How to get the hours I need

[Hafa9141]

Hi all,

I know it may seem quite far ahead but me and BF are looking to TTC in the next few months and I am trying to consider my work changes.
With the cost of childcare, I would be better going down to 3 days a week at work. I currently work 5 days 8:30-5:00 which comes to 37.5 hours a week. I'd still do 8:30-5:00 to maximise the hours.
I am a receptionist and also organise a lot of events for the company which are usually on the first Thursday of each month and 1 Friday once a quarter.
I would like to have Thursdays and Fridays off as then I would benefit from bank holidays etc. As another girl in the office is off Mondays and Fridays and ends up losing out on hers somehow.
How do I say to my boss I want to work Mon,Tues and Wed, but the week we have an event on I will swap my day without coming across too demanding?

Haha that is some specific forward planning! You shouldn't lose out on bank Holidays, for part time workers Bank Holidays should be calculated in hours and added to your annual leave, otherwise someone who worked Mondays only would get 8, and someone who worked same hours on a Tuesday would some years get none. It's all in the part time workers directive. Otherwise, I think going to your boss with a plan of how it would work for both you and the company would be the best way forward, but not until you start talking about return to work!

Be careful: my friend works Mon and Fri and 'owes' a certain amount back because of the amount of holidays that fall on these days. Whereas her colleague who works Tue, Wed, Thur is 'owed' some extra days off because of this.

@thethoughtfox so your friend works Mon and Friday but owes days? Can I take a guess that because she only works 2 days a week she is entitled to very minimal holiday anyway.
So with owing days does she have to work them or pay the company back? Seems line poor planning on their behalf

@Eatsleepworkrepeat I think just sitting with boss when that time comes and working something out is best.
My manager can be quite awkward at times so how would I go one step above her without her being insulted?
She is also the HR manager but a terrible one, we are a very small firm only about 28 staff so she doesn't have much HR to do, but when she has done things it never stays private like it should so that worries me.

First things first- never asusume that you will get flexible working. I know many women who have had to quit their job after the baby is born due to not being able to get part time working.

You need to sell it to your boss why you working 3 days a week is beneficial to the company

You get exactly the same amount of holidays whether you work Mon-Wed or Tues-Thurs. It's just the latter means you get more flexibility when you take your holidays because when a bank holiday falls on your working day, you have to take it out of your leave (think of part time leave as a % of the total of full-time holiday days plus bank holiday days). As most bank holidays fall on a Monday, if you work that day you will be forced to take 5 days off (if your office shuts on BH).
I wouldn't worry about this until you're actually pg though. I'd expect you to want to remain full-time until at least you're on mat leave to maximise maternity pay.

@MafaldaHopkirk oh yes full time for as long as possible unless I encounter any difficulties. I am also in the process of gathering evidence to ask the boss for a pay rise as my responsibilities have doubled in the last year.
Obviously its good for the bank account to work as much as possible after mat leave BUT childcare is so expensive it would probably outweigh that idea.

@greendale17 I think they know how valuable I am as I am constantly told "what will we ever do if you leave" and I have lots of back up points so hopefully that would help.
With regards to having to quit, it wouldn't be the end of the world as I currently work 35 mins away from home and could do something closer to home, but hopefully that will be by my choice not by forced circumstances.

Op I would work tues, wed and thurs in your situation and not because of bank holidays at work but because of nurseries (and some childminders) closing on bank holidays but still charging for those days. I used to work Monday Wednesday and Friday and paid for quite a lot of childcare that I wasn’t actually getting because of bank holidays. Both of the nursery managers I used tried to “encourage” me to have Monday’s and Fridays because they said it broke up the sessions for DS be aware and prepared for this.

A part timer worker should get bank holidays at pro-rata, I work Tues - Fri and basically get an extra weeks holiday to take when I want because I don’t work Mondays.

Hmm perhaps I am better speaking to someone on our payroll team to help me work out which is best.
With regards to the nursery, I don't understand how their charges work, surely when I know there is a bank holiday I can contact them and change the day for that week? Or does it not work like that?

It depends on the Nursery some will not let you swap and change days but my neighbours Nursery is very flexible around her husbands shifts so it really does depend xx

@LilacPrincess I think that will be one of my main priorities with a nursery then when looking as it would save us a lot of money.
Alternatively BF has BIL who's daughter goes to a childminder instead and they said that is much cheaper, does anybody have experience of this?

