What hours would you work if given this choice…

[Dartmouthgurl]

Hoping for some guidance about what part time hours you would work if given the choice. I have been offered a chance to return to work part time after maternity leave, part time hours will be two full days (8:30-5) and two half days (8:30-1). The only requirement of the company is one full day must be on Fridays. I have total flexibility as to the other days I work but I must let them know the proposed schedule before returning. The manager likes to skip out early on Fridays, hence the long day on Friday.

My little one will be 11 months when I go back and in nursery the days I work. My commute is about forty five minutes from nursery but, thankfully, they open at 7:30min the morning.

Would you work Tuesday to Friday, or would it be better to take Wednesday as the day off and split up the week? I’m struggling to decide should I work Monday, on the basis I will then benefit on the bank holiday weekends or is it better to have a long weekend every weekend instead! Appreciate I am very lucky to be offered this flexibility and so just want to use it wisely. Would love to hear any thoughts and from any parents working part time as to what works best for you and your children.

What is your nursery policy for half days? Ours had the pm session starting at 1 so if you do two half days until 1 you'd end up paying for full days at nursery because you'd never be able to pick up before it went over into the pm session.

Personally I'd rather work full time and compress to four days. Dh does the same so dc got 3 days at nursery. One with each of us in the week.

If not I'd take 3 full days. Half days seem just a lot of faff.

I think you are better off working Mondays as most BH fall on that day or do you get them back? I would probably take the Wednesday as my non working day if Friday wasn’t an option.

Also is there a reason you have to do two half days instead of a full day?

Agree if you can do three full days that would be better.
Otherwise I would do Monday - full day, Tuesday - half day, Wednesday - off, Thursday - half day, Friday - full day.

9:30-2:30. Term time. Monday - Friday

Zero hours 🤣

Given they want you to work a full day on friday, I would take Mondays as leave so you can still take long weekends. Full day Tuesday, half day Weds and Thurs then full day Friday. But make sure you maintain boundaries on this,

Wednesday is the best day off! You only ever work two days in a row. Great for when your kids are very young as you’re only two days away from them either getting a day with you, or two. Plus it’s like the week can “start again” fresh on a Thursday if you’ve had a rough week.

I agree with the person who said do a full day on Mondays as BHs are often then.

So Monday full day, Tuesday half day, Wednesday off, Thursday half day, Friday full day?

That sounds quite nice to me, but as a pp said, check nursery policy for half days etc

you will get pro-rata hours for bank holidays as a part time worker, If your office normally closes on bank holidays then if they are one of your working days you may end up actually having to use some holiday allowance to make up the full day, so I would clarify how this would work before you decide either way

I don't work on Mondays and really like having that long weekend. Busy weekends means I still get one day to myself. I appreciate you will have DC on your day off so not quite the same. But as I have Mondays off and most bank holidays fall on a Monday, I get those extra days added to my annual leave

Agree. Three full days would be much better. If that's possible

So for dh (nhs) it’s much better to have your day off on Monday from a bank holiday/annual leave perspective.

check how they calculate it.

also the 3 day weekend when working late on a Friday is a godsend for family life

It's lovely having Mondays off. Could you do 3 full days instead? So Tuesday, Thursday and Friday?

I’d rather do 3 full days if possible, I did this for a few years first Tuesday-Thursday then Monday,
Tuesday, Thursday. Both had their good and bad points but slightly preferred having Wednesday off rather than Monday.
When I went up to 4 days I had Wednesday off which was great.
If the two half days are not negotiable I would have Mondays off and do the half days Wednesday and Thursday

I’d definitely do 3 full days if possible. If it’s isn’t then honestly I’d go with 4 full days as 8.30-1 is still long enough to need a full day’s nursery so may as well work and get paid for a full day.

I personally like having Mondays off, means if we have a busy weekend I can catch up on the washing/shopping.

I’ve also worked 4 days having Wednesday off and equally that’s nice

Thanks for all the replies, they have been really helpful and have given me plenty of food for thought. Wednesday seems to be just edging it in terms of popularity!

For those asking about nursery, that cost is not a factor in the decision as I have to pay for five full days care regardless as the nursery does not offer part time care. However, they are happy for me to pick him up early or not take him in certain days. My decision to reduce hours is completely about spending time and being with dc as much as possible whilst he is young.

For those saying to work four full days, is this strictly related to increasing earnings or because you feel a half day with dc is not particularly beneficial to him? My reasoning with the half days is we would get two afternoons together at least but very interested as to others views on this.

Unfortunately, three full days is not an option. Whilst it would definitely be far better for family life, it just doesn’t work with my role. It’s fairly unusual in my sector to be offered even this level of reduced hours, and has raised a few eyebrows as it is, so I have to try run with it.

I definitely need to look into how the company will approach the bank holidays. It did not occur to me that I may have to use part of my holiday hours for these so definitely something to check out.

I’d have Mondays off, I work full time now but I used to have Fridays off and I only had a pro rata allowance of BHs so it ate into my regular holidays too having to take them off. Whereas people who didn’t work Mondays got an allowance for them which they could take at another time.

I’d probably based on that working pattern do long days Tuesday and Friday and short days Wednesday and Thursday

Thanks for mentioning boundaries. I think I will have to be super clear on this from the get go!

I would really resent going in to work 4 days, if they were only paying me for 3, but you seem resigned to that.

If your work does BH leave as most do, then have Monday as your full day off, as it gives you 'extra' hours to add to your AL, rather than you having to give back some of your AL hours to top up the fact you will only get 3/5 of the hours for each BH that falls on a Monday (4 of them always.... 3 vary, and 1 is on a Friday).

Either;

mon off
tue full day
wed half day
thur half day
fri full day

or

Either;

mon full day
tue half day
wed off
thur half day
fri full day
this way when it’s bank holiday you get the extra day off that week.

For those saying to work four full days, is this strictly related to increasing earnings or because you feel a half day with dc is not particularly beneficial to him? My reasoning with the half days is we would get two afternoons together at least but very interested as to others views on this.
Earnings yes but also it’s usual for them to have a long nap after lunch, you likely won’t want to pick up during that window and disturb their nap and then if you wait until afterwards pretty much the whole day is gone and it’s too late to do any afternoon activities so IMO you may as well see the benefits of a full day’s salary. If you could pick up at 12, go home for lunch and get away with only paying for half a day I’d feel differently!

Take Monday off as you’ll benefit from taking your proportion of BH’s at other times, which is beneficial when you have young children in nursery who get sick a lot.