Would you take this job?

[working9]

I’ve been offered a job where the hours are 4pm-midnight. I can WFH half the week and the other half I would have to go into the office and drive home. It’s a 45 minute drive. I really like the company but am worried about committing to those hours as I have young DC. Would you take the job or hold out for something different at the company with better hours? I really want to work there and jobs don’t come up often.

Not with school age DC. Those hours are the worst of the worst as ideally you would still be in bed when they’re getting up for school, or if you do have to get up you’ll be exhausted. And you’ll miss out on evenings together too. Maybe I would consider with a baby/young toddler who you could be at home with during the day but only if your partner is supportive enough/doesn’t work long hours themselves to make sure you get enough rest.

How many days a week?

No I wouldn’t

What is your support network like? Are you normally a night owl?

I know lots of people with young children who do similar hours it saves them a fortune on childcare and they often get extra pay for anti social hours.

it was tough to begin with but they found their routine.

It would be 4 days a week. If it was fully WFH I reckon I could manage it, but the two days in the office would be hard….

No I wouldn’t. Look for better hours.

I’ve done it and it wasn’t too bad. I used to get up around 0730, sort them out for school and then have a nap if I felt like I needed one.

Not for me either. Physiologically I’d find it hard heading to work at 4 when everyone is clocking off and heading home.
youll never get to spend some quality time with you kids on those 4 days if they are in school as once they come home - you’ll be unavailable,
is the home office far enough away from the bedrooms that they won’t hear you on calls at 11pm when you wfh.
if it was 50% of the time with that pattern - maybe at a push I’d consider it.

You say you really want to work there so I’d give it a go for sure! 2 days in the office is not that bad and you’ll have daytimes and weekends when you’re not working. It might take some adjustment but there are advantages too. Go for it!

So on the days you have to go into the office you wouldn’t get home til almost 1am?

Do you have a DP who would handle getting up with the DC the next morning, getting them out the door etc?

If I were you, I would try to negotiate down to 1 day per week in the office.

But you wouldn't be working from home unless you had a separate office and your support network is doing school runs, supper, baths and bedtimes.

I would do it.
When the kids were younger I did 5-midnight 3 days a week out the house.
If you have a partner/other parent who can do bedtime etc on the evenings you’re out the house then I think I would quite like the free time during the day-for selfish reasons like getting everything done and running!
WFH might be tricky if you don’t have a spare room? I WFH a few days a week and it can be a bit noisy when the kids burst in…

Edit to add someone else looks after the kids post school when I WFH.