I'm more than happy to bite back! It's more the idea of my reputation behind my back/people's general perception of me that bothers me!

I'm late 40s and my kids are young adults, but I went down to four days a week (34 hours) during COVID, as I was going out of my mind WFH five full days a week. I changed jobs in 2022 and ended up back full time, but went down to four days again after nine months.

At first I used the time to do housework, visit friends, just relax. I now look after DGD, so my 'day off' is pretty hectic, as I still try and get the housework done, but I love it.

I wouldn't go back to FT again, in fact I'd like to reduce a bit further, but can't really afford to.

My best friend's parents retired at 55. Guess what? Lots of judgement!

The treadmill is such a thing. I did 60 hour weeks in my 20s and early 30s. If anyone wants a competition about long hours, I match up pretty well.

tbh most of the judgey types aren't in my life now. Can't abide it.

it is funny when they see me now, at 48, happy with being childfree and much better placed to help mum because of not working long hours.

My dn STARTED her career at 22 part time (had Wednesdays off) and now works 3 days a week with 3 dc.

Go for it, why not.

@EmmaEmerald honestly, judgy people gonna judge I guess! So maybe just do you what you like - at least that way someone is having a good time! 😊

Do it! I went down to 4 days in my mid-40s and no regrets. I’ve worked hard in my career to get to a satisfactory management level, & having experienced stress and burnout before, am not too ambitious about climbing the ladder further. Since reducing just one day, the work-life balance is incredible - able to properly switch off on the longer weekends, option take a long weekend break away to Europe on a whim, undertake hobbies, exercise more etc.

I think the pandemic made a lot of people reevaluate & there is a shift happening with many people no longer accepting long hours & working to exhaustion, & becoming more focused on health & balance of what’s important in life - the 4 day week is becoming more popular, and without the expense of children and childcare there’s nothing to feel guilty about it & choosing a better balance for you.

I can't speak to the specific judgement you get as a child-free woman and wouldn't want to pretend I understand this. I do wholeheartedly endorse your sentiment here though. Realistically judgy people always judge - you care about work too much/too little, work too long/not enough - so trying to please them is a loser's game!

I think I need to crunch some numbers and work out more precisely what might be the resultant change to take home pay. I have been reading the work flexi time policy and I'm pretty sure they would struggle to turn an application down if I did do one

I've worked with plenty of colleagues who've done exactly what you're suggesting and not for childcare reasons. It's becoming more popular too.

You've nothing to lose in enquiring. I'd go for it.

I find this good for number crunching, especially if you need to tweak hours in small numbers

https://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php

I used to work a 4 day week ans it was perfect, if we could afford for me to do that again , I would jump at it.
if we could afford both of us to do 4 day week we would both jump at it, life is short and I worry less about pensions etc than others though as I live more for now and near future, just due to personal opinion.
we have considered asking employers if we can do 4 days compressed hrs but our company nor on board with this style of work yet.

OP I work 4 days a week. I do have a child, so slightly different circumstances, but now they’re at school I could have chosen to go back FT, but didn’t want to! I use the day to do housework and exercise so that weekends are still free to do other things, it’s great.

The only thing I would say though is I have never had a reduced workload compared to FT colleagues, and this is a struggle. In fact the role I’m now in, I directly took over after a FT colleague left and yet there wasn’t a single change to my duties to account for it. The amount of times colleagues have referred to me as “compressing my hours” when actually I’m just PT never fails to surprise me! I want to scream that I don’t compress, I work a full day less and yet I achieve the same amount of work as the rest of you! So my advice is to be far more assertive than I am about what is achievable in your workload if you do reduce, otherwise it can lead to a different kind of stress of trying to cram 1.5 days’ work into 1 day twice per week. I would still take that over having to work an extra day though, so I put up with it, but be mindful of not being expected to achieve the same but for less pay!

Do it!!! I don't know anybody that has regretted going part time.
It is career suicide where I work though. Despite what they try and tell you.

