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Original poster

Are there any drawbacks to working 4 days?

52 replies

wormybookworm · 01/12/2021 07:01

I'm about to ask my employer to rearrange my working hours so I do 4 longer days rather than 5 slightly shorter ones.

Are there any drawbacks to doing 4 days a week? My current worry is missing out on projects because I'm not there and visible all the time...

On the flip side, I'm really looking forward to an extra day to myself for life admin, seeing retired family more, and whatever else!

OP posts:
MajesticWhine · 01/12/2021 07:05

It's good working four days. I work a 12 hour days on one of my days and it's exhausting. So I guess that's the downside, if you get really tired don't get to recharge. Also make sure you really do take the fifth day off and don't get sucked into replying to emails etc

mynameiscalypso · 01/12/2021 07:07

It sounds like you're doing the same hours over less days? I think the main challenge with 4 days a week is that you normally do the same amount of work as 5 days for 80% of the pay but if you're working the same hours, that's less of an issue. I've worked 4 days a week since I came back from maternity leave at two different jobs. There does need to be a certain degree of flexibility to make it work best. I will happily swap my days around if needed for an important meeting or deadline (and I can arrange childcare...) but the trade off is that I expect to be broadly left alone on my day off otherwise. I think 4 days a week is easier to manage when you're WFH as well as you don't feel so left out on the days you're not in the office but that may or may not be relevant to you!

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 01/12/2021 07:13

My experience is the same as @mynameiscalypso.

I can work it in my favour too - now both dc are older and at school, if I need a day off in the week, I can change my non-working day.

Last year, I actually went full time for 8 weeks due to workload, which very much demonstrated to us as a family that my non-working day is pretty essential for life admin, cooking for the week, dc stuff etc at this stage. I may go back to 5 days when my youngest child starts high school, but am just discovering with her brother that this comes with a whole other set of challenges.

RedHot22 · 01/12/2021 07:15

If you’re doing the same hours then it’s fine.

I work 4 days and my day off is precious to me.

WaterBottle123 · 01/12/2021 07:17

For me, my 5th day pays for my pension contributions that I couldn't make when I was working with 3/4 days with a massive childcare bill. So do consider that.

Otherwise, it's glorious and I miss it

thamesriviera · 01/12/2021 07:17

Have you thought about a 9 day fortnight to start? You'd spread the extra hours over 9 days instead of 4 which may be less tiring. Of course that means only one day off every 2 weeks.

SingItToWinIt · 01/12/2021 07:20

Both dh and I work compressed full time hours over four days. Dh more recently but I've been on this pattern for years and would hate to go back to 5 days.

Drawbacks are seeing everyone finishing for the day at 4 or 5pm when I consistently work till 6. And missing the odd event or meeting when it happens to fall on my day off. But they're pretty minor in the scheme of things and the day off more than makes up for it.

I have an addition to my email signature saying 'My working days are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday' and an out of office notification for every Thursday. When stuff crops up on a Wednesday it's easy enough to say 'Thanks for this, I'm out of the office tomorrow but will pick back up with you on Friday'.

Just organisation is key and making sure everyone knows you're not available on x day, but it's never caused me any problems. The extra days dh and I have off in the week are what make life run smoothly!

Elieza · 01/12/2021 07:20

It sounds like you are doing the same hours. How many do you work?

pumpkinpie01 · 01/12/2021 07:20

I do 4 days I love my day off - breakfast /lunch out , shopping , big dog walk it's great !

Caspianberg · 01/12/2021 07:26

4 day is a lifeline here. Where we live nothing is really open on the weekend so it was tricky to fit in all the admin stuff like dentist, doctors, looking for new home stuff, being in for electrician etc.

Also a full day to actually go somewhere or do something, or take a long weekend

DraigFach · 01/12/2021 07:29

I work a condensed week (full time hours across 4 days) and I'll never change back unless I have to.

Zero negative impact on my job, although 4 long days can be tiring it's worth the extra day "off"

AbsolCatly · 01/12/2021 07:45

I found a lack of opportunities for other roles (I work at a low level and most roles need someone 5 days) however it works for me as I don't live to work, work pays for my home life and the extra day off means I can take DC to school/ attend meetings and appointments to support them / extra time during holidays and when they are at school I actually have a little time to myself to just be me :)

I did drop a couple of hours so my days are not terribly long and the pay difference was less than a days nursery fee / only slightly more than a days childcare now DC in school

rookiemere · 01/12/2021 08:20

I do slightly longer days 4 days a week as a project manager. Occasionally I need to log in on a Friday - when the project is due I'll sometimes work 6 days a week, but try to get some time back - and often I work late on a Thursday, but I don't think I could ever go back to 5 days a week.

