Would you give up flexibility for

[QforCucumber]

In my current job I can work my hours as I please across the day, come and go from the office as required, work from home a day a week - work 34 hours a week, basic auto enrolment pension. No other employment benefits.

another role with another firm has come up, 5k rise, still 34 hours a week, private healthcare and a better pension scheme, but its office based with mostly no opportunity to work from home or flex the hours much.

do these positives outweigh that flexibility? Kids are both in primary ft. Commute is the same for both. No chance of current business matching the other one. It’s a definite one or the other situation.

Put it into Take Home Pay Calculator including your pension contributions and see what the exact take-home difference is. Then factor in: will you lose time for top-up shops at the cheap shop, time for batch cooking, what’s the cost of the commute (petrol or public transport), will they need additional childcare or holiday clubs. Minus all those additional costs and see what the difference is then to lose the flex. Probably not much in it.

No way. Flexibility is king with the kids. My youngest needs SLT at the moment and the only time slot they had was 11am on a weekday. It means the world to be able get her there and simply make up the time later. Same with illnesses, school holidays.

Not for that increase in salary I wouldn’t.

maybe look at it another way, work out what the monthly extra pay is and ask yourself if you would give up that amount of pay to have the flexibility you have now

For me it would depend on household finances. An extra £5k would really help us now so I would consider it

5k is not a large enough jump for me to give up that type of flexibility. for 10K I might consider it.

After tax etc £13ish a day in my pocket extra which is just under £300 a month

Have you worked out the difference in take home pay ? Might not actually be that much more

£300 a month

@itsanothernamechangeone thats also another big factor, £300 a month net is substantial enough at the moment to make a decent difference, it’ll give the opportunity to have a nice holiday and extra space in the grocery budget.

I’m due a 2nd chat with them next week, I definitely need to discuss further the potential of flexibility around school holidays at least, and whether that’s a total none starter.

Depends how much you need the £5k! It’s about £250-£300 a month after tax. Only you know whether you need the money or the flexibility more. Will you have to pay for more childcare?

Absolutely not worth the trade off for £250/m. Until you’re actually doing it you wouldn’t realise what you’d given up, especially with primary aged children in the mix.

There are plenty of jobs for those sorts of salaries where you can have both the higher salary and the flexibility. And private healthcare is only useful if you get ill! And you tend to find firms with rigid expectations are rigid in other ways.

Do you currently pay for childcare for the school holidays? Would you now need your childminder to take your children to school in the morning or breakfast club when you start your new job? If you'd need to pay for more childcare hours that would probably cancel out your pay rise and for me a 2% pension increase from 3% wouldn't be enough for private healthcare which probably wouldn't be used tbh.

I'd only give up that sort of flexibility and what sounds like an extremely understanding employer for an NHS type pension if I still had children of your ages. You could always put what you currently save in childcare into a private pension scheme as the 5% the new employer is offering as an incentive is actually still really poor

If it meant further progression in future v what sounds like a ceiling in your current job I’d consider it. You don’t mention a partner if you have one can they not step up with holidays? Or one of you start at 7 and be around for pickup and the other drop off. Most men would take a promotion of £5k especially if it’s a springboard to better future prospects.

just an additional thought on the money side, health insurance is likely to be a taxable benefit, and so you’ll pay additional tax on that

I'd do it for the private health and better pension and extra 300 per month for sure. I'd never want to be without private health insurance.

I’d assume if you’d need to be in the office for 9 after the commute you wouldn’t be able to do drop off anymore? Mine are late primary and year 7 and the flexibility I have is honestly worth its weight in gold, especially during school hols.

Can still do drop off, school gate opens at 8:30 so that’s no issue would remain the same as normal.

the biggest change would be school holidays and the flexing of my hours in those times, but it also may not be a problem. I’m going to bring it up on Tuesday in a chat I’m having with the business owner and see what that brings.

I went in for a chat,

They are just as flexible as my current workplace regarding school holidays and flexitime.

I've had an official offer and now it is decision time.