Anyone have experience of doing a "regular" job term-time only. And how did you persuade your employer it was a good idea?

[sameagain]

ATM I work 2 days per-week including school holidays, in a pretty good job which I enjoy.

DCs are now all at school and I have been thinking for a while that it's time to get back on the career ladder. This has been accelerated by the fact that I have just heard that my existing role is redundant.

There is an internal vacancy, which I liked the look of when it was first paged, but decided I didn't want to not be around in the school holidays. Now, I'm thinking about it again and wondering if it might work on a term-time only basis.

It a sales job for a big bank working with commercial clients. As I see it, the only real difference is I won't be around for a period of 6 weeks in the summer, as its normal to take hols of 1-2 weeks anyway. July/August tend to be quiet months for us too. Who can help me with a really strong case for the term-time only?

Obviously also need to get the job, but I really believe I can do it.

I work "term time" only - my predecessor was part time, my employers wanted someone there more but were not willing to pay for full time. I suggested "term time" only as the people I work for do the vast majority of their work in term time.
In your case you may wish to say that you would be prepared to respond to e-mails and make a few calls from home during the school holidays apart from specific periods of real holiday.
Instead of asking for a job that suits your needs, you need to make a case that your work pattern will better suit their needs.

I gave someone a term time contract as their manager. It was slightly different because I already employed her. I did it because when I took over the job of manager her moral was low, motivation poor and sickness record terrible because of her work life balance. The change in her was really positive.
Positive for me as an employer was the flexibility it afforded me in the winter pressures time ( I was a ward manager) where she was working more hours but not affecting my budget. (she was paid over 12 months).

Thank you both.

I would actually be quite happy to continue my 2 days through the holidays and work full-time the rest of the year.

I am very fortunate to have the childcare taken care of by very active and reliable grandparents, who do fantastic things with DCs .Last week DS1 went to the driving range with Grandad while DS2 planted veg seeds and baked cakes with Grandma - much better quality childcare than they get at home So, in a way it seems unfair (on DCs and GPS) to take that away in the hols when they have more time.

Would that type of arrangement be just too complicated in contract terms though?

No, you would just work an annualised hours contract.

I work term-time only, in a fairly senior technical specialist job. I work just over 180 days per year, with the bulk of the time off during school holidays. It works better for me that the equivalent 4 days a week, because there are a lot of weeks when I am traveling when I need to be full time.

It is working well so far, but I do keep up the e-mail and so on when I am off. Not sure how it would work if you were only doing two days a week anyway - but you have a better feel for the demands of the job you are interested in than I would. Contracts weren't a problem at all in my case - you just specify days worked per year in an annualised contract.