Non-working day on Monday or Wednesday?

[feb1982]

I'm about to return to work after my second maternity leave and will be working 4 days with the option of either Monday or Wednesday as my non-working day (although I will be looking after both children on that day so hardly a day off 🤪).

Which day would you choose and why?

Monday as you then won't have to use so much annual leave to cover bank holidays.

Will you lose your bank holidays if you don't work on a Monday? Or have them added as extra free-choice holiday days?

Wednesday because then you get a mid week break and only ever work two days in a row. 2 days on, one day off, 2 days on, 2 days off. Bliss.

My heart says Monday because 3 day weekend, but my head says Wednesday because you're only ever doing 2 days work before your next day off, so less risk of brain fatigue wiping out that 3 day weekend.

She wouldn't be using annual leave though if she's already off a Monday...

I'd be choosing Wednesday for that reason!

I do a Wednesday off and I like it! Mondays feel like a super productive day at work and I feel like I’d be on the back foot all week to be honest.
i also get the joy of knowing however bad my day at work is I only have Max 1 more day of it before I get a break.

I don’t work Mondays advantage is a long weekend and I get additional leave due to the bank holiday situation.

i can’t take a Wednesday off but if I could I would definitely consider it!

Monday, nice long weekend and if you're commuting any distance Monday mornings are bad. And I would prefer the flow of working the four consecutive days.

Pre kids my non working day was Wed (it’s now Tuesday).
although tempting to take the Mon, I would definitely take the Wed. It breaks up the week, allows time to organise boring life admin and currently has the worst commute of the week due to the number of cars on the road.

Wednesday- definitely!
Breaks up the week.
And you don't feel like you're catching up on the Monday.

I work 4 days a week with Wednesday as my day off. As others say it means I lm only ever 2 days away from a day off and my kids are all school age or older so it is an actual day off.

@Hungrycaterpillarsmummy you usually have to take annual leave for bank holidays if you are part-time

@feb1982 it depends how your workplace do it. So I get a pro rata amount of days added to my leave entitlement to compensate for bank holidays. I've been working Mondays which means I end up having to use a lot of leave for those (tho not all fall on a Monday but many do). I get the same pro rata annual leave if I don't work Mondays so it works out better. Also I end up paying more for nursery because they still charge on a bank holiday but they don't take DD. Add to that, when they start school over half the inset days are on Mondays too (where we are).

So when I come back from my second maternity leave, I will be dropping Mondays even tho I like that as a working pattern x

In both cases she'd get the same amount of leave.

If she has a Monday off she has more choice about when to take her holidays

If she has a Wednesday off she needs to deduct any monday bank holidays from her annual leave which leaves fewer days to take when she chooses

I’ve decided to take Wednesday off as hopefully it won’t feel like such a long week (or weekend!)

I’ve had Mondays off and really liked it: no Sunday night glooms; possibility of long weekends away; miss Monday panics at work; good day for hairdresser appointments, shopping (etc) and for days out at otherwise busy attractions.

I work a 4 day week and have a Wednesday off, it's so lovely to have a mid week break (haha with a 3 year old). If I've ever swapped my day so had a Friday off I was absolutely knackered by Thursday. I'll be gutted to go back full time in September!

I’d take the Monday off as it means you have a 4 day weekend and when everyone has the dread on a Sunday of going back to work on the Monday you know you are off another day.

I used to do this and loved it. I now have Fridays off and my day off rolls into the weekend and doesn’t feel quite so much of a break.

Also think about the pattern at your work. At mine most part-timers take Fridays off which makes it a quiet day at work, so when I had Wednesdays off I got loads done on a Friday and my week was pretty productive overall.

Monday as I love a 3 day weekend. However it would definitely depend on what happens to bank holidays. I get them off in my job on top of leave, so I wouldn’t volunteer to have Mondays off if it meant I lost out on that. If bank holidays were added to my annual leave I would have it, if not I would choose Wednesday.

In our CS dept if you work pt and work Mondays you get screwed because of the way they work out your AL. Basically you have to work 7 hrs 30 mins to do your weekly hours, but they only allocate you 6 hrs to cover a BH. Yes, we have got the unions involved and no, they won't budge. So every BH we lose 1.5 hours. Over a year that adds up!

So check your works policy before deciding!

I took all Wednesdays off one summer for childcare reasons. I thought it would feel like a waste, but it was actually great knowing I'd only be working two days in a row at any time, and that my next day off was only ever a day away.

Wednesday.

Wednesday. It's great having a midweek break and only two days at work at the most. Monday's you would lose out on having the bank holidays.
I think Monday's off are only beneficial if you go away a lot the weekend so you get an extra day.

Wednesday

Depends on your work policy. Where I work I chose not to work a Monday as if your working day falls on a BH then you need to cover with annual leave - we get our annual leave in hours and proportionate amount of bank holidays based on your contracted hours.