For those working part time, what do you think is better- a run of work days or your work days spread over the week with days off in between your work days?

[ilikeyoursleeves]

I'm due to go back to work in a few months time, working 3 days a week part time. Just wondering what people find works best re PT working- all your days in a row eg, 3 work days then 4 days off, or is it better to do say, 1 day at work, 1 day off, 2 days at work, 3 days off?

What works for you?

I do alternate days at home and in the office and that works as I get a day to catch up at home and get ready for the next working day - cooking dinner in advance, etc. But I have a long commute, so I don't want to have to do any 'home' stuff on my working days.

But a lot of people prefer to get work 'out of the way' in one block, and just get super-organised on Sunday night to everything is washed and ironed and the fridge is full to last till Thursday morning.

It depends on how flexible you can be - alternate days can work if you can switch if you want to, for example to take a long weekend without using any leave.

I work part time, three days and couldn't think of anything worse than having them split over the week. I like to get them over and done with then have four days off. That may or may not be helpful.

I prefer a day off at home

it always helped my dcs 'recover' from nursery as they were undoubtedly more knackered out from being there all day

my ideal would be working monday wednesday and friday although that does make it a pain leavewise and if you want a long weekend away

i started back to work 3 weeks ago doing 3 days, mon, wed and fri. i am still torn as to whether i would prefer then all together.

i like knowing that when i am going into work i am off the next day but i also have that feeling on my days off that i know i am working the next day. i will see how i feel after a few weeks and maybe ask if i could do different days.

or alternatively what do folk think about working 5 days, but shorter? Say starting at9.30 finishing 2.30?

I would always rather work a 3 day block and have 4 days off. I dream of the day that can actually happen

I do Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Nice balance for everyone and I can't imagine doing it any other way.

I tried the shorter days (3pm finish) and it was hard: I was so shattered from being at work but still had a half-day of looking after the children, I was rushing at work to get away, and had the childcare expense and travelling time every day.

But if you have school-age children, I think it can work better, as your children are less conscious of having been 'deprived' of you (as they've been at school) and so are less clingy and demanding when you get home, and they are less physically demanding than babies/toddlers.

I would say it depends quite a lot on your actual job.

I am a community nurse with a variable rota. So sometimes I do the days split, and other times up to 4 in a row.

When I do 4 in a row I am usually knackered but fulfilled workwise. I really get into the swing of it and feel I have got to grips with the list of patients (which changes regularly)

If I do odd days I don't seem to "get into it" so much, but probably the dcs find it marginally easier.

Some jobs it would be very stressful to have to do odd days with no continuity.

if you can choose, definitely a run. You can get into your work properly, then you can let go and get into your mumsing. One day on, one day off, and you never get either out of your head at a time (not that you ever really get mumsing out of your head, but you can definitely get work out of your head if you're not there for three or four days in a row).

I agree it depends on the job. I liked having days split accross the week, as my job involved waiting for others to do things, so I could do stuff one day, then by the time I came back they had done their bit IYSWIM. Also, I liked to work Monday because it is a heads down type of a day and you get lots done and also Friday as that is when most social things are.

Hmmm this is interesting. Before this mat leave I was PT and worked Tue, Wed & Thu. But when I go back this time (to a different job) I will be working Tue, Thu & Fri. At first I was a bit unsure about having the days split but I wonder if it might be nice to know I'll never work more than 2 days in a row plus if I took the Tuesday off as A/L then I can get 5 days off by only using one A/L day!

It does depend on the job and how much continuity is needed. One of my colleagues works Tues, Wed and Friday and she keeps on top of things well. IME more than 1 day away leaves things piling up/ suffering from lack of chasing.

My kids are at school and I work 5 short days (finish at 2) - it sucks! In the work/self/family triangle, it's good for work and family but skewed rather away from self - i.e. you have no time to do all those useful day-off things, socialising, housework etc. Day is a rush from 6am to 7pm. I have resorted to putting DC's in afterschool care once a week so I have a few hours off.

No perfect solution though, short of photocopying yourself, most situations are some kind of compromise.

I work the equivalent of 3 days but split over 4 days. I work Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays so get Wednesdays off. I like the fact that I can catch up on a Wednesday and get everything sorted for the next two days.
My dc are at school so I am able to pick up from school each day. It works for me!
MLx

I agree that it depends on your job and the ages of your children.

I'm lucky that as a teacher, my timetable changes every year, so over the past six years I've tried them all .

When the children were younger, I worked three days. Personally, I liked working Mon, Tues, Fri because then I was never at work for more than two days, and then I always had two days off with my children. I found working three days together hard because by the third day, I was tired, on my first day off the children were tired and we never got anything done.

Now the children are older, I work 5 days (mornings) and that suits me, because I am always there to pick up my children from school, can always attend sports afternoons etc...

