Working on non-working day - do you do it?

[resipsa]

I'm just interested in knowing if the position I adopt is unreasonable.

For years, I worked full time but after having DD I reduced my pattern to 4 days a week with Friday being my non-working day.

As I see it, it's like an extended weekend and as I am not being paid, I am not obliged to work (unless arranged in advance because the work requires it which happens 8-10 times a year). I imagine that many who work for 5 days a week view their weekends in the same way.

And yet, every Friday, without fail, I receive at least one email or phone call which asks me to do something. These are usually preceded by 'I know it's your day off but...'. If I see/hear the message and I take the view that I need to reply, I do. Otherwise I leave it until Monday. I am being criticised (subtley) for this approach. Apparently, it makes things 'awkward'. Sometimes I don't see/hear the message until then anyway as Friday is, of course, my non-working day.

What do you do? Do you make yourself available regardless or take the view that it is your time?

To give it context, I'm a solicitor (senior but not a partner) working for a top 50 firm outside London.

I don't think you would be "wrong" to take the hard line and refuse to do it but I also don't think you would be helping yourself.

The company and your employees probably do find it inconvenient that you work p-t (not your problem but it is a problem) and the company have been flexible in allowing you that working pattern.

I always picked up anything urgent on my day off but by the same token I would absolutely expect them to be flexible if I needed to pop out for an hour to see a school assembly or take a child to the dentist on my working days. Make it work for you , as well as them.

Thanks again for the comments. Some of you must think that I am naive. Of course my OOF is updated, of course it contains contact details for others who can deal in my absence, of course my colleagues know if something urgent is going on on a Friday, of course I make plans to deal with it if there is, of course I tell them of my plans, of course they know that I am not obliged etc.

None of this, however, stops the expectation that you will be available on your day off!

employees? colleagues

I wish!

I don't think people think you are naive - it is difficult to tread the line between being there for your clients, not causing more work for your colleagues to have to deal with, while also trying to keep your day off (which you are not getting paid for!)

I agree with the flexibility issue - as I would sometimes have to do quite a bit of work on a day off (upcoming trial etc) I would expect there not to be an issue if I came in late after a school assembly another day.

Does she start school this September or next? Are you going back to full time when she does?

I'm a doctor- I work 3 days a week. I will take calls on my day off, reply to emails on my home email which a few people have(not work as would be swamped), go in if any of my patients are sick. If I need to work a full day for study leave etc I take the day back.
If this was intrusive as yours sounds to be I would consider going back full time or working school hours over 5 days.

I don't think anybody's called you naive - you asked for info on what approach other part-timers take, and we've told you our approach and what has worked for us.

You just need to decide which, if any, of those approaches work for you and make sure your colleagues know that's the position.

My boss works 4 days a week - his non-working day is Monday. I know that I can contact him in the case of a real emergency, and I would email him on Monday expecting an answer on Tuesday. But he's pretty disciplined about not working on his non-working day, which is quite right in my view.

Thanks again everyone. I guess the thing that most frustrates me is that I feel guilty about working 4 days (with DD having to go to nursery Mon- Thurs) so I feel protective of 'our' time on a Friday and dislike work intrusions. Yet it is nearly impossible completely to forget about it on Fridays if you want to have a pleasant work life. Age old dilemma, not exclusive to me, I know.

Do you or colleagues get contacted on weekends or on holidays? If so, then your Fridays should be the same. If however everyone would ensure that Mr X isn't bothered while on holiday, then they should extend you the same courtesy.

I work three days (did four for a while), and it helps that there's a critical mass of part-time colleagues (including lawyers, almost all of whom are part time having escaped inflexible private firms...) At times of stress we may text someone who isn't at work in a hope of help rather than expecting it.

Can you put more boundaries on by turning off your work mobile, asking clients and colleagues to go through your assistant/trusted colleague and said person will redirect to another team member or text your personal number (which only they know!) if it truly is urgent?

I was also wondering about NotCitrus's point, ie what would be the normal expectation in the OP's firm if a full-time person books a Friday off as annual leave? Would that person still be expected to check her blackberry/take calls, or would that Friday be seen as "sacrosanct"? If the latter, that gives a stronger argument that as a part-timer the OP should be entitled not to be disturbed on a Friday. Obviously, I appreciate that in the real world you have to be realistic about the politics of your organisation and how strong a bargaining position you are in.

As a teacher, always.

Yep. It's not martyrdom; it can be frustrating but we all know the score when we go into the profession. Our contracts state that we have to work over and above school hours.

Teachers' jobs are contracted differently - they will have a nominal number of hours to be worked, but there's a clause in the contract that says that teachers must work whatever hours are needed to carry out all duties adequately. Which is why teachers can't 'work to rule.'

To teach you have to prepare your schemes of work, lessons and resources and this often involves relevant and current research and interpretation to keep up with what's going on in the world and adapt it to suit the needs of the learners, then teach, then assess, report back on progress, feedback on progress, redesign lessons based upon progress and differentiate for each learner, and then teach again. Plus all the CPD, and training, and updating systems and all the internal non-teaching stuff that needs doing.

The teaching bit...is the bit that is done during work time. The rest, has to be done in extra hours.

You work in a top 50 firm and you think your colleagues don't work at weekends? In my experience (partner in a top 20 firm) most lawyers in our type of firm work way beyond their contracted 9.30am - 5.30pm hours and will work in the evenings and weekends as required (and are very highly paid as a result). I would expect you to work 80% of the hours worked by a full time lawyer which might include working on your day off from time to time. You may choose to exercise your contractual right not to do so but I think it will reflect badly on you come appraisal time.

You should also consider whether you expect you firm to be flexible when it comes to taking time off for child related reasons - childcare failure, sports day, school play etc. if so, then a bit of flexibility in return is absolutely essential.

I think your current approach of they may catch you if they're lucky is more than generous.
Try to ignore the hints that you should give even more - perhaps reply that it is your day off so you might not catch it ?

Surprisingly, a lot of contracts have an "hours as required to get the job done" clause, not just teachers.

Yes, my contract with a Bank used to say I had to work the hours required to do the job - it's not unusual at all in any sort of professional/semi-professional role.

I worked far harder and longer hours (for very similar money) then than I do now as a teacher, but there's no point even trying to explain that to most teachers who've done nothing else since they left university.

I suspect OP is being called a lot more often tha
colleagues on a day's holiday, or after 7pm, or at the weekend.

I think it's normal in most professions to work outside office/school hours. I think most people do this and expect it of themselves and of others. I expect most people who do get pissed off occasionally and dream of working in a lovely bookshop where they sell lovely cake (or whatever) and I expect most people also feel a bit aggrieved and moan a bit when they have to explain, yet again, that a lovely, lazy Sunday lunch and afternoon walk isn't going to be an option this weekend. I also think that teachers get an awful lot of stick for what an awful lot of people do because we're all, well, people. The default setting on frequently articulated public attitudes toward teachers is that a) we're crap, b) we work short hours and get long holidays, c) we are whinging bastards of we tell people saying these things that it is a profession and that therefore we do work out of hours and during holidays. As we would absolutely expect to do. It's not just that teachers are 'martyrs' (thanks for that).

Teaching's great, by the way. It's hardly ever boring and I feel lucky to have that kind of a job. Anyway, this isn't helping the OP or illuminating the discussion so I'll shut up and go away now.