Best days for part time?

[FrodisCapering]

I am hoping to return to work for three days a week.

I have a young family (kids almost 4 and 2).

Can anyone tell me, in very simple terms, which days are best to choose in terms of not losing out on bank holidays?
Not sure whether it's best to have Monday as a working day or not!

Monday as a working day, Wednesday and Friday as non-working days.

It depends on your work’s approach to annual leave and when Christmas falls, but generally not working Mondays works in your favour,

This is because your entitlement to bank holidays will be based on fte. If you work 0.75 fte you’ll be entitled to 0.75x 8 bank holidays a year (so, 6 working days). However at least four of those will be fixed for you (Easter, May, May, august, and this year Christmas and new year too.) you’ll have to take them and other bank holidays too so you may end up having more than 6 bank holidays a year you need to cover, forcing you to use annual leave.

OTOH if you don’t work Mondays, this year (actually this is hypothetical as we’ve had additional bank holidays) you’ll be entitled to 6 days but the only days you’ll have to have taken off would be Good Friday, and December 27th.

this is my employer (but also DH’s, and my previous employer) and working a standard 5 day week.

Monday is a bad day to work for Bank Holiday’s, I find Tuesday the worst for traffic on the roads.

Avoid Mondays if bank Holidays are the issue.

I think it depends on your childcare. Nurseries sometimes charge for bank holidays and close. I’d do Tues , We’d,Thurs. Monday for prepping the week to come, Friday to destress and organise the house after a busy week.

Avoid Mondays as you'd need to use some of your annual leave to cover some of the bank holidays as you only get a pro rata amount of annual leave/bank holidays

I do Mon, Weds and Thurs. I like it but my work don’t prorata the BHs so there’s no disadvantage to working Mondays.

More school events are on a Friday so that helps.

You shouldn't 'lose out' in terms of how many days holiday you get, it should be proportional to the total FT AL + BH allowance, on an hours worked per year basis.

However, if a BH falls on one of your working days and your employer closes on those days, you need to use a day's leave to cover it. So you get less choice about when you use your remaining leave, after the amount you are forced to take on BHs.

avoid working Mondays due to bank holidays, you will lose annual leave having to take them all.

I would do Tues, Wednesday, Thursday

I work wed- fri, works well in that because most BHs are on Monday I get a bit of extra holiday in my allowance to take at a time that suits me.

It does depend on whether your employer opens on bank holidays as they should be law pro-rata your leave to cover them if they close, so avoiding Mondays works best for that.

On the other hand, when I worked Tues, Wed, Thur it felt weird starting on Tues when everyone else's working week had started the day before, I always felt behind. And when I worked Tue, Thur, Fri it was disruptive effectively having two days of catching up with emails etc before starting work properly. So I now work Mon, Tue, Wed and that is the best by far despite the bank hol thing.

Also, nearly all my DCs primary school events fell on Fridays so it was good having that day off. But harder getting childcare midweek as that's what so many others do. I had no choice but to work the Tue, Thur, Fri pattern when my DCs were at nursery as there were no Weds spaces for them and my employer insisted I work Fridays as that was the day most other p/t staff didn't work and most f/t staff wanted for odd days of annual leave.

Tues weds Fri! Avoid Mondays at all costs, will end up using annual leave to be forced to take a bank holiday off. Iv worked a few different part time days and Tues/wed/Fri absolutely best!

Thanks everyone . Some really interesting responses.
Childcare on bank holidays wouldn't be an issue because my husband would be off anyway.
I'll see what they say. I am thinking Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday sounds good.

There should not be any disadvantage based upon what days you work, your leave should be adjusted accordingly. All a bank holiday is is a day when the employer gets to mandate that you use up a day of your allowance.

I don't really like the sound of that though, I'd rather just work the day and choose my holidays.

Not working Mondays gives more choice as to when you can take your holidays whereas working Mondays means more of your annual leave is used to cover them leaving fewer holidays you can choose yourself

I think you need to check your organisation's policy re bank holidays. I work Mon, Tues & Thurs and mine don't adjust my annual leave for BH Mondays so I get my full annual leave allowance plus the BH Mondays off.

Days work for me as I only have one day at a time to catch up on.

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

As if you ever go away for weekends it's handy having Monday and Friday off

@Ricco12 that's a great point, especially as we have close family abroad

Another vote for Tues, Weds, Thurs - you get your bank holidays (pro rata) added onto annual leave so win win.

Well, you should anyway, confused by PP claiming her company “don’t do that.”

Is it not legally required for companies to ensure part timers aren’t treated less favourably than other employees? Cos at PP’s company, those not working on Mondays would be treated less favourably because they’d be losing out a paid bank holiday.

Thanks again everyone.
I am going to ask for Tues, Weds and Thurs if my application is successful.

The nursery bank holiday thing isn't about alternative childcare (ie it's ok because my DH could do it), it's about the fact that nurseries charge you for the days you've booked even if they then close due to a bank holiday.

So if you have nursery booked for Mon/Tues/Wed, then on bank holiday weeks you end up paying for three days but only receiving two days of childcare because they're closed on Mondays.

As @HappyAsASandboy says, with nurseries you normally loose out if Monday is one of the days your children attend. You still have to pay for a full day on the bank holiday Monday even though they are closed - and with at least 4 bank holiday Mondays that adds up.

We found preschools and childminders usually only charge for the days they are open so there it doesn't matter.

Having said that, I'd agree that I found it hard not working Mondays when part time - there is so much to catch up on and more stuff keeps arriving whilst trying to catch up. I quite liked Wednesday and Thursday off as Friday morning is always quieter with less people in for us so easier to catch up and also gave a bit more chance to actually get some work done.

I do Monday Tuesday Wednesday and have done for the last 8 years, since my kids were babies. It's always worked well I don't mind working Monday and losing a little of my annual leave for bank holidays.