Compressed week

[Brendaloves]

Hi

I’m looking for some guidance from others who have maybe it’s listed a flexible working request, the idea being this will help with child care.

my employer is very pro the idea and has asked me to put a formal request in. Currently I’m 37.5 hours a week over five days and looking to drop to either 4 or 3.5 days.

if I’m honest I probably do the hours required now over the days but unpaid.

How have others found this and the commitment to extra hours each day.

I also work from home so mindful that I don’t want to appear to be sat at home doing nothing.

I don't do compressed hours but I work 4 days a week & currently exploring maybe compressing 4 into 3 or reducing hours further.

I think compressing 5 into 4 is more achievable than 5 to 3.5 as I think you could end up with very long days. I know a few people who have successfully condensed their hours by starting an hour earlier and taking a 30 minute lunch instead of an hour, for example.

But if you're already doing more hours unpaid you would need to make sure you're really disciplined with yourself and not pulled in too many different directions.

I am considering a request to compress 30 hours into 3.5 days to save some
money on child care!

I’ve worked compressed hours before, it can be tough as essentially you are working or child caring so it’s hard to get a break from you!

@Brendaloves I work 37.5 hours over 4 days, although my request was due to my reasonable adjustments for ASD and having one less day around people (office based pre covid but home based now).

I do 7-5 Monday to Thursday and still find I’m doing over and above the hours required.

I've done various flexible options over the years but currently work part time 4 day week.

5 days over 4 is quite a lot considering that 37.5 is on the longer side already. I have a colleague that does 5 over 4 on a 35 hour week and think her days are pretty long but she likes it. Another does it over 4 and a half days.

I used to do 35 over a 9 day fortnight which I liked as it added very little to each day but had a day off every 2nd Monday.

I'd recommend having Monday as your day off rather than a Friday as many more public holidays fall on a Monday and for me that means I get the day allocated into my holiday allowance so more holidays.

I condense 4.5 days in to 4 (33.75 hours over 4 days). Realistically, for me, attempting to condense 5 in in 4 would have been too much and the days would have been too long with nursery runs etc.

I do 5 days over 5 days but have three longer days and two shorter days. On those shorter days, I do the school run and hang out with my 4 year old so I have no choice but to take the time off. I used to have a similar working pattern but was on an 80% contract. My boss agreed to change it on the basis that my output was the same as a FTE. In reality, I don't actually do longer days in and of themselves but I pick up bits of work in the evenings/weekends. It works well for me.

If you are already working those longer hours unpaid, over and above your paid 37.5 hours per week, what happens when you compress your hours and are working ~9.5 hours per day for 4 days, but still have extra work to do (the stuff you are doing unpaid at the moment)? Would your days stretch to 10.5, 11, 12 hours?

You can compress hours if the 37.5 is really all you need to do. If you usually need extra time on top to get your work done, compressing will be awful.

I reckon 4 days is the most you can squash it down without it getting bad, and that’s because you WFH so you save on commute time. How does it link in to childcare?

I do 5 days in 4. I work one much longer day, and then do an extra hour on the other 3. Means I can spend one day a week with my kids. It works really well, and I tend to do the extra hour after kids bedtime.

I do compressed hours of 37 hours over 4 days with a Friday off. I do still tend to check emails and do the odd call on a Friday when needed as I'm in a senior role.