Does this job exist? WFH/Flexible Hours

[Bumblebee112]

Well aware that I’m probably asking for far too much. Ideally looking for a part time WFH position (would need to be 2/2.5 days per week). Ideally it would have the opportunity for overtime.

DS will be starting nursery in January. My current role means also having to use wraparound care due to nursery pick up time. However, we’ve just been notified that that wraparound care for DSs age is no longer being offered which has left us in a bit of a mess.
I have looked at all childminder options and none are able to offer us a place on days we need. There is one other nursery in our area that offers full days (there is one other but it’s only open 8.45-3.15) but it’s full, with a waiting list.

DH works at sea (3 weeks on/3 weeks off). When he’s here we have no issue as he’s available for all drop offs/pick ups. But when he’s away we now have no options. Currently we have a family member that looks after our DS 2.5 days a week while I work PT (2 full days and one shirt day at weekend). Family member is moving out of the country at the end of october. DH and I have managed to arrange his leave and my AL to cover until nursery starts in January but beyond that we’re stuck.
My current position does not allow me to be flexible. I must be there for open and close of business. DSs nursery placement means he will be in one day 1.15-6pm and 2 days 8-5.30pm. Times and days are set and non-negotiable. I can’t pick him up until 6.15pm.

So, after my ramble…a job that allows me to work 9-5 2dats per week when DH is away and potentially the flexibility to work extra shifts when he’s home? Or any other solutions that anyone can spot immediately? I know sometimes the panic of your own situation can stop you seeing singeing obvious.

*seeing something

Try the civil service website

What about something like AmazonFlex? It's not great pay, but very flexible. You can do or not do as many shifts as you like and can (if needed) take your kid in the car with you.

You could do something like this at my work potentially as some of my colleagues are on annualised hours. They use it to be full time during term time and then off/part time over school holidays, but in theory could be worked this way.

Only issue is that my sector is accountancy/tax- so further study required unfortunately!

Off the top of my head I would have thought casual contracts would be better, as zero hours would actually help in your circumstances. I appreciate however that might not be what you are after though.

Could you perhaps look for a part time job for your certain days, and then maybe do agency work for the overtime?

I would have thought you might have luck with part time/job shares within civil service/local authority. Much more flexibility as well.

Probably local authorities? I work for one that’s primarily WFH, very flexible with when you do your hours, but no chance of overtime. Perhaps they’ll let you do more hours when your DH is here and less when your DH is not to equalise it?

I work for the Local Authority. Flexi working policy - so set amount of hours, have to work on working days between 10-12 and 2-3 (core hours) and thereafter the is flexibility as long as you fulfil your hours over a month. So I have weeks when I work longer days and others when I work shorter days to fit with family commitments. Plus I can take one days flexi per month on top of my leave.

We also have the option to purchase additional leave which I use to be around more in the summer holidays.

Not all LA jobs provide this though so you’d need to look into it.

Do you have room for an au pair who could provide the wraparound care element (not full time care though)?

Thank you for all your ideas. I’ll look into all of these.

@Katrinawaves Definitely no room for an au pair.

@XelaM Sorry, I’ve just realised I missed out the fact that I don’t drive in my original post 🙈 unable to drive for medical reasons and this will not change. Live 15 min walk from DSs nursery then a further 10 min walk to current work.

I work for the civil service in a departmental agency and could do this. I’m not in senior level so time keeping is flexi time based and my role means I generally don’t have to be in at any specific times. I work 22 hrs a week which is split over 2 school days at home and 1 9-5 day usually in the office, and then I make the remaining hours up at home in the evenings or another day of the week. Tbh my flexi hours usually go slowly down during school terms (eg I’m doing 20-21 hours a week) and then each holiday my lovely parents take the kids for a few days and they go to holiday clubs and I can bang out lots of long days and bring my hours back up to where they should be.
my agency and it’s department are particularly flexible with WFH - not all gov departments are though most work on 40% of hours in the office now. and of course it would depend on the role, but I would think many CS posts you would be guaranteed being absolutely fine to finish dot on 5 during those weeks DH was away. There is a limit on how many hours you can be down on flexi time but if you were part time I don’t see that you’d exceed that in the 3 weeks he was away.

