calling those who are flexible working..

[Aleesmum]

Hi,

Im due to go back to work in March when my DS will be 11 months old. I'm applying for flexible working and ideally I would like to do 3 days a week.

I was wondering if you could tell me what days you work and what hours as I am wondering what the options are. My DS is BF so I don't really want my day to be too long.

For example, if I should work Monday, Wednesday and Friday or 3 days in a row. And if I could do more hours in 3 days, is that a good idea, etc

When I first went back to work I worked mon-wed but found it far too difficult to manage my time. I was given work on Monday or Tuesday to be done by the end of the week, which for me meant Wednesday of course. And I found that being out of the office for 2 days in a row meant my emails piled up and I would feel quite out of the loop. I tried Tues, Weds, Thurs which was slightly better.

However I now work Mon, Tues and Thurs which is so much better. I'm only away from my desk for 1 day at a time so I can control my workload much more easily and people are willing to wait a day for a response.

I also think my kids are finding it easier (2 and 4 yr old) as they get a breather from nursery on a Wednesday when they're often already a bit tired.

And the housework doesn't pile up like it used to when I worked 3 days in a row.

Hope that helps

Will you be able to get access to work emails at home at all?
I find this to be very useful in keeping on top of everything - OK so you are technically working on days off, but on the other hand there are fewer nasty surprises when back in the office.
May not work for you though.

Thanks for the replies that is very useful charltonchick, I think I will request the days that you have suggested.

The thing is I work from home and go into office only once a week. I have offered to pick up emails and phones on my day off as well. But my office a 2 hr 40 min commute one way, so on that day, it will be a very long day! Thats y I am wondering how I should plan it.

I work 21 hours but squeeze as many as I can into 2 days, which I normally work over a Monday and a Wednesday. This means that I usually have around 5 or so hours (depending on workload) floating around which I use to do work from home on my "non-working" days.

What normally happens is that I do an hour or so in the evening on my normal working days. I check my emails from my blackberry on the other days and if there is anything urgent or needs addressing quickly I can deal with it. I sometimes use the hours to do an extra day in the office when there is a management conference or similar. It means I can be visible on a non-working day without working extra hours.

It works really well for me as I have fairly flexible childcare. Some of my clients have no idea that I am part-time and I find it really helpful to have the additional hours to actually complete the work that I start at work. I can usually respond to things and complete them before I come into the office so in some ways I able to mitigate some of the disadvantages of being part-time.

Of course, one of the other benefits is that I only have to physically work 2 days a week. I am also breastfeeding but my DS is happy to be without milk when I am not around, so the length of the day is not an issue. It was the same last time around with my eldest.

I've found that having the extra floating hours really helps my visibility. I don't feel irritated by emails on my non-working day and people and I don't mind sending them because technically I am working.

I am asking myself very similar questions. I have been given the option of organising my 21 hours as I like.

Really good idea about the floating hours llaregrub, I'll have a think about that.

Otherwise, I'm toying between 5 half days and 3 full days.

I'm thinking 5 half days might be easier on DS, at least at first. What do you think?

I tried 5 half days and hated it. Didn't have time to get any "proper work" done but didn't have time to do anything with dds either. I preferred working fewer full days so I could look forward to a block of time off.

That's interesting to hear Claireodon. See I'd prefer 3 days for myself, just wondering if 5 days might be easier for DS, but as you say we'd probably do more stuff together if we had more full days together.

For those who do whole days, did your DCs adjust OK?

I did three days - Monday, Tuesday and Thursday until DD was three (21 hours). I now do four and she's five (30 hours). Personally I would try and make your non-working days completely work-free, no e-mails or phone calls but appreciate that can be tricky.

Personally I'm not a fan of half days - it's neither one thing or the other. You're still working every day, but with a 40% paycut.

i did Mon-Weds for 2 yrs and that was fine, I preferred to keep them together to get into work mode. I would never do a half-day, theres far too much hassle getting ready for work, commuting etc for too little reward.

(My boss tried to suggest 5 shorter days leaving early afternoon and I told him why on earth would i want to pay for 5 days travel and child care in a Nursery for 3 days pay? He didn't have anything to say to that!)

I now do 4 days a week (one day I work from home) and its actually better because its less stressed because my job really needs a min. of 4 days to do it)

I do 5 half days and it works well for me. I found when I worked 3 whole days on my two days off the mornings were just wasted and didn't go anywhere, and there were lots of things that I couldn't do as it happened on my days at work.

However, now I get up take my eldest DD to school, youngest DD to her CM, go to work, when I've finished (at 1pm) I'll often do an activity with DD2 or see friends or something, and am then free to pick up DD1 from school. This works for me because I am able to take and pick up DD1 from school every day, I spend at least 6 hours a day with my DD2 and I am less stressed at work, because things can always get left to the next day, whereas I couldn't do that if I wouldn't be in for another 2 days.

But, my DDs are older - I think it is harder when they are younger if the sleeps are in the afternoon, and often toddler groups are in the morning.
HTH

Aleesmum - wow, that's quite a commute!

How many hours are you thinking of doing on the day you commute? If it was me I'd start from there and then see how many hours I had left to arrange.

lowrib - yes that is

What i used to do was on the day I went into office I would leave home at 7 and get into office at 9.30ish. I would take a short lunch break and leave at 6ish instead of 5.30. So that got me home about 9! I don't know if I can do that now while feeding DS. I have mentioned this at work and said that I will need to leave at maybe 4.30 initially at least.
What do you think?

Whatever you choose, you must ensure if at all possible that you can change later on - eg when child goes to pre school, reception, starts doing clubs etc. 5 half days now might be great - but 2.5 full days could work a lot better when they are doing long school days. Think ahead always.

But Cat... surely, 5 half days are better when they are at school. If you do 2 1/2 days, then you will need after school care for two days a week, whereas if you do half days then you can always be there for the school run!

That's why I do short days - with a preschooler I can see that it would be easier to do 2 long days, but with a school child it is much easier if you can fit your hours within the school day - and 5 short days allow that.

Agree though about the point for looking ahead. The preschool years are very short!

Ello, I was thinking about clubs and wraparound care and whether you work close enough to the school, can take short lunch breaks, can get someone to drop off a couplpe of mornings etc. If you can make your timings work, you can get 2 x 8 plus 1 x 4 = 20 for instance.
It all depends on how each element works in combionation!

I initially worked a 4 day week but then I only worked 10 minutes drive away.
After no 2 I worked a 3 day week, Tues, Weds Thurs but found that really tough on all of us (I have a longer commute) so I moved to doing 4 half days and one full day. This worked much better for the kids but wasn't so good for work as I used to feel by the time I had settled in it was time to leave.
Now both dc are at school I now work my 21 hours over 4 days (5.25 hours), so I still get a day off but I can pick the dc up from school every day.
I hope you find hours to suit, good luck,
MLx