The one thing I'd say if you're doing fully compressed, is avoid seeming to expect others - who work 5 days a week - to do the same hours as you, so avoid meetings outside 9-5 or whatever the core hours are.

Original poster
wormybookworm · 01/12/2021 08:52

Thanks all - yes I'd be doing the same hours just a different pattern. Currently do 32 hours over 5 days. Hadn't thought of a 9 day fortnight but I'd need to work out how that would look in practice. Work perhaps more likely to go for that idea.

OP posts:
NinaDefoe · 01/12/2021 09:08

I’ve worked 4 long days with one day off and currently work 5 much shorter days.

It’s nice to have a full day ‘off’ midweek but I found that I spent the entire day playing catch up with household chores, catching up with sleep or making sure I didn’t miss any work e-mails.

5 part days suit me best.
I go in for a much shorter day, don’t get tired & have plenty of time to keep on top of daily chores.

idontlikealdi · 01/12/2021 09:13

I did 4 days, in my file it was really disjointed, I was either having to work to keep up on the Friday or missing stuff so I changed to 3 full and 2 short days which worked much better. I think it really depends on your role.

I've recently gone up to full time now the kids are in y7, but only because I wfh, it wouldn't work if I was back commuting and out 7-7.30.

HardbackWriter · 01/12/2021 09:16

It doesn't sound like it's an issue for you, but I compressed (and slightly dropped my hours, so I do 32 now) for childcare reasons, and the one thing I've found is that it means the DC have to do longer nursery days than I'd like on the days they're in. I think it's worth it for the trade-off of then having that day at home with mummy but I do sometimes feel guilty about it.

Change123today · 01/12/2021 09:19

I do 4 (9-5) days rather than longer days - I did longer days and it knackered me out! But I don’t feel I miss too much on the day I’m off - I occasionally have to attend a meeting but very rare. I always make sure I provide any updates for the stand up the day before if it’s project based.

maofteens · 01/12/2021 09:40

I've never worked a job that started at, say 9.30 and finished at 5.30. It's like lunch - in the last couple years I worked it was a quick sandwich at my desk. I worked until the job was done (publishing), which meant 6 or 7pm or later.
When I had kids and had to make it to the day care to collect them by 6.30pm I had to get to work an hour early.
But if your job is 35-40 hours and it allows you to do the the hours in four rather than five days I see few disadvantages.

Elieza · 01/12/2021 18:39

I think the law says you need a 20min lunch break after working six hours.

So in theory just now you don’t need to take one if you’re doing six hour maximum days, only if you do a long day. So that’s four days that you don’t need to sit in work for an extra half hour and you could be heading home early instead if you can make just one day a long one.

You can’t do that if you work longer days as you’ll need to be there for over six hours so will legally need a break.

It’s irrelevant if you do want take a daily lunch right enough, just saying.

HardbackWriter · 01/12/2021 18:47

Have been thinking about it further, and there's one more drawback that I've found in my job. When I wanted to compress my hours my boss wanted me to choose Friday as my non-working day because we have a lot fewer meetings on that day, and I agreed. What I didn't think about is that that means that for most of the team Friday is the best opportunity to really do a long, uninterrupted spell of 'thinky' work, and that I now don't really have that. The time before 9 and after 5 is normally quite quiet and uninterrupted - we don't have many scheduled meetings outside core hours - but it's not the big chunk I used to be able to get on a Friday and I do sometimes really feel the absence of that.

Taswama · 01/12/2021 18:55

I currently do 32 hours over 5 days with a mix of shorter and longer days. I do find it hard to stay motivated on the days when I'm in the office and the majority of people are leaving at 4. This is generally Fridays as its very quiet anyway.

Dougieowner · 01/12/2021 19:12

Over the years I have had several working patterns at my firm.
At the beginning it was a 39Hr week and the standard pattern was a 9-day fortnight. Later I moved onto a 14-day 3-week and during this time set hours dropped to 37.5Hrs and eventually to the 36Hrs that I still work.
For the past 12-years I have been on a 4-day week and it is perfect, a 9Hr day is easily worked without it feeling too long and then I get an extra day off every week (although since lockdown and WFH became the norm I have been working OT on my day off and increasing my earning without having to suffer the commute).

Do I miss being in the office and not being visible?

Not a bit of it!!!!!

applespearsbears · 01/12/2021 19:19

Make sure your day off is a Monday otherwise you will use your leave to cover bank holidays, even with the pro rata allocation I still missed out

NinaDefoe · 01/12/2021 19:27

@applespearsbears

Make sure your day off is a Monday otherwise you will use your leave to cover bank holidays, even with the pro rata allocation I still missed out
Depends what job you do. I had Monday as my day off for a few years and I lost my extra days off - bank holidays!
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