I did this and preferred to do it in a block - tues, weds, thurs.

Am now spreading my time over 5 days instead - I have a long commute and get home at a reasonable time. I've only just started this, and while I see more of the dcs in the week, it does mean that I don't have any days off anymore.

I have worked part time for 16 years (since DS1 was born).

I always used to work Mon, Tue and then Wed am. I just didnt consider any other way. Probably due to child care etc.

My current job is only two days a week and was too good to pass over. The days were already set out as Tues and Thurs.

Its brilliant. I love my job but have a lot of stuff going on at home (SN, OH disabled). It feels great to do a day's work and then realise I dont have to rush about getting everything sorted for the next day.

It suits me very well and I would recommend it to any whose circumstances allow.

I prefer all in a row, currently do tues/wed/thurs, I do these days as dd's school normally have teacher training days on mon or fri so it means i don't have to faff changing days or whatever if there's a training day.

I like day on, day off, etc and have worked 3 days a week in that pattern since having DS. It's great to look forward to a different type of day from the one you've just had, as I like both work and childcare days (though I have to admit that work is less tiring). It's been especially good in my 2nd pregnancy when I think looking after DS for days on end would have been so exhausting - instead those days are interspersed with sitting at a desk and having a rest. Does depend a lot on the job though.

I did three days in a row when DD was pre-school age - I was convinced this was the way to go, and thought a split week would be awful. After a while I realised a split week would have been okay - I had PND and in the early months the thought of four days off work actually filled me with horror. Once I was feeling better I realised that, work-wise, a split week means that you don't have such a long hiatus between work days - signing off on Thursday and not being due back in until Tuesday is a really long time. There were many times that I realised at the beginng of my week that I needed to speak to someone, but couldn't get a lot before close of play on Thursday - Friday would have been easier. On the plus side, I did get more into the swing of work with the three days in a row that I would have done with a split week.

I now work five short days to fit in with school. I agree with tootootired - it sucks. I don't for one moment forget that I'm immensely fortunate to be able to do this working pattern in a decent professional job (I'm term-time only as well, and I'm not in education) ... but it's hard, and that's only with one child to look after.

I also currently work school hours and agree it is very hard. No break and rushing from here to there to pick everyone up and squeeze in the hours I need to do at work. I thought I was being silly feeling like this until I read this thread!!

I'd much rather do 2 full days, which is what I do but now split over 3 days.

I hope that once ds is at school i'll be able to be term time only too, but working like this puts strain on you. People think because you get home straight after school that it's a good thing, dh doesn't have a clue how hard it is to get everyone up, dressed, dropped where they need to be(dd at school, ds at CM) then head to work, do 5 hours straight(no break) then rush straight off and collect (ds from CM, dd from school) then straight home to do dinner etc etc having had no rest at all. I am shattered by Fri. I'm glad I read this thread as I was beginning to think I was lazy/being stupid.

I was just about to post the same dilemma. I currently work 21 hours but am dropping to 19.5 hours. I'd like to do two full days and a 9-3 to be there for pick up. However not sure whether to do mon/tues/weds or weds/thurs/fri. inset days are always on mondays and there are about 8 of them but also most Bank Hols fall on a mon too so do they pro rata the BH hours and add them to your leave if you work the latter half of the week?
would be grateful if anyone could advise

This has been very interesting as it has confirmed what I always suspected about working shorter days and doing school pick up

There is no good answer and I like that thing about the work/family/self triangle that Tootootired said. I feel I am the only one worrying about the family part of that triangle and therefore end up sacrificing the self part to make everyone happy. Sigh.

Back to the OP - I currently work the first half of the week (Mon, Tues, Wed am only). I like it in some respects. I enjoy full days at work and getting stuck in. The kids are ina routine of 3 days a week at nursery and then ready for the break by Wed night.

However I find the 4 days at home quite hard and don't look forward to them. I'm unsure what the right solution though. I'm restricted by childcare, it would be difficult to change the days that the dc go to nursery. However, I'm thinking a lot about when they are a school and trying to figure out what to do.

I think everyone is right, it depends on your job and on your personality. There are pros and cons any way you do it I think.

I've done both a block, and a split week

I much prefer a split week (currently Tues, Thurs, Fri). It's nice having Wednesday to do chores and catch up midweek. I also feel like I'm around at both ends of the working week, so people don't have to wait long to get hold of me.

BUT - I find SAHMing quite hard. So a four day block "off" did my head in a bit, especially as DH works shifts, so I would often be on my own for those four days. If you adore being at home I suppose four days off together would seem like heaven.

Martha (and others who have split week) -how do you think your dc find it with one day at nursery, one day off, etc?

Just curious - might be better now mine are older but when DD1 was younger she did Monday and Friday and it really wasn't great, no time to get used to it and she would be upset going in quite a lot.