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??

Before I went very part time to be a carer I did a part time and compressed hours combination. Essentially one week I did three long days and the next week four regular days. It was bliss and prevented burnout in a very challenging field.

I'm going down to 0.6 from April and I can't wait. I'm knackered. Apart from 3 months when I was going through chemo in my early 30's, I've worked constantly since I was early 20's. I've done my bit and I'm done.
Luckily we managed to recruit another consultant who wants 0.4 so I've had my request accepted.
No guilt here. We've done our time. We've covered for the mat leaves, the parental leaves, the ones who come back part time - we deserve a life too.

OP in case it helps...
I'd just imagine there will be a CoL crisis at least once a decade, and the price of things doesn't go down. Hence I was shocked, shocked I tell you, <clutches bosom dramatically> when flipping Martin Lewis told people NOT to fix their energy bills in the "cap removal" stage - who in their right mind thought prices would go down?!

Absolutely bizarre....anyway....end of that rant....

I'm quite frugal by most people's standards.

So I made my decision knowing that.

I also don't fit retirement planner tools that tell you to factor in more holidays and so on.

I do factor in things like private health. I haven't got insurance yet but thinking about it.

So look at your lifestyle costs and decide accordingly.

Have you got a good savings cushion? That's pretty key.

I can't advise on the "not properly reduced work" thing because no one gets unpaid work out of me. I went to one job interview where they asked how I'd "meet the challenge" of doing the job in 4 days.

I told them that question rang alarm bells and why wouldn't they have set the job up to be doable in 4 days if it's not?

They exchanged worried glances. I politely ended the interview myself after a couple more questions.

I have also had one contract that was four days a week with a paid fifth day in busy periods.

There's lots of scenarios but there's no way anyone gets extra work from me for nothing!

@EmmaEmerald you sound like you've really got your head screwed on straight 😊I think I need to think about the real ins and outs rather than just "oh wouldn't it be nice if". Get some numbers down and figure out what it would mean, then go from there.

I really appreciate all the thoughts and advice from everyone!

I’d have two main concerns. Firstly, is it really fair for you to go part time and your husband not, and are you sure you’re comfortable with increasing the income disparity between you? And secondly, I have several colleagues who do 4 days a week. Their workload is no different from mine and in practice they work four days paid and one for free. From what I’ve heard this is a pretty universal experience.

No moral judgment though. I think you’d be deeply foolish to quit altogether, both for financial reasons and because I think it’s basically opting out of life and settling into old age far too soon. But the current balance doesn’t work for anyone except the bosses, and we’d all be better off if it swung more towards life and away from work.

I say do it! I’ve recently gone part time (working 4 days a week) and it’s changed my life for the better. I’m also childfree, and I use my day off to spend more time on hobbies, seeing my parents and just generally enjoying myself. Life is too short! So do what makes you happy.

if you can afford it then do it! I went to 4 days last year and it’s brilliant. That one day makes do much difference. Trying to persuade DH to go to 4 days as well but he’s more reluctant not because he loves his job but because he just can’t imagine not working FT

no one ever said on their death bed “god I wish I’d spent more time at work in pointless meetings or dealing with passive aggressive emails”

I do a 9 day fortnight, work slightly longer days to cover the 10th day and have every second Monday off. I am still a full time employee, so full pension contributions and full holiday entitlement. It works really well and it is good to know that every second week is a four day week.

It depends what you do. I am very unconvinced by part time private sector professional roles unless you are in a role that has "x" appointments per day and associated paperwork. Otherwise part time roles generally have a much bigger reduction in pay than in tasks and responsibilities...

0.6 role probably equals 0.9 of the tasks a full time employee is given with a perception of laziness from colleagues and employer and 0.6 of the actual pay...

If you have a "plan" for the time you're not working (hobby) you might find it easier not to let work creep into your "day off". I know someone who went part time to facilitate a sports volunteering role that involved travel many weekends so never working Fridays was good for them. As someone who is part time because kids it's easier (for me, pressure is from me) to say no to a meeting outside my hours if I have definite plans than just time "off"

Your plan could be multiple city breaks, walking the coast path or whatever but you need a plan to resist work sneaking back in!

See i think sort of thing (extra day off every fortnight) could really work for me.

Do you kind confirming - do you mean you do sort of compressed hours to "buy" the extra day off? So if you are contracted to do 8hr days, you work the extra 8hrs over the preceding 9 working days and have the 10th off? That sort of compressed hours I could see potentially working for me!

I'm not too worried I'd find myself working on my day off, I have pretty hard boundaries about working hours already to be honest - I do think a whole day (not a half day) would work better in this regard.

