Another WWYD - full time vs part time...

[confusedperson]

Hi wise mumsnetters. I cannot make up my mind whether to switch from full-time to part-time working. The background: I have been in the same job for 5 years, it is an ok pay (32k in the city), the job is 9-5 and I always leave at 5pm. On the other hand, the business is quite stale and my work is becoming less in quantity and increasingly boring. I have two DC, DS1 will start Reception in September, and DS2 is 15 months. At the moment they stay with nanny, but planning to switch to nursery/breakfast/afterschool club combination from September.

I feel the time has come for a change, but I cannot make up my mind, as to which direction. One option is to aim for another FT job with higher salary, more challenges and perhaps stress and overtime. Another option is to ask for part-time (3-4 days?) in my current job, be slightly skint (DH?s salary much less than mine), but have generally less stressful life and perhaps even move outside London for cheaper property/smaller mortgage and more family-orientated life.

Both options have benefits, and on one hand I wish to have more time with my children and already dreading those early (7:30) school/nursery runs, on another hand I never worked part-time and it partially feels like compromising my career.

Any thoughts??

I'm constantly vaccillating around this loop also. I ideally want to work less so I can see my children occasionally. At the moment I've got a high status, well paid job in London 4 days a week, but I have to set off only get home at between 7 and 9 each night.

The rationale has always been that the fifth day with the children is enough compensation, but increasingly it isn't. My kids are really missing out during the week.

I would generally argue that career will wait, whereas the kids will grow up. But that is what I say, not what I do. In fact I've progressed my career while having the children because I keep getting bored. But each move has been a step away from them, away from a local job with shorter hours and into something more ambitious.

Mmmm, sure that's helpful! Just wanted to share the fact that this dilemma haunts us all. Not sure there's a right or wrong answer. Just have to follow your instincts. How much do you miss the children? How old are they? How stressful will life be with less money?

What does your husband think?

I went part-time after DD was born (work 3.5 days in 3 - so they are long days). I love being part time. And I have managed to get a promotion since then (within the same company - which I didn't expect would be possible when I made the change) so that has closed the gap in my earnings a bit.

DH does compressed hours so has a day at home with DD.

We both feel happier than when we were full time but it is a trade off financially and we did expect it would mean our careers were on hold for a bit (although in practice that hasn't happened).

I'm not choosing between full time and part time, but I have similar issues with choosing which career. It looks like I'll either go for a corporate-type job, involving a few years of training and tough exams, but typically with 9-6pm-type hours, a structured career pathway and very good pay down the line. But even though those hours are reasonable for this type of career, there will likely be significant commuting hours and it might all just be too much.

Or I could stick in the same direction I'm going in right now. Still very interesting, challenging work. Probably 9-5pm or 5.30pm, and in a cheaper area with much less commuting involved. Theoretically the career progression should be good, but it's not at all set in stone so I don't really have any idea how it will go or what I'll ultimately end up earning.

I upgraded to a different job on a higher payscale in the same sector in the autumn but downgraded to part-time. I now work 27 hours/week, and take home about the same salary as I did when full-time, but we in fact end up better off because we save on childcare. My kids are school age and were going to to the school's playscheme, which was great but quite expensive. It suits me well - I get to pick up the kids most days and am enjoying spending a bit more time with them.

I am a bit worried that this will be the end of my career progression though.

I went from full time to part time in well paid banking job after I had ds and after I have dc2 I will be giving up my job totally until they are in school.
I decided it wasn't worth the stress of early morning racing around and shunting the kids from pillar to post.
I will miss the money and it will be a struggle for a couple of years but totally worth it for them and for my sanity.
Hope you manage to find a solution that works for you all

Thank you for all responses. anothermadamebutterfly I like your idea the best. I actually absolutely loving it! May I ask whether you applied for full-time jobs and then negotiated the hours down, or somehow different? I see plenty of my type full-time jobs within higher salary scale, and ideally I would love to work 25-30 hours per week, but been out of job market for 5 years and not sure where to start..

anothermadamebutterfly how do you spread your hours over week?

If you care about your career, it might not be wise to go part time in your current job, since you are bored and unchallenged.

See what other options are out there first - what are you options for a more interesting job that might offer possibilities for working part time either immediately or in the medium term.

I made that choice when I went back to work with my fourth child, ie I decided that I would try part-time, after a lot of soul searching.

I am in quite a senior corporate role and it was a bun fight to try and get HR to agree to it, but I got it in the end. It was difficult to find a suitable role and for the past year I have just been given odd bits and pieces with different levels of challenge, which worked ok.

I don't enjoy my work though and I feel massively bored and ill treated in that I don't have the same opportunities for career promotion or visibility as my colleagues working full time. I think I would prefer to work 30 hours spread over the week as being there every day is better than being there for 3 days only in career/work terms.

Work life balance wise it does work better though, I can do a lot more with the children and they are only in childcare 3 days a week.

For me it's been a short term thing, in 6 months to a year's time, when my last child is 3+ and my third is at school then I will feel better about going back to a more full time position. To summarise though, it has been incredibly hard for me, in a silly way I would prefer not to be working because it's caused me so much anxiety and I feel I am constantly juggling, and also financially it's been hard to get used to being paid so much less. Food for thought!!!

Actually at one point, after coming from maternity leave, I was suggested to go part time (like 4 days a week). The reason why they suggested, was that I am the only in my dept with kids, and workload has dried out. I refused at the time. I don?t think going part time in my current job would affect my career, as for any career progression I would have to change my job anyway.

Itsonlyyearfour four children, wow! It must be really stressful with all juggling.

