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.

No-one saying teachers are lazy but they (we) really don't work so much harder than everyone else like they think they do. My work life balance is so much better now on a daily basis and it's amazing to never be more than 6/7 weeks away from your next holiday when you've been used to managing on 4/5 weeks pa (even if you do have do some work during those lovely long holidays)

Can those requests from your colleagues/clients generally wait until Monday? If a large proportion of them cannot, then you should ask yourself whether your job can realistically be done within 4 days. If not, you might as well be paid fulltime.

If lawyers at your seniority typically put in time outside of hours over and above the contracted ones, then by going down to 4 days, you might only have bought yourself the flexibility to stick to your contracted hours spread out over 5 days or the freedom to bugger off on Fridays if work happens to be slow.

What is stopping you managing people's expectations so they respect that your day off is really what it says on the tin. If you do not have partnership aspirations, any negative perception generated should not mean that much, though it is annoying that you even have to state the obvious.

My rule of thumb on working outside of my hours is I will respond if all it takes is a quick email on my blackberry. However, having to log on remotely on my PC is in my mind going over and above the call of duty - though sometimes I do it where it is urgent. A few well placed instances of working over the weekend (with a suitably wide and illustrious email audience) does wonders for perception of your commitment, which I think is important as I have moved up to ft from being pt and don't want to be mummy tracked again.

Fair enough, Sillylass. No harm, no foul.

I understand that flexibility begets flexibility but suppose that as yet I have not had to test the water from the perspective of being the recipient. DD is in nursery full time for 4 days and rarely unwell so I have not had to ask for 'favours' in terms of time. I can't help but think that when I do the flexibility which I am expected to show (working 4 Fridays in the next 8 weeks - all hearings and it would be unprofessional not to agree to see them through) will not be reciprocated.

Also, I think that others see a non-working day as a reason to turn minor problems into bigger issues. For example, last week, I had a conference arranged for Monday 24th. It had been in the diary for weeks. Counsel's clerk calls on the Friday before - can we rearrange? The message was that if not then it would go ahead anyway. According to a friend, there was much huffing and puffing about what to do before I was called. As it transpired, the client was happy to rearrange so we did but if I had not been contactable or had not checked the message then it would have gone ahead as planned so why the drama? Damn cheeky to be asked so late in the day!

I guess a lot depends on what kind of salary you get. Some teachers on hourly paid contracts ( only get paid for contact time ) have a higher hourly rate than those on fractional contacts which are supposed to fit all the planning/ paperwork into their contracted hours.

Personally my hourly rate is not high enough for me to lift a finger outside my contracted hours.

And for all those who say it is usual and expected that you work evenings and weekends - aargh! It's because of this attitude that it becomes expected by employers as the norm. Why should it be? They should employ enough staff to do the work properly without employees forfeiting their time just because everyone else does it!

And I say this as an employee who records every 6 minutes and is 20% above target (time and fees).

Resipsa, I do think you show flexibility by sometimes working your Fridays and I think you need a more formal system for responding.

I confused clients a lot when I was sometimes available to take calls, they ended up assuming i always would. So I stopped (but keep an eye on my phone for urgent emails and expect colleagues to call if it is truly urgent and quick - ie where is the such and such file so we can send it today)

Records every 6 minutes? What does that mean?

It's how lawyers bill, Benzal.

Oh, right, thanks business.

OP, if you were on the partnership track, you would be expected to work evenings and weekends because there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. If you are not, then stick to contracted hours. I don't think you can moan if others are more ambitious and are prepared to put in the hours.

Practising lawyers are generally well paid and it is a client-focused job. Receptionists can work to rule, but not lawyers. The higher remuneration makes up for the intrusion into their personal life. You don't have to practice.

And for all those who say it is usual and expected that you work evenings and weekends - aargh! It's because of this attitude that it becomes expected by employers as the norm. Why should it be? They should employ enough staff to do the work properly without employees forfeiting their time just because everyone else does it!

Agree 100%

My day off is a Wednesday too, I love it, I think if someone needs to speak to me then they subconsciously must think, "she's in tomorrow, I'll ask her then". Probably having a Friday off makes them think "I'd better ask her now or I'll forget over the weekend".

And for all those who say it is usual and expected that you work evenings and weekends - aargh! It's because of this attitude that it becomes expected by employers as the norm. Why should it be? They should employ enough staff to do the work properly without employees forfeiting their time just because everyone else does it!