I agree though that a 0.8 PT role would probably not mean 0.8 workload compared to what I have now. My work is pretty autonomous to be honest, so it's not as simple as taking a target number and reducing it by 20%. I also think I would be more effective/efficient in the time I am at work if I had a better work/life balance. So it could be I end up doing the same amount of work in less time, which does mean I'm just doing the same amount bur getting paid less... but would in theory be happier - so does being 20% happier make up for 20% less pay doing the same workload.... really hard to say! But we'll worth raising as a consideration I agree!!

I went PT quite early in my career before children and also felt I couldn't justify but my line manager reassured me that people go PT for all sorts of reasons and i didn't even have to justify it to anyone. I have worked PT most of my career with some stints of FT and it has worked out for me. I'd say gor for it and let your husband do what he likes!

@enterfunnynamehere

Yes it is compressed hours but as you are making the extra hours over 2 weeks your days are not too long. I work 40 hours one week over 5 days from 8.30 to 5 with a 30 min lunch. The following week is a short week with my day off so I work 30 hours over 4 days. Two days as above and two days 9-5 with a one hour lunch

If it's you who does most of the household stuff, shopping and cooking etc then I think that's a fair division of responsibility.

Thanks @needasleep I agree that compressing over two weeks would mean less need for very long days!

At the moment it's effectively 50/50 on housework I possibly do more organising of getting work done on the house because my role at work (financial & contractor management!) means I'm a bit more diligent around quotes etc, but obviously it's not super common to get works like that done.

As it happens, my DH is very opposed to the idea of me doing chores on any time off should I go PT. His view is if I'm doing chores I might as well be working, and if I'm going to do it, it should be to spend more time having fun!

If you can afford it DO IT. I'm doing 2.5 days a week remotely from abroad ATM it's bloody brilliant

Hi Op,

I went part time back in 2017 only because I was made redundant and the job I applied for was part time.

I went from working full time since I was 17 to 29 hours a week.

From October this year, I will be dropping down to 28 hours a week, and will be condensing those hours into 4 days and taking Fridays off.

I turn 40 in September, and am childfree.

My hubby works Full Time, so I tend to do the lion share of the cooking, cleaning and care giving for our dog.

I will use the day off to do my food shopping, washing, cleaning meaning we can both have two full days off together on weekends without doing chores.

Id say go for it!

In a former life I was able to work the following patterns according to my choice -
Full time 100%
Four day week 80%
Three day week 60%
Split week, 2 days one week, 3 days the other 50%
Mornings or afternoons only 50%
Three weeks on and one week off. 75%

Big international organisation. I was senior manager and in my early 50s I went 75%. I am single no kids (obviously for this board!). I intended to retire early so eased myself into a lower income to prepare for pension rate of pay.

It was delicious! Every second month I took myself off somewhere in Europe or at home and if anyone was free, they joined me otherwise I took off on my own. As it happened both my mother and my sister got very ill and I was able to devote a lot more time to their care on my week off, giving their family members a break.

It gave me a quality of life that is irreplaceable, I could manage fine on the reduced income, and as I suspected a very generous redundancy/early retirement package was introduced for over 55s. I grabbed it at 58 and am delighted I did. I worked for 40 long years, and I'd had enough. Seeing my sister die of cancer at 49 gave me the push I needed. Life is just far too short.

BTW I shared work with another manager on a similar pattern. Downsizing was happening, so the company was happy to have fewer full time employees. All worked out fine. A few hiccups but nothing major.

Could you each drop a day? So both off on a Friday for example?

As long as you have over 300k in your pension go for it. Otherwise I wouldn’t.
The other issue is parents have a legal right to have part time hours considered but you do not. So it totally depends whether this is something your work would be in favour of. If there are any negatives for them they are unlikely to agree.

The other issue is parents have a legal right to have part time hours considered but you do not.

This isn't true. All employees have a legal right to make a request for flexible working and the grounds on which it can possibly be rejected are all related to business fit, not the reason the employee is putting the request in.

Speaking from experience, the pension fund is the important one.

My late husband suffered ill-health which became increasingly worse. At 57, I went down to a 4 day week. I found myself doing 5 days work in 4 - for less money.

At 58 I wasn't allowed to go down to 3 days a week, so (reluctantly) I quit. The final straw was when I got home from work at 7.30 one night (should have finished at 3.30) and discovered that DH had scalded himself.

I have a works pension, but the one year at 4 days combined with quitting two years early has had a significant detrimental effect on my pension. I've inherited a portion of my husband's work pension, but I was the main breadwinner, so my retirement is not as comfortable as expected.

At the age of 63, I've gone back to work 2 days a week - basically a zero hours contract and not what I'd anticipated

We had the same discussion here and decided to aim for early / better quality retirement instead.

Sorry @BlackBoxes, I hadn't realised there were more recent replies.

I doubt I have £300k now as I'm expecting to work for at least another 20years! Do you mean if I have enough and will continue to save enough to have £300k at the point of retirement?