Which 3 days should I return to work on?

[newmumcrazytired]

I am currently on mat leave with my first baby.

We have signed her up to a nursery. They would like to know which days she will go to nursery on. I would like to return to work 3 days a week.

Which 3 days are best? Should I go back on 3 consecutive days: Tues, Wed, Thurs? Or would it be better for me and my daughter to go back with a day off in between, e.g., Mon, Tues, Thurs?

My work is reasonably flexible. It is an office job and I mainly work from home except on Tuesdays, when I have to go into the office. The office is a 1 hr 30 mins train journey away so Tuesdays are a reasonably long day.

Any advice on this would be hugely appreciated before I approach my work to request the days. Thank you very much!

Although your work is flexible, you might find that you can't choose if there's another part timer and they need you to cover the week.

But if you can choose, I'd split the week. It's better for dc settling into nursery to go little and often, rather than a long block of three days then four off.

This is because they may well sleep/eat worse on a nursery day. You might also be still BF - if so, it's better not to have too many days off that in a row.

I work Mon, Thu, Fri which I've found ideal.

So if you have to work Tues, in your case I'd request Mon, Tue, Fri if I were you - just my opinion

Tues weds Thursday then you are off for almost a week ;)

Tues, weds, Thurs.
You should then also benefit from getting the bank holiday leave too, depends how your HR dept work it out .

I’d work Friday - it’s a quieter day to clear the decks in a lot of offices. Have a look at leave entitlement, it can be more advantageous not to work Mondays in terms of how bank holidays are calculated. I’d work Tue, Wed, Fri, all things being equal.

Do you have any friends who also have young children? I would try and be off whenever they are off. Looking after a toddler is a hell of a lot easier on a 2:2 basis than a 1:1 basis.

I would work mon, tues, wed then you:
get bank holiday mondays give to you as time off
have work done by midweek
get a long weekend every week

I would work Tues, Weds, Thursdays.

Our nursery charges for Bank Holidays (even though they are closed), so as most bank holidays are Mondays we didn’t want to pay for 7 days a year we wouldn’t be able to use.

I’d also try to avoid Fridays at nursery. My DS went on Fridays and it was a very quiet day so they had less staff, and ended up putting the children from different rooms together. I felt they didn’t have consistent staff on Fridays and by the afternoon the staff were just ready for the weekend! But that could have just been our nursery.

In terms of working, I found having one day off in the middle of the week made me feel I was never properly in the work mind set, felt a bit disjointed.

I remember having a long battle over Bank Holidays when I worked part time - we didn't work Mondays because the company didn't want us to have Bank Holiday time off as we were only part time.

Legally (from what I remember) you have to be treated the same as FT staff, but pro rata, so if you work 3 days per week, you should get three fifths of the Bank Holiday allowance, regardless of which days you work.

I may be wrong / it may have changed, though, it's been a while!

Tue, Thu and Fri would be my preference. No Sunday. blues, another day off straightaway and Fridays are always quiet. Winner.

yes make sure you look up your company's policy on part time staff using bank holidays.

many places including my work will make you use your annual leave allowance to cover bank holidays if you're meant to work Mondays.

for example you'd be entitled to 5 bank holidays if working 3 days a week. The remaining 3 (if normally working monday - and good friday) would have to be taken from your annual leave allowance. conversely if your non working day was Monday then I think you get credited some days.

basically don't work Monday unless you have to.

3 consecutive days it's disruptive to the child to have gaps especially in settling. It also means you get time to have long weekends.

Mon, Tues, Thurs is my preference - only max 2 days of work at a time. Wednesday is a nicer day off than a Monday. Also I found it helped with sickness not working 3 days in a row as sickness in small children can be mostly a couple of days, rarely just one or 3.

Obvs if they're sick on a Monday that's unlucky and you need 2 days off work otherwise it is just one.

I’ve tried a mixture and consecutive is much better for me and I think was better for my DC as there was a clearer routine

Split the week, if child has d&v on day 1 then they're out of childcare all week with the 48 hour rule otherwise.

I like not using nursery on Mondays because of paying for bank Holidays

Unlike a previous poster I do like them in nursery on a Friday, nice quiet work day to catch up and less manic at nursery and mine loves visiting the older/younger rooms if they're quiet

There should be no benefit on bank holidays no matter what days you work.

I did Wed,Thurs, Fri. It meant we had a long weekend, and looked forward to Friday nights more. Don't work Mondays, they're shite. Friday is more fun and easier in my role.

I do Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. Mon & Fri are quieter in the office so I can find a desk and Tuesday is the day we have team meetings.

I'd work Tues, Thurs, Fri
Tues you have a long day, also I think just one day and I'm off again. Thurs it's nearly the weekend and Fri you can see the weekend looming, plus everyone also seems in a better mood.
No Sun night dread and if you've had a busy weekend it's nice to have the Mon to catch up on things.

My then boss insisted that consecutive days were best for communication and productivity, so I did Tues, Weds and Thurs and always had 'long weekends'.

It depends on your job. I work 3 days and wish I hadn't chosen a friday as one of them. But my role is a supporting one, lots of people like to rush things on a friday and offload them or need to meet an end of the week deadline. That makes my fridays hugely busy, so much so that I often have to work late to make sure everything gets done.

Thank you so much everyone for your replies. I’ve decided on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays for consistency for me and my daughter. Also, the nursery is quieter on Mondays and Fridays so I can probably more easily swap into those days. Thank you again - your help is much appreciated 😀

All the best for when you go back to work x

Very sensible choice OP. Some crazy advice on this thread. When you work part time, it's always better not to work on a Monday so you get the benefit of the extra bank holiday leave.

TWaT is very common request for hybrid workers / people working part time.

I'd always rather get the worl out of the way all at once and keep days off together rather than in and out.