Is it possible to actually get any real work done in a 2 day week?

[lukewarmcupoftea]

Actually, make that a less than 2 day week. I'm currently looking at going back after mat leave with DD2, I dropped down to the equivalent of 3 days after I had DD1 (45 hour full week, so was 3 shorter days plus a couple of hours from home), and am currently trying to organise an even shorter week when I go back this time. But I am a bit worried that I won't actually be able to do a reasonable job - in theory I can just scale back my number of clients to fit the hours I do, but I'm not sure how it would work really. Am very interested in anyone else's experience of doing a very short working week (that wasn't job share)....?

I don't want to go back to 3 days a week - we are fortunate enough to be able to manage financially on less - and all the pre-post work running around will be twice as hard with 2 kids, plus the huge backlog of paperwork etc that only is starting get tackled now on maternity leave.

My plan was to do the equivalent of 2 full days a week - 2 shorter days and a couple of hours from home on the third day. I would organise childcare for the whole 3 days and then I would also have a couple of child-free hours to catch up on household tasks, so that weekends could be used almost wholly to do nice things with the kids like swimming. However, my boss isn't keen on the third day couple of hours from home (don't know why as he was OK with the arrangement before), so am considering asking him if I can just do the shorter 2 days - which would be equivalent of a 1.75 day week.

I know I'm very lucky even to be in the position of trying to carve out a few hours to get chores done, but I just don't know if it would work in practice...?

I doubt it, I went back three days and found it hard to get anything substantial done. My employer turned down an application from a member of staff to go back 2 days a week as after keeping up with CPD there wouldn't be much time to get work done.

It completely depends on the job you do. I'm doing two jobs at the moment. My "main" job is 3 days a week and that works well. My other job is a fixed term contract one day a week flexible and again, that works well.

I couldn't possibly have scaled my original job pre-ds down to 1 day a week though. I think 2 days would have been pushing it tbh. I find with 3 days that I manage fine and am lucky that my home set up allows me to be a bit flexible re: occasionally swapping days if I need to go to a meeting or similar on one of my days off.

The one day a week contract is largely web-based and was developed to take c.7.5hrs a week. After 12 months it's going to be scaled down to half a day a week (which I'm a bit sceptical about).

With both jobs I check my email on my days off so that I can respond to any time sensitive issues and pass them on to a colleague if I can't deal with them. It's something to think about if this would be an option for you.

I work two days a week and I don't think it works well tbh, I don't do two consecutive days either which doesn't help but I job share with someone so my days are fixed.

It's more stressful than working 4 days to be honest!

Yes, the email checking was something I used to do with my couple of 'flexi' hours from home, which enabled me to be available to clients for most of the week if they really needed a response - but for some reason my boss doesn't like this arrangement any more and I'll be blowed if I'm going to work on non-work days and not get paid for it, just because he'd taken against home working on a whim.

By the way - I did find the 3 day arrangement I used to have (technically still do I suppose) did work well, as even if clients couldn't reach me Mon/Fri, I would be there the next day, which could happen even if I was FT. Plus I have quite good back up at the office to handle problems in my absence. I just don't know if 2 days is that bit too little... doesn't sound too positive going on your experiences ladies!

(plus I might just waste all my time on mumsnet )

I found it worked okay for me when I was doing porject management/production and had no other "organisational" responsibilities (still had to check emails in the evenings/take calls on not working days, but didn't mind that particularly).

Generally though I found 2 days quite frustrating in terms of what could be achieved. Three days works better for me.

I work three days a week, and am lucky enough to jobshare. It works well for us both, and I feel that I am in often enough to be "there" but infrequently enough for people to realise that I am not full time.

In the past, I have managed someone who worked 2 days a week, and we both agreed taht it didn't really work. He said that he spent the first morning of his firts day each week catching up on email, post, news wtc that he had to address, then that was 25% of his week gone.

Although thinking about it, I suppose that if I manage to get the Boss to agree to 2 short days, if it didn't work I could always increase it - I'm sure he wouldn't mind that!

"Generally though I found 2 days quite frustrating in terms of what could be achieved. Three days works better for me."

mazzy - yes, that's what I suspected the answer would be. I suppose I was just unrealistically hoping for a chorus of 'oh no, it works fab, go for it'! The question then is, can I put up with doing a job that doesn't really get an awful lot achieved, for the sake of a household that isn't frantic (and for my blood pressure), and I guess for a couple of years at least, the answer is yes. Now I just need to get Boss to agree.....

its work brilliantly for me, I more organised and concentrate more, put 120% in - I love my job though I think that helps

I think it can work but you have to be absolutely ruthless. If you get lots of emails then you need to work out some sort of a system to reduce the amount of time reading and responding to them, perhaps removing yourself from some of the group emails.

You have to learn to hit the ground running, and be sure to be doing proper 'work' by 10.00 at the latest. Set yourself 'to do' lists on your way in (if on public transport, not a good idea if you are driving!) or at the end of the working day for your next day in and allocate time to tasks and stick to it. You may under or overestimate at first bit you will get better.

For those 2 days you have to be completely off limits to personal interruptions unless an absolute emergency. Eat lunch at the desk if you have to, and spend that time reading non-urgent but important things.

You can't spend time catching up with colleagues over a cuppa in the corridor etc, and I think you need to be realistic about doing some things at home on your 'days off', even if its just reading or making rough notes about projects/tasks.

It can be lonely, but worthwhile.

Works for me, but took me a long time for me to get used to it. I like it actually, I have to be ruthless about organising my time and what I can take on, and I have to be completely finished by 4pm on Wednesday, or it has to wait until the following Tuesday - it's actually made me more efficient, not less, as I can't just roll something on to the next day.

Lists are essential, and in my case I use Outlook tasks and reminders to keep on track.