That would be fine if lawyers were paid £30k - £40k for a 35 hour week. If however you want to earn £££££ then you need to work long enough hours to bill 4 times your salary.

I was going to post something very much along the lines of what 4plusmum has said.

It depends very much on what your occupation is and how much you are paid as to how reasonable it is to expect you to answer calls and respond to emails on your day off. My very basic rule of thumb is that if your f/t salary puts you in the higher rate tax band, then yes, for most occupations there probably is an expectation that you may do some work outside your contracted hours, just as there will be an expectation that your f/t equivalents don't leave the office on the dot of 5 or never, ever work weekends.

It's one of the reasons I went down a grade at work. DH works long hours (although as a full timer he never takes anything home) and I just couldn't cope with doing majority of child care all household stuff and then booting up the laptop once DS was in bed. When I dropped a grade I handed back the blackberry - it's ace. Now I work my hours only, unless really needed or want to attend a meeting outside them, in which case I make arrangements accordingly.

I think that's a good rule of thumb rookiemater except for teachers who are contracted to do it without ever reaching the higher tax bracket.
If you are paid at under £20K, then it certainly shouldn't be expected, then there comes a grey area between £20 and (is it?) £42K then, once you get into bigger salaries than that, I think it turns into what is seen as part of the "professional package" - yes, you are expected to put in extra hours where needed / not be clock watching but your renumeration reflects that.

Yes backforgood - agreed it's different for teachers and maybe also for those in the nursing profession where it would be difficult to walk off in the middle of something.

I am liking the rule of thumb about higher rate tax payers.... I am definately excused then! I will be quoting this at my colleague next time he bangs on about how he does all this work at home.

I have colleagues who one lunchtime were whinging about having to pay higher rate tax. I pointed out they should be bloody grateful they're earning enough to do so, because I never have. That's a different thread, though.

I agree with those who have said that taking Friday off adds to the problem.

There are lots of requests for work to be completed by the 'end of the week' and however artificial that is, if you are not there on Fridays it makes it difficult for other people to respond. In addition, in my dh's office 3 people work reduced days or compressed hours and most of them have chosen to have Fridays off. This means that he can not have Fridays off unless he arranges for a colleague from another department to cover for him, or persuade one of the others to come in - and this request is usually met with 'no' or acceptance with bad grace. They have a long weekend every week, and we struggle to get a long weekend at all (and his other colleague doesn't work Mondays!).

I have Fridays off (lawyer) and my approach to working on Fridays is the same as my approach to working weekends before I went part time - i.e. I will do it if it's really necessary, not otherwise. I agree it's part of having a very well paid job that you don't just work contracted hours.

Also, in my job there is nobody covering for me on Fridays, so if I ignore something on a Friday it will be waiting for me Monday morning. So I sometimes choose to deal with things on a Friday if I can, to make Monday easier.

That said, I'll only do emails and the odd phone call on a friday - I can't do any serious reviewing or drafting as there isn't time while looking after 16mo DD!

It rather depends on whether you value the working arrangement your employer has given you and if you're confident of finding similar terms if you fee; that taking a call or email on your day off is overly intrusive.
I have a flexible working arrangement - 5 days / week but reduced hours - and I wouldn't dream of refusing to take a call or email out of hours because they're not my contracted working hours - and the same was true when I wasn't on reduced hours & didn't have children. They pay me well, the job needs doing and often that involves West Coast US calls etc. I'm also a lawyer, and I do feel that at a certain level of responsibility, some out of hours work is expected and we're more than adequately compensated for it. I'd say differently for admin / support staff however I know that the general attitude where I work (NB not a firm, so no partners guarding yacht / school fees funds) is that we value our jobs and know it's going to be very difficult to find something comparable, so it's just done, and generally perfectly happily so. The perks more than outweigh being responsible out of hours (I can for eg recall "a globally famous entertainment star" being held at H'row on immigration issues on a Saturday. What am I going to say? sorry, it's my day off, it'll wait until Monday?
my level of dedication to the business is however adequately rewarded so maybe that's the underlying issue for you?

resipsa: If I were you? I'd go back to 5 days. You'll continue to be expected to work on your day off sometimes, that's the way private practice can be.
Clients/colleagues have no qualms about contacting you on a Friday as they're working. They wouldn't contact you as frequently over a weekend. You've taken a 20% pay cut but probably not a 20% reduction in work or accountability.