Just seen you don’t drive so may be trickier but you may still find posts where you can be 100% from home or they agree to just showing your face once a month. Really depends where you are in the country, and what’s near you. Have a look on the civil service jobs site but bear in mind many posts on there will be prison work etc which are not going to give that kind of flexibility.

certainly I’d say public sector is what you want to be looking at, as others have said.

I'm looking for much the same for similar reasons. I'm so frustrated at the moment, as so many of the roles I look at I think 'my god, I could do that in half the time!' But employers aren't open to discussing it.

I work in marketing and I hate to say it but it is prime market for faffers. There's so many people I have come across at work who fanny about and waste acres of time. Meetings for meetings sake, spending half the day on Trello and Slack updating people on what you're going to do rather than just getting on and doing it etc. If they cracked on and did the job, most of the roles could be done on a part time basis (and save a load of money)!

But clearly, that's not a conversation people want to have, and it's driving me bananas.

What’s your skill set and previous experience? And what level of salary are you looking for. Would a PA role work for you for example? My team is entirely work from home including the PA, and the hours can be flexed to an extent.

Have you thought of work in a school kitchen? Or welfare duties?
Or if u have any skill sets try people per hour website. Lots of work on those type of websites.

Look at a smaller company. I'm an Op's Director and we all WFH. I'm very passionate about trying to help working mothers. I've been in your situation and it's a shame because people like us have a lot to offer but sometimes are prevented from doing so due to childcare hours etc. (I'm beyond aware that men should pull their weight, they're a parent too etc etc but quite frankly, many just don't and it all ends up with the Mother, wrong though that is - I know your situation is different OP)

When I recruit (I'm not yet) I'm determined that I'll offer a flexible position that would work for somebody like you. There's nowhere near enough of them around!

Your advice is all really helpful, thank you. I’m glad to hear there are some roles out there that may allow for that type of working pattern.

@Katrinawaves I’m educated to degree level - although unfortunately I don’t work in that field. I was unwell towards the end of university and had a period of illness after then had to take on some caring responsibilities at home so ended up in roles that fitted round my responsibilities really and have just ended up staying there. Have now been out of university 10+ years and would absolutely have to go back and re-study before going into any related jobs. It would also almost definitely require relocation which I’d rather not do.
All previous experience is retail based. Have been in retail management for the last 10 years so all very face to face, customer based roles.

No problems with computer use etc/learning something new. Happy to start low and train up. We’re very fortunate that DHs salary covers all our outgoings in a month. What I bring in allows us to save a small amount each year and pays for birthdays/days out/holidays etc. At the moment I average about £1k per month. Obviously higher would be lovely but it’s not essential.

Something like bookkeeping can be part time and very flexible.

Another vote for local government. I work from home nearly all the time and my hours are very flexible as long as I do core hours as well. I’ve bought extra holiday so I’m home for school holidays.

I think they do exist, but the pay is low. I know a couple of people who have done work with lionbridge as an extra income. It was 20 hours a week roughly and can be done flexibly. It is internet based at home and checking accuracy of things like maps, search engines etc. I think they do other things too, so if you have language or technology skills there might be things like that too. I am sure there are other similar companies. Down side is it is payment per task, so might take you longer, and not paid well. It works if flexible is the higher priority.

Thanks all. Local government does sound like it could be the way to go. I’m going to sit and do some research tonight when DS is in bed.

@TheIsleOfTheLost That does sound like it would be really flexible but I’d definitely prefer to know roughly what would be coming in each month. Even PT at minimum wage to start with would be fine as a start 😊