Working part time over 5 days a week. Does anyone do this?

[WannabeMathematician]

I’m exhausted. That’s the main point of this thread, money is important too but keep in mind the exhaustion bit when giving advice.

I’m thinking of dropping my hours to 32h a week over five days. I have one child in school and one child nursery. This would allow me to do school pickups every day and have a lot less running around like maniac. I find full days at work exhausting, I have no time for myself and when I’m with my kids I’m just not present at all. But, I’m concerned on two fronts:

1. part of me feels I should stick it out as when the boys are older it might be very difficult to increase my hours back up and there is a small voice in my head that says that this will be the end of my career.

2. actually if I’m dropping to 32h I should do that over 4 days and save a day on nursery and spend it with my youngest. Selfishly I think this is not a good idea as I know that this will not solve me being exhausted as I will just be zoned out on my day off and running around like a blue arsed fly on the long days.

So I’m a bit stuck, but I think m that I have talked myself into doing nothing as now all options look bad. Does anyone have any advice?

My husband works a very full time job that means we can make it work and he does all the cooking/planning/online shop which helps but he also travels a lot which and I do at least one day a week completely by myself.

Work 4 days and keep the nursery for 5 days? I'm not sure how you will get any time to yourself if doing 5 shorter days and all the pickups. Just going from one job to the next.
Your health matters too.

I don't work Wed and it's amazing. Only really have to prep for the next 2 days, get time to catch my breath, do chores, my stuff, etc.

And dh works 6 days so if I work 4..that's the same as us both being full-time. And full time with kids is hard.

And the last money you earn is taxed highest if that makes sense. Work 5 hours, you keep most of it...Work 40 hours and the last few hours a lot more of that goes in tax.

I work 0800-1400 five days a week. It's great and hasn't harmed my career at all.

I second the idea of doing 4 days and keeping nursery 5. It saved my sanity when DS was little.

I worked 5 mornings a week so could do drop off and school pick up but I was run off my feet.
Had one child at nursery, the middle school pick up at 2pm and the oldest at 3pm so for a few years it was hectic.
I didnt even have time to nip to shop for milk after work.
It improved when there was only 2 pick ups.
My 3 never finished school at the same time.
Take a day off for yourself

Will the amount of work you have to do be cut? It depends on the role you do, but if you’re not ‘visibly’ PT I can see a situation where you have the same amount of work, just fewer hours to do it in. That definitely wouldn’t solve the exhaustion!

I used to work five short days and loved it - so great to have chilled time after school and go to the park in summer etc. I look back now (adult DC) and am so glad I did it.

I did this for a while during Covid as wraparound wasn’t available at school
and work let me spread my hours over five days to make it work.

I hated it. You don’t get any time to yourself, and spend the day hurtling from home, to school, then to work, not at work long enough to get stuck into anything properly, then hurtle back again.

Depending on the distance between home, work and school the costs can add up as it added nearly 50 miles a week onto my commute compared to doing it as longer days.

It was a lot easier doing PT hours over fewer days, then having a slower day or two a week to spend with dc, catch up
at home and if they were at school,
have some time to myself.

I do this sort of pattern. I do 22hrs (3 days) over 4. Twice a week i finish at 3pm for school pick up, twice a week i work longer days in the office and then one day off. Works great for us. When the youngest starts school, I'll probably move to 4days over 5. I have been able to do it as i was already a senior manager when I had DC, and work in a team where pretty much everyone does some form of compressed hours / flexi working / PT etc. So it wasnt an "unusual" ask. The downside is that my workload generally didn't reduce and I do have to have very clear boundaries about how much I can deliver. I've been at my organisation for a long time though which has helped a lot in terms of trust to manage my workload and time as I need to.

I don't do this but I definitely see benefits of this over 3/4 longer days. Colleagues seem to have problems with wraparound childcare and shorter childcare during school holidays, and this pattern solves this problem.

I used to do this when my children were at primary school (Mon-Fri 9-3). Made school pick ups and drops off much easier/relatively stress free. It also helped that I could WFH and the office was only a 15 minute drive which took the pressure off. When they were nursery age I had Fridays off which I loved (and occasionally I forget and get a bit excited that it's nearly the end of my working week and then I come down to earth with a bump as I remember that work full time and have a couple of hormonal teens on my hands!).

I do a variation of this, I find it quite hard. As PP have said because I'm there every day it's easy to forget I'm actually PT. I find it a bit relentless because when I leave work I'm picking the kids straight up from school whereas when I was FT I had a little bit of slack time in the afternoon to catch up on things before going home.

That said it works well for our family in the wider sense, and I think when the kids are older and I want to go back FT it will be much easier to negotiate and organise.

I do 30hrs over 4 days, but my children are in school so I get Friday to 'myself.' Although it's usually spent on catching up on everything and running errands. It would take a lot for me to give up that day off!

I can sympathise with the being exhausted and having nothing left for your children or yourself, I'm feeling that just now!

If you work 32hrs over 5 days you'll either be working, or with your children. I can't t see how that will help much. Will that extra hour really make such a difference? Can you find a pattern that means you can carve a little more time for yourself? Where is your DH in this set up?

Will your workload be adjusted to reflect the less hours or will you just be squeezing the same work into less hours for less money?

I done 9.30-2.30 for around 10 years when my DS was young, it was ideal for me, I didn’t have time to myself but I enjoyed being there for him and doing the school run

Yes I do, 9-2 everyday except a Wednesday where I work a bit longer, but to be perfectly honest I still do the school run as long as I have no meetings in the diary. It is a perfect balance for me

Will your work load be reduced to fit part time? Thats always been my reluctance to go less than full time is that I don’t trust my workload would be cut, so I’d be getting paid less to do the same. If yes, I’d reduce to 4 days but keep 5 days of nursery.

I worked 32h over 4 days when my child was a baby so I got a day with her which was nice.

about to start 31h over 5 after many years not working at all and dreading it!

I did it & picked kids up from school 3x a week - was great. We then went to swim lesson, classes etc without logistical nightmares

I did 32 over 5 and it was great as I had to finish on time to get to school.
I wasn’t going to take pay cut then work 37+

I do this as found full days impossible with clubs etc. I have no help. It’s great for work life balance but not great at work. I’m regularly left out of meetings and it’s quite frustrating. When they are older I’ll go back to 4 days

I guess I think I couldn’t manage 8h a day at work. I get to about hour 6 and I’m basically brain dead. I do software development but it’s quite mathematical and I just can’t keep a groove for that long! I worry that by going to 4 days I’m in fact cutting my productive time by 20% even if the hours are the same.

I do get the point that I’m always rushing somewhere though if I’m going every pickup but fortunately home/work/nursery/school are all in an 8 minute cycle.

Thank you all for the input though! I hadn’t considered doing 4 day and the having a day off. It seems logical but too decadent!

Mine are both in school and have sen so struggle with after-school club so I do 30hrs across 5 days, condensed in the school holidays.

It works for us although I am jealous of my DH as 3.30-5.30 is not fun. My youngest is starting to walk to school solo so hopefully can start working longer hours each day and get some time back.

Can you pay for shorter days at nursery or would it cost the same? Maybe take a half day or do a 9 day fortnight?

Luckily in my job mtgs after 3.30 were rare

It also works out cheaper for holiday clubs at primary age as you’re not trying to cover five shorter days, and paying for childcare you don’t need.

I do 30 hours over 5 days. I used to do it over 4 days and have a day off but the other 4 days were too hectic so working shorter days is a massive help with drop off and pick ups.
my daughter is also a dancer and trains 4/5 nights a week so also massively helps with this