4 days a week - that bad?

[PaulinePetrovaPosey]

I'll be back at work in December when DD is almost a year old.

I'd always planned to go back FT, in a role that is senior enough that I can be quite flexible.

But I feel that I've missed out so much with my mat leave being in lockdown! I'd be gutted if baby groups ect start to open up in the NY and I'm missing it all.

So I'm thinking of going back 4 days a week, perhaps for a year or so, to have another day of 'mummy' time.

But everyone I know who has done 4 days hates it, as they essentially have a full workload squeezed into 4 days.

I don't think my job could be done for 3 days a week, or with a formal and fixed compressed hours structure.

Does everyone who does 4 days struggle with this? Good experiences would be most welcome...

The people at work who do 4 days seem to love it. I think you need to be firm about hpw much work you can take on because even full timers get overloaded. Employers can and do take the piss.

I’ve been working a 4 day week for a year for exactly the same reasons and have loved it. You just need to be firm about your workload and pushback on requests if you need to. Also be clear on your calendar about you working days if you interact with a lot of other departments as I’ve found that this helps to reduce ‘urgent’ requests on the day that I’m not working.

I've worked 4 days a week ever since I went back after my first. I'm very happy with it. I'm there enough to progress, be taken seriously and have a real impact and I also have a day to do the school run, focus on my kids and get ahead with boring life shite. My previous boss continued working 4 days even though her kids were grown, although admittedly she often did do some work on the 5th day.

The trick is to manage boundaries and expectations rigorously. Don't do nice-to-haves and don't volunteer for unnecessary good corporate citizen stuff that will go unrecognised. Do the stuff that matters. Drop the stuff that doesn't. Say no to meetings and requests that aren't important.