4 day week

[Yellowwellies1]

Keen to hear any positive experience of working 4 days a week. I keep hearing negative views about it being the worst of both worlds and trying to do a FT job for less pay. But I really want a day off with my toddler. I think compressed hours would make for too long days and I'm not sure how keen my company is on it anyway. Would be difficult to do my job in 3 days.

I've worked every possible pattern bar term time only!

I liked 4 days a week so long as the day off was at the end or start of the week. I did Wednesdays off and that wasn't great in my experience because I had to both wind down and psych myself up re work on the same day if that makes sense wasn't relaxing at all.

Doing 5 into 4 greatly reduces your flexibility as long days, so for me 4 days PT hours (say 30) was the best balance.

9 over 10 is quite nice too, again so long as the day off is at the start or end of the week.

I work FT 4.5 days a week now and that's nice - a half day wind down into the weekend is a real tonic.

If you work a PT pattern that's nigh on FT hours (like 4 days, or PT over 5 days) you have to be really firm with your employer about your workload and getting it pro rata. Last time I did 32 over 5 days I ended up going FT as I might has well be paid for the hours right! The job just couldn't be done PT in a way that meant I was doing that % of the work. Different roles work differently though - for instance casework based roles are easy to allocate pro rata.

Maybe it depends what job you do. My previous role involved having a caseload which was pro ratad for 4 days so I didn't work more.

Thanks, that's really helpful.

It's not the kind of role where my workload could really be officially pro rated. But it's not super busy or stressful either so I think I could do the job in 4 days without needing to drop any core responsibilities or needing to work loads of unpaid overtime.

I'd want a Friday off.

I work compressed hours an average of 45 hours a week over 4 weeks. So I do 3 x10 hour days 1x 8 hour days and then 2x 4.5 hour Saturday mornings. Then as I am management there are a sprinkling of hours for early morning texts when someone is off sick and to account for meetings that occur on my day off.
I have Thursdays off - get up a bit later, get life admin done on a day that call centres are open, do shopping, washing etc.
I used to do similar hours spread over 4.5 days, but it made me feel frazzled. This is a much better pattern for me.

4 days has the potential to be the worst set up as you are never classed as part time so you squash full time into 4 days. I and other colleagues all agreed on this.

I would do 4.5 in 4 days as at least you get paid more. Day off either fri or monday. A PP is right, middle of the week days off just feel like you are waiting to go back to work again!

5 days in 4 makes for long days, i would only do that if you WFH to be honest.

4.5 in 4 is worth a thought, thanks! I don't have a huge commute and can WFH regularly, but I still think 5 in 4 would be too much with nursery opening hours.

I loved working 4 days a week and did it for 10 years. It didn't give me more work. I think it's a mistake to suggest compressing your full time job into 4 days unless doing longer hours than normal on those days.

Caused a lot of resentment for me as other team members were on five day a week contracts but did less work - work I often ended up having to pick up. So I was doing more work in less time for less money. Really fucked me off honestly. Guess it depends on the team and whether they will truly reflect the tasks as being a 0.8 vs full time workload.

To be honest, no one can answer this for you as only you know what your workplace is like and how well you personally can hold boundaries around work.

I have worked 4 days, with a Wednesday off with the kids which I loved, and also 5 in 4. Wednesdays worked well for me as I never felt the "slog" of working as it was only 2 days at once. My kids also benefitted from a mid week break from childcare.

However, I have a very flexible workplace and am good at my job so I don't feel much stress. I am also very comfortable with setting boundaries around my work load when I need to and being clear about my non working day. I do pick up work on it if I want to, but I don't if I don't!

I do 4.5 in 4 and to be honest, am finding it difficult to find the time now my partner and I are both back in the office at least once a week. It was fine during Covid when we were fully wfh, because I used to have two mornings where I wasn't doing the nursery run and could get a good couple of hours' work done. It's manageable for now, but it is stressful and I always feel like I'm on the back foot.

I've spoken to a lot of women who work part time where I work, and everyone says they don't like it and are only doing it to either spend time with their babies/toddlers, or due to lack of childcare after school.

