Good case for going part time?

[NCparttime]

I am desperate to drop a day in work and go down to a 4 day week.

Does anyone know the best foolproof case for my request?

I am in menopause so was wondering if I could use that as a reason to drop a day. (It doesn't affect my work but thought I could use the excuse, blame it on fatigue?)

After 35 years of full time employment I feel like I want a better work/life balance.

The issue is that there is only one of me in my role, so don't want to give a crappy reason were they could knock me back.

Has anybody been in this situation and been successful?

One idea is asking if you could go down to 32 hours a week (4 x 8 hours, I'm assuming you currently do 5x7.5)

May has 3 bank holiday Mondays this year ……..

If you are stating all the work you currently do in five days could be done in four days, have you been volunteering for additional responsibilities? What work will you drop? I would say the main advantage for them is you will be 20% cheaper as long as you are not proposing condensed hours.

I'm not condensing my hours.
I'll drop from 40 hours to 32 hours.

Taking into account annual leave and bank holidays I am already off 35% of Mondays for the year.

My work is hard to describe but I have various tasks that could appear ad-hoc on any given day. I don't think they could refuse me on the basis of 'but what IF we need her?' if you see what I mean.

Also month end is my crucial time and that could fall on any day of the week.

Is something urgent comes in on a Monday, either ad hoc or within your core responsibilities, who will do it? What happens when you are out now - is there a noticeable drop in quality, turnaround times or do people moan about the extra work?

You have them over a barrel OP

added to which your time spent there and good relations with management (although baffled why you were thinking of lying to them)

if they say no…. Could you shrug and walk?

I wouldn't be offering the same amount of work for 80% of the pay. You need to offload something to drop a day

Why not condense your hours? 40 hours is actually more than what's considered a normal working week anyway, are you including lunch hours?
If you compact your hours you will add on 35 minutes morning and evening but if you only take 30 minutes lunch you'll hardly notice and you won't lose any pay.
If you are working a 40 hour week hardly surprised you're knackered but would you consider compacting your hours fortnightly- it would mean you'd keep your pay but work fewer hours, and with bank holidays and leave you could barely work 5 days 😊

I did this five years ago. I do tend to check.my emails and Teams chats just in case something urgent comes up. Basically you want to show them how they get still your expertise and experience and how it will be barely noticeable you're not there on that fifth day - but at a reduced cost to them.

So if you are paid to work 40 hours a week for work that can be done in 32 hours, then the business case seems clear - you are trying to save them 20% of your salary cost with no detriment to the business. Their only counter arguments are (1) they don't believe the work can be done in 32 hours, or (2) there are sometimes tasks that can only be done on a Monday, and there is no other cover. In relation to the second, you can either offer evidence that this virtually never occurs, or indicate you are happy to be flexible and on occasion change your non-working day or deal with a query on your non-working day.

i doubt that there’s a man on the policy that would approach this as above in the OP’s situation when she has them over a barrel

Planet not policy

You don't need an excuse or reason to apply for flexible working, the only thing they're going to be bothered about is the effect on their business and if there are any benefits for them. Just have a think what those are, you seem to have covered that stuff can wait until Tuesday etc which is good- also if you're a font of all knowledge there then that's good leverage for you tbh!

I'm a support officer for a team of onsite engineers.

If parts were needed urgently on my day off then they would probably manage by securing the order in faith with our regular supplier.

Nobody picks up my work. I have no back up.

My main job is allocating their workload. But by the next few months this will be done via an App.

For the last year I have been WFH on a Monday and they will email to discuss any issues.

Mostly things can wait for one day.

I wouldn't necessarily want to lie to my manager but he will be retiring and the new manager may not be too keen. The new manager will be very reliant on me going forward.

Now that you have described your job

I don’t think you have them over a barrel

You job would take training to replace but ultimately it’s straightforward.

17 years in same role… easy to think you’re indispensable. But remember you aren’t

It's hard to describe but I also deal with the finance for the contract.

I've been there since the start of the contract so have a lot if useless facts and information.

Nobody is indispensable. Certainly not me, I've just got a lot of historic knowledge on the contract which needs to be followed to the letter.

My 'high profile' work is monthly. My day to day tasks are not as important.