Thanks for all the useful points, there's a fair bit to consider but I think I need to start by working out accurately how it would change my take home pay and pension contributions (thank you @EmmaEmerald for the link!). Then at least I can weigh up from a position of knowledge.

Me and my husband both went part time, loved the benefits of it so much I gave up work entirely to pursue a ‘hobby career’ which I do three days a week and husband works 4 days a week. You get one life and you have to do what’s right for you within the boundaries of what’s practical.

I'm 41 and went part time 5 years ago. I was working 50 hours a week in an extremely stressful job and actually handed in my notice because I couldn't do it anymore, I was contemplating moving to a completely different line of work.

My manager asked me if I wanted to go part time instead, I gave it a try and never looked back. I now work 3 days a week (10 hours per day) and didn't have a massive reduction in my salary. I still pay half of the bills and actually earn more than my husband that works full time. My husband loves his job and doesn't resent me at all for being part time. I never heard any negative comments from family or friends, everyone was very supportive. But again, I actually never heard any negative comments from being childfree either (apart from one of my parents friend that said I was selfish), everyone seems supportive of my life choices!

I would 100% go for it if you can afford it.

I'd be very very careful reducing by so little. There is a real danger you end up doing just as much work and just getting paid and respected less. Especially if you are a pleaser, and if your job isn't counter intuitive exactly hours (Ie it's more task/impact based than shift based.)

Other than that, my main concern is you sound extremely vague about the money. You say 'who knows how much you will need' ... well, you can make a well informed prediction with the help of a financial advisor. Would suggest this!

But if that works out, then sure thing, go for it!!

Given you say the finances are covered, I'd decide based on what I was going to go with the time freed up. Pick up more of the household mental load or indulge in fulfilling a long desired hobby or interest would be v v different scenarios for me.

But then I work because I enjoy it more than being home. Your attitude to life may be different.

One other thing to think about, is how your responsibilities at work will be adjusted to take account of the shorter hours, making sure that you discard the least interesting aspect of your life.

I've known lots of people who ended up with the same responsibilities just less time in which to get them done and less take home and pension. Not great.

I was part-time for most of my 30s, while I did a second degree (in Art) and then for a couple of years after I completed it. Slightly different to you in that you don't want a side-business, but financially I didn't make an awful lot!

I'd say go for it, it was amazing to have time to do what I wanted. I eventually went back to an office full-time as I found a job I really liked. Financially it didn't have a huge impact on me I don't think (I'm mid-50s now). I am making up a bit for lost time so wouldn't go part-time again until maybe late-50s, if at all at this point. But if I feel I had my bit of freedom.

I was chatting to a friend of mine here in Ireland recently. She is now in her early 50's.
She has not worked in a few years due to a number of circumstances. She is getting disability benefits and fought hard to get these.
In the past she spent years in the work place in different jobs. At various stages worked at weekends and long hour's. She has seen both sides of working, not working and working part time. She has a few things in place for her own long term financial future. Her current income could be better but she manages.

At the moment she does volunteer work at least a day a week. She said to me that I have time to meet up with friends and can help family out. I can make plans and go places without considering can I get the time off work. She not dealing with poor bosses, kpi's ect.

My friend knows a lady who has a nice job for her industry. This lady has complained to her about her job and said if she got enough to money to pay off her mortgage she leave work.
My friend said if this lady and her husband downsized house wise, she was not driving an expensive car and having a few holidays a year she could at least go PT.

Another friend of hers worked hard for years and recently gave up her job. She looked at her life working 3 long days a week in a stressful job, her kids were getting older and realised that their was more to life than putting herself and the whole family behind her work hours.
She has more free time, she can bring her kids to thing's and has far less stress. Along with this she can help out her elderly mil who lives near her and her own parents as well.

My friend said I have seen people end up with health issues and some of these have happened or started in their 50's. My friend feels that if you can work towards getting into a good financial situation that going PT or retiring early should be what people do.

