Thoughts on working pattern

[FallenFigs]

I'm negotiating a new role. Instead of doing 3.5 days/week I'd like to work an A/B pattern and do 3 days one week, 4 the next.

Does anyone have experience of working like this? My main concern is how to manage annual leave without it becoming complicated. Obviously the logical thing would be to take leave only on the 3 day weeks, but that won't be practical with school holidays.

Any insights or do's/don'ts would be appreciated.

No experience of working like this but I don't see how your leave will be an issue - you will just need to take 4 days of leave if you take a 4 day week off, and 3 days if it's a 3 day week? Might be completely missing the point though!

I have some people doing this sort of pattern to give them long weekends, great for them but it causes me all sorts of hassle as I can never remember what week they are on so no idea when they are available and leave is set up in the system with the pattern but then they want to change their weeks round so it gets all jumbled up! Guess what I'm saying is that if you are doing this make it clear to everyone what week you are on and don't change them!

Yes @superking I think that works if you always take leave in whole weeks, but otherwise does it balance out properly, or leave me with an incentive to only ever take the 4 day weeks off?

@HGC2 I have done this pattern before a long time ago, and I did switch the weeks round. However, I was a contractor then so it was a bit different as it was just a day, and when I invoiced for that day rather than having the worry about holiday booking/calcs. I would like the flexibility to be able to switch them - for example for half terms, where that might fall on a 4 day week, I'd like to be able to switch the 4th day to the week before or after. This would in theory give me an 'extra' day's leave which I could use for the holidays like Christmas that don't necessarily fall neatly in weeks.

Although companies quote leave in days, it’s generally done in hours so you’ll get the correct time off.

Do other people do this pattern? A lot of people at my place do condensed 9 days instead of 10, leave is worked out in hours so I imagine they would do the same. They might not allow you to swap your 3 and 4 day weeks though but it depends on the type of work you do.

I think it would balance out fine as if you took a 4 day week off it would cost you 4 days of leave, if it's a 3 day week only 3 days. I was just using a week as an illustration, I guess in reality leave is usually calculated in days or hours, but that shouldn't make a difference.

For example, my working pattern is 2 full days and 2 half days a week and my annual leave allowance is calculated in hours. If I take one of my full days off it costs me 8 hours leave. If I take a half day it is only 4 hours. There's no perverse incentive either way as the leave I use up just covers the hours I was due to be working. Similarly if you took a 4 day week off it would cost you 4 days of leave vs only 3 days for a 3 day week.

Swapping weeks would be more complicated though, I think there must be a way to work it out but it could get pretty complicated for your employer and they might not be keen.

Well you can only ask the company. Your leave should be in hours or days, so it shouldn't matter which week you take off. Make it clear you'd like flexibility to switch your weeks around, and what notice they'd require for that. They might like that as it could help them out too, give and take and all that. I think you'd be taking the piss to switch the weeks around so all the school hols are 3 day weeks though, it would leave the business short staffed on every 4 day week you were meant to do, plus others want time off too and they might need you in 4 days to cover their leave. Present it with the business needs in mind and you'll probably get what you want

I think this is a sensible work pattern to choose if they’ll agree. For your leave you’ll get the 3.5 pro rata amount of days and then just take them as you need, no need to think of them in terms of weeks. With a pattern like this you could ask if you could sometimes shift your 4 day week, so maybe in the run up to half term do 2 4 day weeks, then half term week is a 3 day week and you take 3 days leave (I’m an HR Manager who manages leave and let you do this, the key bit is you’re working the hours you’re paid for, which you would be)

Swapping the weeks will be very much dependent on the rest of the staff too. You'd basically be insisting on taking your unpaid day on a day when other people may want to take it as holiday so "bagsying" the day off.

Thanks, this is helpful. @pastabakeonaplate it's not the kind of work where it would be unhelpful to others to 'bagsy' the date. I'd be working on my own projects and the key thing is that I keep the projects moving and the clients' happy.

Convert your leave to hours, and take the appropriate amount for the number of days you have off, whether half a day, a whole day, 3 or 4 days etc

It shouldn't be too hard to keep track of which week you're on with outlook/other online calendar.

I did this exact pattern for years. Annual leave wasn't s problem

And yes the leave is calculated in hrs

Leave straight forward to work out but must be in hours.

Could you do 3.5 days a week condensed in to 3, so (assuming your days are 7hrs) 24.5 hours over 3 days, just over 8 hours a day? Then only ever do a 3 day week.