5 days over 4

[Hisashiburi]

Hi.

Does anyone have experience of working 5 days over 4 and how easy they found it to get approved. It is something I am seriously considering but I don't imagine it would be easily granted.

Thanks in advance

I worked 2 days over 4 and I hated it. 14 hour shift it was, on my feet with no break (I know it is illegal but I was a carer and with being so short staffed there was nobody who could cover the floor if I had a break). It depends what you do as your job?

Hi. Thanks for your response. Do you mean you worked 4 days over 2? With my contract it would mean 4 nine hour days which seems manageable

Very common where I work just depends on what day you need off. Mon and fri are most popular but can be at capacity ie can't accommodate anymore with that day off due to numbers and other people on holiday or absent. Just be prepared to be flexible if the day you want can't be accommodated.

@Hisashiburi yes that's what I meant! Sorry I sounded so thick when I read back on my reply

Like mrs2468 this is very common at my current workplaces and previous ones (public sector). It's one of the more current forms of flexible working. If it's only 9 hour days I wouldn't have thought you would have major fatigue problems (someone in my department does full time over 3 days plus some time at the margins/weekends which means she works 12 hour + days, that I think is a bit mad and not sure she is very effective at the end of the third day!).

Just a few things to think about. Which day are you asking for as your day off? In my company many many people either work from home or are off on Fridays so the office is deserted on a Friday, and in fact we now encourage people who want to go part-time to have Fridays off as so little happens (meetings etc) on a Friday. This doesn't matter too much as we aren't public facing but if yours is the kind of office that needs cover 5 days a week they might prefer your day off to be mid week?

Will your childcare or other arrangements be flexible enough so that you can occasionally swap your days off if there's an important meeting or training session or similar (if given notice)? As a manager this is a massive plus for me when my staff ask for flexible working, if they can't it doesn't mean I'll turn them down necessarily but it does really help.

The only negative I would say re compresssed hours is that in a few places I have heard mutterings from team members when one of their colleagues goes for compressed hours, because they may feel that they already work 9 hours + or more in a day in (unpaid) overtime (quite common in a lot of places whatever is in contracts as 'full time' hours) but don't get a day off a week in return. I always tell these grumblers that if they think it isn't fair they should apply for compressed hours themselves rather than whinging about other people which shuts them up usually, but I suppose you might want to prepare an answer if anyone says anything to you? And make sure especially in the early days that you are demonstrating you are productive in the 'extra' hours you are working at the start or end of the day. I do know of a few people that racked up loads and loads of hours in flexitime (before our workplace had a crackdown) by coming in very early, swanning around making breakfast and chatting, not really starting work until 8.30 when the 'normal' hours people came in, and that did cause some resentment!

I did and it was knackering as I commuted to Central London and was out the house from 730am until 8pm.

Advantages
You get a day off during the working week to get stuff done
You can get work stuff done with less interruptions as many people will be out of the office when you work
Once people know your work pattern, they will work around your absence eg if they know you won’t be in on Tuesdays, they won’t set up meetings on this day.
Cuts down on commuting time

Disadvantages
It’s knackering
You don’t get to do much else on the working days other than work and sleep - I barely saw my children on those days.
It can cause unhappiness if other staff put in long hours and don’t work compressed hours.

Me and dh both do this and it's great. Husband wishes he'd applied years ago. We have one day a week each with the kids so split the day between fun and jobs . It's only an extra hour with a 1/2. hour for lunch and I was probably doing those hours nearly anyway

Means we only need 3 days ys childcare which is ace

Not quite 5 days over 4 here, but 30 hours over 3 and a half days, which means I finish Thursday lunchtime.

Then that’s it for me, a nice long weekend.

It can get tiring in the run up to Thursday lunch (tea, bath, bed), it’s the long weekend that keeps me going.

Meant to say, I work a fair distance away, so my Mon -Wed means I’m out of the house a long time.
Otherwise those 3 days wouldn’t be that bad. Shame I can’t do this at a more local place of work, but that would be sheer luck.

I've often thought of doing is as I'm in work approx 40 mins early and usually leave around 30 mins late, so it wouldn't actually make much difference to me except for the day off.

I can't see them agreeing to it though as they'd effectively lose a day and most people are also doing those extra hours.

For people who's employers have agreed, they what's in it for the company that made they agree?

I did 10 days over 9 (one day off a fortnight) a few years back and that was brilliant and very easy to get approved as the impact on the business isn't huge. So if you can't get approval for 5 days over 4 you could try 10 over 9 as a compromise?

DH did 5 days over 4 for a little while but he found it totally exhausting as we both have a long commute on top, plus the fifth day he was looking after toddler DD so it wasn't really a "day off"!

I think it all depends on the type of work and how stressful it is/how far the commute is etc as to whether it would work for you.

I work from home a fair bit so the commute isn't an issue.

I think the only thing is (as PP have mentioned) if that I and others already do 9 hour days but I guess you are right, other people have the right to ask for it!

The 10 over 9 is a good compromise!

I am never keen on this for my staff
I always consider it,and on occasion have granted it ,but I'm not keen

It can work, in cultures where people generally work their contracted hours only. For obvious reasons it doesn’t really work where that isn’t the case, as you end up with two colleagues working long days but one getting paid more than the other- completely unfair and less likely to be approved. In those situations if you want to work the same hours each day as you were/as everyone else still is, but have a day off, they are likely to require that reduction in working time to come with the corresponding salary reduction.