Nurseries try to run at capacity. They don’t tend to have space on the days you would want to swap for as it means them losing out on money for that space every other week just so you could swap on one of the few weekends you have a a bank holiday. Some might be able to change days but most IME don’t.

Childminder was cheaper than nursery for me. One disadvantage of a childminder was that you have to find alternative childcare when your childminder takes their holidays or is off sick. Or use you own annual leave. With a nursery they tend to only close one or two weeks a year plus bank holidays. There are pros and cons to both.

Just to say op I don’t work on a Monday and it’s a great day to be off! I get the Monday bank holidays ‘back’ in my annual leave pro rata.

And no you can’t chop and change nursery days, certainly not in ours. I’ve tried to get my kids looked after on a Monday as an exception because I had an important work meeting but they had no space so my dh just had to take annual leave.

Your work won’t be even the slightest bit interested until you are looking Togo in May leave anyway

To go on mat leave even

@Ubercornsdiscoball I know they won't consider it but I am just trying to put my mind at ease as I am nervous about TTC. I want to have an understanding of what my options are.

@Jackiebrambles how do you get the days back onto your leave then? Just curious as a girl here works Tues, Thurs and Fridays and has barely any "holiday" entitlement. I think something like 10 days a year.

The way my employer calculates back hols for PTers, I benefit from not working Mondays!

@BikeRunSki aagh now I am getting confused do you think the working out process will be in our employee handbook?
That way I could try and work it out myself.

Haze you got a staff handbook or something? We have online, and also an online lease calculator. The way it works for PTers- Annual leave is calculated pro rata. Additional leave is given to cover Bank holidays. This is also calculated pro rata. Ie: I work work days a week and there are 8 Bank hols a year, so I get 4/5 x 8 (= 6.4). The two amounts are added together, and I have to take a days leave when a BH falls on one of my working day.

Since 4 of of the English 8 BH are on Mondays, 4 are not necessarily (and one is always a Friday), it can be that the most days leave i’ll have to take for Bank Hols is 4, even ghiugh I get 6.5 days for bank hols

Easy to work out. If Holiday is 4 basic weeks plus 8 BH for a full time 5 day worker. You want work 3 days week so get 4x3days off-12 plus Bh
8/5 x 3 - 4.8 so total of 16.8 days leave. If your office closes every Bh that mean you only have 8.6 days to choose when you wanted. Or you only get paid for half BH and then carry the rest days over.

It's quite simple to calculate holidays for PT workers. It's just a % of the total holiday of full time workers (normal holiday days plus BH). I'll use the statutory minimum as an example (and assume the employer makes employees take off bank holidays):
FT employees gets 20 days holiday plus 8 days BH (i.e. 20 days to use when they like plus 8 that the employer chooses).
PT employee working three days per week gets 0.6 x 28 days = 16.8 days, which should be rounded up to 17 days. This is true whatever three days of the week that the employer works. The only catch is if a BH falls on a normal working day, then it must come out of those 17 days leave (the same as FT employees employees take the BH out of their 28 days leave). That means if they work Mon-Weds, then assuming Xmas and New Year BH are on thurs and fri, the employee must take the 4 Monday BH out of their 17 days. This gives them 13 days to use when they like. If this employee worked Tues-thurs, and again assuming the same Xmas and new year were on thurs and fri (so Xmas and new year Bh on thurs and Boxing Day on a Fri) then they have to take 2 days out of their 17 for the two thurs BH leaving them 15 to use when they like.
So it's not that you get more leave if you don't work on a Monday, it's just that you get more to use when you like. It's definitely the easiest way to think of holidays as a total allowance for both FT and PT employees rather than separating them into normal holiday days and BH days.
Bear in mind that if you want to be flexible over the days you work, you will need flexible childcare. Mine definitely would not let me swap days but often had space to add an ad-hoc, especially Fridays.
But really, don't even worry about it now. Seeing as you aren't planning on going PT until after your mat leave, any agreement you make now isn't binding (seeing as you aren't submitting a formal flexible working request) and so much can change in the meantime - different managers, other PT employees, different business needs etc.

That doesn’t seem quite right for your colleague, does she work term time only maybe?

I work 4 days a week, so I get 20 days holiday total. But then because part timers aren’t allowed to be penalised re bank holidays hr work out how many fall on my ‘non working days’ (that my other full time colleagues benefit from) and they give them ‘back’ to me in my holiday entitlement. I can’t tememver exact figures but it’s a good few extra days that I can use when I want.