Is reducing from five days to four worth it?

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I currently work full time and have done for the past 12 years, with 2 children ages 7 and 4. My 4 year old is due to start school next year. I’ve been toying with the idea of reducing my hours and working 4 days instead of 5. I already compress my hours taking shorter lunch breaks to be able to be around for after school as we have limited wrap around childcare.

for anyone who’s been in a similar position to me and done it, is it worth going down to 4 days? Motivators are spending a little more time with my 4 year old before he starts school but also I find the housework on top of full time work as well as homework, keeping on top of school uniforms and cooking is a lot and I think I’d appreciate a day to catch up so it’s not all spent in evenings and weekends.

I have recently taken on a cleaner - she comes every other week and generally feel better about things but it doesn’t feel like enough.

obviously I worry about the future and drop in pension contributions but I have quite a large pension already due to generous employer contributions so I think I’m well placed to do this but I am wondering how much value I might get from a single day off & would be great to hear from others working a 4 day week.

It is only worth it if you will definitely get the 1 day off. When I did it I was so frequently being asked to do stuff on my day off I changed it to be a WFH day. That way I had the flexibility to do the work, but also be around for my daughter when she came home from school.

What sort of role do you have? If it’s project based it tends to be more work. I have many friends who did 4 days or 5 in 4 for childcare cost reasons but they all find they end up working in the evening and 2 hours on their off day to keep up because the company has the same workload expectations and they struggle to fit it into their days.
If you have the sort of work that doesn’t come home with you and you can just leave work on the Thursday and not think about it until Monday then a day a week to catch up and spend time with your youngest sounds ideal.

I think it depends.

Will your actual workload also be reduced, or will work try to get you to do 5 days work in 4?

I went part time, but to 3 days. Part of my thinking was it would be easier to say 'No' as it is obvious you can't do 5 days work in 3.

Yes agree with this. You might have to be very firm about reducing your workload by 20,%

Agree it depends on the type of job - be careful you don’t fall into the trap of ending up with the same workload but 20% less pay!

I found compressed hours exhausting and really not worth the time off.

Also, it maybe also depends on your pay.

When i went part time I was a higher rate tax payer, so dropping 40% of my work did not result in anything like a 40% income drop. (As I kept all my personal allowance and basic rate tax pay and only dropped pay at higher rate tax)

Yes this is my concern. It is a project & operational role - there will be a requirement to take calls when we are actively operational though that’s a half hour at most but obviously if something goes wrong I’d be expected to react even on my off day, as I would at weekends. We’re only operational part of the year though…

i am aware it would become more of a proper part time role if I reduced to 3 days but I’m not sure we can take that financial hit and I’m not sure the business would go for it (as they would know can probably squeeze in all my work across 4 days).

hmmm. A lot to think about and I’ll keep chewing it over. Thanks for the advice thus far.

Maybe also worth adding that a lot of people across my company work 3 or 4 days so part time working isn’t unusual but nobody in my team do. We’re a specialised technical team. The team is made up of about 10 men and me, and of my particular area there are only 2 of us.

I did this for about a year - basically I just got paid 20 percent less for doing the same work so I wouldn’t recommend

Compressed hours yes well worth it, but 20% pay cut for the same workload absolutely not.

I worked 4 days per week before DS started school. I occasionally had to join a call on my day off and generally kept an eye on emails but it worked okay. In reality, I probably wasn’t doing 20% less work but it was worth it for having that day off with DS. One thing I would say though is that it didn’t help me at all with catching up with things at home or the housework or anything like that!

I worked a 4-day week for much of my working life and loved it.
It wasn't a reduction in hours, I worked the same number of hours per week as those on different working patterns but just had slightly longer days. The off-day moved each week so it meant every few weeks I had a 4-day weekend...... bliss!
There was never any expectation to work my off-day, it was not my day to work so I was not available.

Is you're working 20% less for 20% less pay then fine. If you're still expected to take calls and work on that 5th day, then no - why would you?

Do you have a partner? If so, where are they in doing the domestic load - is he doing his share of cooking, cleaning etc? If not, then why should you be reducing you pay and pension in order to do it all? Is he considering reducing his hours also?

I do have a husband and he does do his share but his hours are also a lot more rigid as he works for a much smaller company whereas I have the flexibility of a very large, family friendly employer and can pick and choose my hours so I just am around more.

my pension is already fairly significant in general for my age I think, and especially compared to his so although it would be less pension contributions I think I’ve built quite a healthy pension pot so far. I’ve always made more money than him but we both work full time in professional roles. We pool all our money and it’s all shared. He does as much as me around the house apart from cooking because I’m there more but he does pull his weight. He does all drop offs as I leave early because I’ve got the option of starting early and finishing early so I can be there after school. He can’t do that as they all start and finish at the same time.

we do also both have hobbies outside of the house.

i am appreciating hearing everyone’s points of view though and definitely starting to reconsider things… I wasn’t planning on it until next year so have plenty time to mull things over.

I work compressed hours over four days and that works better for me than dropping hours.

I do 4 days, 0.86 fte and as long as I push back occasionally then I am not doing more than I am paid for. It works well for us, not a massive drop in salary and means I am not working super long days on my working days either.

Omg yes 4 days is so much nicer than 5! I went back full time when my youngest started reception but if we could have afforded it I wouldn’t have done. I may go back to 4 days at some point in the future when DC are out of uni/mortgage is paid off

Same here. I love working 4 days and having 3 days off. Actually, I love having 3 days off, not so much the working part!

Could you compress to 4 longer days? It sounds to me as though you'd be working just us much regardless, since when busy you have to take calls when supposedly not working, so of course you'd actually do as many hours as you do now unless you get TOIL. My mother got caught in this cycle by dropping to 4 days, she went back up to 5 and had an easier time and all the pay yet didn't actually do any extra work.

When I had young DC I didn’t find having 1 day of made enough of a difference to be worth the pay cut. Childcare fees were still significant. I found I had enough time to do everything that had to be done but still not really enough time to just enjoy the day off.

3 days was actually a much better balance for me in terms of having time to do necessary stuff, fun stuff and for the cut in childcare costs to make the cut in salary with it.

It might help that your DC are that bit older though.

I love working 4 days, though did it after mat leave so had been getting by on less money through that. With annual pay increase plus where the tax brackets sat, and saying nursery fees it wasnt a noticeable drop at all. It also meant going back fresh into that 4 day role so I didn't have to suddenly push back on workload.

I'd never go back to 5 days. Now they're at school I love having a day for life admin and hobbies.
I flex if needed for work but do protect it and am able to do that in my role.

I expect compressed hours would make the school run much harder on the working days

Can you work 4 days across 5? I did this for years which enabled me to do school pick ups 3 days a week. Worked really well and you’re always around for work stuff if needed (professional role). And in school holidays it means you can legitimately take a day off every week without using holiday. Absolute winner and I really regret moving to FT even though my DC are now teens.

I have had a good look at the numbers and (obviously depends on if work are supportive but I think hey would be) I could reduce my hours to 33.5 (from 37.5) and compress them across 4 days by doing 2.5 office days and 1.5 work from home days. Gives me a fair amount of office presence, but still enough flexibility to be around for the kids so would get a full day off but at just under 90% pay which seems like a pretty nice middle ground. The long days aren’t excessive and when they are that bit longer I’m at home anyway.

if I decide to go for it I’ll come back to update this thread for anyone who may be considering something similar in future too :)