I did 4 days a week for about 3 years at two different employees. I also really liked having a day off with my son while he was at nursery. I also liked my working pattern (Thursdays off) as it broke up the week nicely. I did probably end up doing 5 days work in 4 but I valued the flexibility that 4 days gave me - eg if I had to do a call on my day off, I knew that I'd be fine to go to my son's nursery to read to them all one afternoon in return. DS is in Reception now and I've just (this month) gone up to full time hours albeit I do longer days M-W and finish early on a T/F to pick DS up from school and have a few extra hours with him.

Thanks for all the responses - interesting to hear other people's experiences!

I do 4 days a week so 28 hours. It suits me really well because I chan change my non-working day to suit kids appointments etc. I have a portfolio of work which is adjusted for 4 days and I can usually get everything done in the time I have available. It’s a much better work/life balance than my previous job which was 17.5/week. I felt like I never really got into anything properly before I was off again.

It depends entirely on the job. Back in the day I did four days but spilt in to three full days and two half. That worked for my job - clients and colleagues knew I'd be there the next day ( no day completely out of office) and were less likely tk disturb me on my afternoons off. Worked for my toddler too as he really couldn't cope with full days in nursery ( he was always 'spaced out' and white looking - just too much for him) With family help and my half days this pattern meant that he was only in nursery one full day a week and half days apart from that. This allowed him to nap and have quieter half days.

Been doing a 4 day week for 14 years ( 30 hours)
The best thing I ever did.
You are treated enough to be part of the team ( like full timers) , whereas those who work 3 days or less can feel out of the loop. It gives a better work life balance.
Have a Friday off but will sometimes swap if other team members need the Friday off and levels are low ( this helps the team and shows willing).
If there are staff vacancies I will sometimes do overtime on Fridays to help out.
Currently needing to get out of my job and look for another ( long story) but will not compromise at the moment as not willing to go full time ( as the benefit is that you can manage stress more effectively having the longer weekend). Will wait for 4 day a week opportunities.
Also, have older parents who live away so have the flexibility, that if I need to travel over weekends, I will be able to do it without needing to take leave to travel on a Friday.
It works for me, a colleague does compressed hours over 4 days (37.5hrs) and would never recommend that, as the long days are exhausting.

I do 32 hrs over 4 days with Mondays off and my job can't really be reduced - I just prioritise and some things will just take longer. I have emergency cover on my non-working day from my boss.

I love this balance as my Mondays with my daughter feel like I've kept a bit of mat leave. It means I have 50% more time with her which feels quite big. And no more Sunday night feeling! My brain hasn't twigged that it should now have a Monday night feeling.

My job definitely can't be done in 3 days though, which I discovered when I thought using annual leave up in single days here and there was a good idea... Not doing that any more!

I've worked hard on boundaries i.e. switch off work phone, never check my emails etc. You definitely need strong boundaries for this to work.

I would definitely look at Mondays as a NWD as this gives you more leave to take on a day you choose rather than fixed BH.

It does depend on the job.
You seem to already be thinking about "doing all your work in 4 days" rather than "doing 4/5 of the the work I do now".

4 days has the potential to be the worst set up as you are never classed as part time so you squash full time into 4 days. I and other colleagues all agreed on this.

I agree with this.
But it does depend on the role. If you are doing something like retail or hospitality where you are working 'when you are there' and not when you aren't, then it works.
If you are doing something where you can be assigned the number of customers / clients / patients / service users / projects etc based on your pro-rata hours then it can work, but keep in mind that the things everyone does take a bigger proportion out of your working hours than if you are full time. So any staff or team meetings you attend / reading generic e-mails / staff training or registration updates / etc. If you need to do a training day, then it is 1/4 of your week gone, not 1/5. Once a year it doesn't matter but if there are weekly Team meetings, that starts to impact.

What does not make sense is doing the same amount of work for 4/5 of the pay.

"You seem to already be thinking about "doing all your work in 4 days" rather than "doing 4/5of the the work I do now".

Realistically, this is what will happen. But like a PP said, I think it will just be a case of prioritising what's most important, and other things might just take a bit longer to complete. I'm the only person who does my job so no-one else to delegate to, although my boss will be able to pick up anything super urgent on my non working day.

I think I'd be fine setting boundaries and not checking emails etc on my day off. I feel like a lot of people check out a bit on a Friday anyway?!