9 day fortnight

[Werehalfwaythere]

I work 26 hours a week across 4 days in a senior management position and it’s full on. I also have three children in primary school and clubs etc so life is busy.

I’m considering increasing my hours to full time but spread over a 9 day fortnight to:

• give me more time at work to catch up, I do a full time job in part time hours and it’s intense. Hoping more hours will mean less stress
• earn more - we can’t afford holidays abroad despite two well paid jobs and the extra cash (extra £1000 a month) would enable this plus more security
• I would still have 1 day a fortnight to catch up on housework which is usually all I do on my days off currently (my choice, it’s my way of relaxing whilst being productive).

I’d like to hear some experiences from people who have gone from part time to 9 day fortnights. How’s it gone? Do you regret it?

To add - we can afford for me to stay part time, but as I’m already doing a full time job in part time hours, I feel like I may as well get paid for it. But I’m worried it may feel like a mistake. And that juggling school holidays may feel a lot harder.

Thanks!

Me and DH both do this, we alternate the same day off to look after our toddler. We started when I went back from mat leave. I didn’t want to drop below full time as everyone I know in my job /
similar jobs has ended up doing a full time job anyway, for less pay. It works really well for us! You barely notice the extra time each day, i think its 40 mins extra a day.

Yes. Went from 30 hours to full time but 9 day fortnight. It's great and as others said you barely notice the extra each day whereas a 5 day weel compressed into 4 is a really long day in my opinion.

Retired HR - this is a much more achievable pattern than compressed hours over 4 days. If you work 37.5 hours a week 7.5 hours a day you only do an extra 50 minutes a day if you compress to 9 days but 1 hour 50 extra a day for 4 days.

I would suggest Monday as your NWD as most BH fall on a Monday. It’s not about overall getting more leave it’s that you get more to take when you choose if that makes sense.

Also consider if you work full time you will have extra net pay to out source some jobs e.g. a cleaner once a fortnight.

I worked a 9 day fortnight for an international company, but the truth was, it could easily become a 10 day fortnight. As it was compressed hours, but I was senior management, the6 retained the right to call on me for day 10.

If that’s not you, them go for it. The times it worked out for me, it was great. But just check what it really means or you just end up work8ng more hours 😒

I did exactly this, albeit I increased from 30. It worked really well for me, I was also already doing a FT job and more anyway so wanted to be paid for it!

I'm now moving to a new role with a longer commute so I'm going to give compressed hours over 4 days a go but will happily return to a 9 day fortnight if this doesn't work

I love a week day off!

Thanks for sharing your experiences, I’m going to ask if I can trial 9 day fortnights for a 3 months to see how it goes.