I know the poster here was just in her 40's and asking should she go PT in her job. I would say do what suit you. Look into your pensions, savings and national insurance records. Look up some of the salaries tax workout sites and see what you earn working 3 or 4 days a week against 5 days. To me having some free time during the week is worth a lot. If you and your husband are child free and not planning kids why not give yourself some free time to enjoy and do the things you like?
You might get the odd comment if you do this but being honest the same people will comment over thing's. Then they could be jealous that they are unable to do this because they have kids or have a big mortgage or carrying a lot of debt.

As a friend of mine said a few years ago work is part of life but should never be your whole life.

I was chatting to a friend of mine here in Ireland recently. She is now in her early 50's.
She has not worked in a few years due to a number of circumstances. She is getting disability benefits and fought hard to get these.
In the past she spent years in the work place in different jobs. At various stages worked at weekends and long hour's. She has seen both sides of working, not working and working part time. She has a few things in place for her own long term financial future. Her current income could be better but she manages.

At the moment she does volunteer work at least a day a week. She said to me that I have time to meet up with friends and can help family out. I can make plans and go places without considering can I get the time off work. She not dealing with poor bosses, kpi's ect.

My friend knows a lady who has a nice job for her industry. This lady has complained to her about her job and said if she got enough to money to pay off her mortgage she leave work.
My friend said if this lady and her husband downsized house wise, she was not driving an expensive car and having a few holidays a year she could at least go PT.

Another friend of hers worked hard for years and recently gave up her job. She looked at her life working 3 long days a week in a stressful job, her kids were getting older and realised that their was more to life than putting herself and the whole family behind her work hours.
She has more free time, she can bring her kids to thing's and has far less stress. Along with this she can help out her elderly mil who lives near her and her own parents as well.

My friend said I have seen people end up with health issues and some of these have happened or started in their 50's. My friend feels that if you can work towards getting into a good financial situation that going PT or retiring early should be what people do.

I know the poster here was just in her 40's and asking should she go PT in her job. I would say do what suit you. Look into your pensions, savings and national insurance records. Look up some of the salaries tax workout sites and see what you earn working 3 or 4 days a week against 5 days. To me having some free time during the week is worth a lot. If you and your husband are child free and not planning kids why not give yourself some free time to enjoy and do the things you like?
You might get the odd comment if you do this but being honest the same people will comment over thing's. Then they could be jealous that they are unable to do this because they have kids or have a big mortgage or carrying a lot of debt.

As a friend of mine said a few years ago work is part of life but should never be your whole life.

Think carefully about the workload. You have to be careful with 4 day weeks that you don’t end up with negotiating yourself a 20% pay cut without a 20% cut in workload. And depending on your organisation potentially damaging promotion options - hopefully less obvious than it used to be.

I work in a business with high performance / high expectations culture and i don't think anyone would blink at a 4 day week or 9 day fortnight whatever the reason but i think you have ti be disciplined not to do 5 days in 4, and lose 20% pay for it.

The only thing i thought reading your responses is that you don't seem to have much of an idea of what you'd need for retirement - including if something happened to one of you. I'd sit down with an IFA on the assumption there will be no state funded care and check you are comfortable with pension income and assets for retirement and to end of life. That you have enough income now is neither here nor there when it comes to later life planning.

I'd sit down with an IFA on the assumption there will be no state funded care and check you are comfortable with pension income and assets for retirement and to end of life. That you have enough income now is neither here nor there when it comes to later life planning

Also awful as it sounds, what would happen if you and DH split. Could you pay the bills on PT salary?

I'm not totally clueless regarding future finances, I'm on track according to the "lifestyle planner" on my pension website. It's more I worry that shit does happen, what happens if my retirement coincides with the next CoL crisis equivalent or something - but no-one can really plan for that. And I like to plan for everything! But do I put aside my quality of life in the meantime?

In terms of doing 5 days work in 4 just getting paid less for it - that is a really good point. I feel like I would work more effectively if I was better rested / happier, so probably could do a not dissimilar workload in less time!! So would have to think about that.

If me & DH split up I think I'd be financially OK. With my half of the house proceeds I would probably cope, and I think I'd probably be OK to resume FT work unless my company was very quiet.