My biggest worry, to be honest, is if the job finishes at 5 and is in less convenient location than it is now, how will I manage to collect two DC from two different locations? And if I have to stay overtime, then I will be late to collect my DC. If we talk more flexible childminders i/o nursery and afterschool club, then it gets so expensive that it is completely not worth it.
For example, in our area childminders charge £30/afternoon for a school child, while afterschool club is £12/afternoon. Nursery is £185/week, childminder is £250/week at £5/hour rate.

Unfortunately I have no idea how flexible employers can be (my current is 0 flexibility).

I went down to 3 days when going back from mat leave after my 2nd dc was born, and haven't regretted it for a moment. In the intervening 13 years, I've got 3 new jobs, each time going up the ladder. Obviously that will depend a little on the culture in your line of work, but it's not impossible, and, as you say you are bored anyway then it may be you look for a change of direction.
I'd advise against 4 days, as then people assume you will carry on doing all your current work, just faster! With 3, it's much easier to say "Sorry, I don't have the capacity as you only employ me for x hours"
The money doesn't go down as much as you think - don't forget you don't pay tax on the first several thousand you earn (can't remember exact figure, but I thik that is due to go up too) and of course your childcare costs will be reduced. (Don't forget to claim child care vouchers and any tax credits you might be eligible for), and is more than made up for byt the fact you know the faces of your dcs's friends,, their parents, and their teachers.

BackforGood you are probably right and oh yes I miss out on all playdates, but I am afraid that it is hardly possible to find 3 day job in my field and 4 days could be a good compromise. I would think something like 3 full days and 2 half days, so I can collect DC1 from school at least 2 days out of 5.

At least, thanks to you guys, I am coming to the solution that part-time work is not the dead end of the road and it is workable and possible solution.

Confusedperson - I told wrong - I actually work 29 hours per week, don't know where the 27 came from!

I think I was lucky as my new job came up at exactly the right time for me - it was a newly created internal job, advertised at 29 hours/week. It would have been a natural step up the ladder even if I hadn't wanted reduced hours, if that makes sense.

My children are both at school, and I chose to spread the 29 hours over 5 days. I do drop off on two days, DH on two days, and one day they go to the neighbours for half an hour before school (I babysit for her one evenings a fortnight in exchange). I work two full days (required by the nature of the job) on Tuesdays and Thursdays , on Tuesdays the kids go to the school choir and then get picked up by DH, on Thursdays they go to afterschool club. In theory I should finish work at 2.00 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but I usually find myself staying until 3 and then rushing off.

Backforgood is right - I am sure I would get less work piled on if I did 4 days instead of 5. When the kids were younger I had a period of working part-time and I chose to work 3 days/week (about 24 hours) and have two days with the kids at home.

Good luck with your decision.

This is all so interesting as I'm probably going back to work after 5 years out and I am having the odd wobble about it! Can I ask what you all do about childcare during the school holidays? Thanks!

School holidays are not so bad if you can work from home and take the odd week off unpaid.

I work 3 days a week so in the school holidays the children have 2 days with me, generally 2 days in childcare and 1 day at home with me working from home. They like a day at home just watching DVDs and having the run of the house. I am obviously there to make lunch, snacks and generally be around but I do manage to work most of the time. Last half term they opted for 2 days at home with me but by the second day of watching DVDs/playing boardgames etc they were getting a bit bored/frustrated so I would say 2 days maximum!

In the summer I always take 2 weeks unpaid leave, generally work are happy with it as August is pretty quiet - I add 2 or sometimes 3 weeks' leave to this so that is most of the summer off. They do have the odd day in childcare or with my parents, which is fine.

There is also really cheap and fun childcare available around in the summer, I haven't had to use it but maybe depends on where you live.....also childcare vouchers can cover all of it if you save them during the year.

School holidays take a bit of planning. I would love to take unpaid leave but my job doesn't allow it. This year I will probably try to condense my week to working 4 rather than 5 days for the easter and summer holidays. Luckily DH works in education and has a fairly lazy summer. For the rest, we use a mixture of summer camps, school holiday playscheme, short stays with relatives. Around here there are lots of cheap holiday childcare doing all sorts of fun stuff, my kids like them, and I usually try to make sure to send them somewhere together with friends.

Last year he took the kids to his home country for three weeks, I joined them for the last week. I had one more week off which we spent at my parents, and a long weekend when we all went camping. the rest of the time they spent in summer camps - DD did a one-week workshop with her dance school and three full days of gymnastics, DS went to the school holiday scheme and various relatives.

Half-terms they tend to go to stay with relatives (my brother and sister-in-law or my parents) for a few days and then to the school playscheme for the rest, I will try to have at least one day off. I sometimes work overtime at the weekends when special events are on, and I try to collect the time off in lieu to use in the holidays.

Hope that helps!

Well my both DC are too little for school holidays, but when the time comes, holiday clubs will be all the way to go.
Thanks to MN I certainly made up my mind to start looking for a new job, which ideally will be higher paid (hopefully), and ideally around 28-30 hours per week or perhaps working from home option, and ideally closer to home. I just need now to gather all my confidence back, and start the job hunting process.

I have just done this. After having my DD I came back to my current job 4 days a week. Current job demands nothing pays very well and I get to leave at 4.45pm every day to pick DD up from nursery. For the last year I have been bored stiff and then an opportunity came up that was full time - lots more money and looks more challenging. Also closer to home.

I have taken the job, however I am now crapping myself that I have made a huge mistake and why could I not just be happy with my safe boring job?

I start in 2 weeks time having worked a 3 month notice period so only time will tell, however my new boss said in interview that the hours are 08.30 am to 5pm but no one ever really leaves at 5pm

I will post how it goes - fingers crossed I have not thrown myself into a really demanding job hours wise! Oh why could I not just be happy to plod on!

Abbicob, I can understand your worries. That is also my big worry, not to be able to leave on time and collect my children from childcare. I hope it works out well for you.