Reducing hours/compressed hours

[frizzyandfrazzled]

Go on.... Tell me why it's the greatest.... I'd love to do it, scared about lack of progression if I do (although it's unlikely anyway) plus the extra money is useful.....but does it reduce burnout/stress and give you back your work/life balance and do you end of saving money because you get time back???

Work for a local council, full time, as a team leader in a really busy job.

Currently do 37 hours. Thinking of requesting 32 hours over 4 days....

I worked compressed hours for 4 years and loved it. Full time at my employer is 35 hours per/week, so I worked 9-6 on Mondays and 8-6 Tuesday-Thursday. I used on-site childcare at my workplace and had Fridays to do whatever I liked. It was glorious, and did not hamper my progression at work.

Cons - nobody covers for the extra day, so I do the same amount of work for 20% less pay and often end up working later into the evening

Pros - it's a 50% increase in my spare time, and on a day when I have the house to myself. Sometimes I clean, sometimes I'm sociable, at the moment I'm using it to do Christmas shopping little and often do I don't get overwhelmed.

It's definitely been a plus for me but it hasn't made work stress any easier. Just helps me feel on top of non-work stuff.

Posted twice for some reason

It’s definitely worth it if you can afford the salary reduction. It gives you more time to be on top of house stuff, so less stress during the working week if house stuff is all ok. Also a chance to get boring life admin done and then be able to enjoy the weekend properly . BUT I agree with PP that often the workload of your job doesn’t reduce proportionately . In a way you then become more productive on the days you are working . Especially with the prospect of a 3 day weekend!

I do 4 x 8 hours, also in a Role where FT is 37 hours. It's 86% hours.

I love it! I don't work Mondays (the way we deal with bank holidays, this works in my favour), which I use to cook/shop/get ready for the week ahead. It's a bit of me time too, after shuffling the dc around all weekend. When the dc were little it was nice for them to have a day to have their friends over, now they are bigger it's nice to be able to spend time with my elderly mum. It's also a day to get the boiler serviced, take the dc to the dentist etc as dh nd I don't wfh very often. It gives our system a bit of slack.

I'm in work enough that I have good presence. We have so many flexible working arrangements going on, that I don't really miss much on Mondays (if it's something critical I have the agility at home and work to work a Monday and have a day off in lieu later). My line manager doesn't work Mondays either.

I'm in charge of my own workload to some extent and not shy of delegating as necessary.

I love it.

DD goes to high school next year. I'm running out of reasons not to work FT!

Cons - nobody covers for the extra day, so I do the same amount of work for 20% less pay and often end up working later into the evening

This^
I know several people who have ended up doing a full time job for part time pay! If you only drop 4 or 5 hrs it's quite common for employers to not re-allocate the work so be very careful.

I find it's definitely worth the work life balance but going down to 3 days a week meant they had to employ someone for the rest of the job

For those working compressed hours, do you not find the long days really tiring and tedious? I want to request compressed but I'm worried I'll actually regret it and 4 days of the week will be a complete slog.

Ooh thanks for the replies. We are a busy team as it is and I wouldn't want to cause stress to others as the workload built up but I do wonder if I'd be more productive. I'd even consider a regular midday finish on a Friday.

Interesting @IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads that your boss does - there is a ft culture in our department and it shows. Maybe if I do it others would!?

@CourgettesCarrots long days wouldn't be possible for me I don't think. I am basically useless after 8 hours which is why I'm thinking 32 hours ish so my days aren't much longer than now.

Ps my kids are at high school but I just want a day to myself.

This!

I did 35 hours over 4 days, down from 37.5 over 5 days.

Did it for 5 months of a 6 month trial, I enjoyed the extra day off but basically did the same amount of work for less pay which is irritating!

My employer would have put pressure on me to go back to 5 days after the 6 months trial and I realised I was still burnt out and stressed so I left anyway.

So for me it didn’t work at all, just made me knackered.

I dropped a pay band for my new job but because I’ve gone back to full time, I don’t notice any difference pay wise!

Lots of people do it and love it though, just very much depends on the job I think.

Nine day fortnights are popular at my place. Full time is 37.5 hours a week / 7.5 hours a day. An extra hour a day (roughly) gives a day off every other week for the same pay. A lot of senior staff do this so it sets the culture.