MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
So a bit of background first. I work for a local college as a schools engagement person, basically entails engaging with our local schools to try to get more students coming to the college. It's not a position I applied for, it was one I offered for the skills they saw I had, as time has gone on it's now not a job I would of ever applied for. It's become more sales and numbers focused with teaching sessions ran sometimes as part of packages to schools. Teaching is something I NEVER wanted to do and I believe in selling things I'd buy and I support. In the past for example I've been asked by a school student whether we offered dance. I said yes we do, you should study at BOA.
About 12 months ago I had a period off with stress and depression but a change of line manager has made this more bearable and someone who is competent at their job and who also appreciates people strengths so I get used more for the skills I have. I still struggle at times when I'm expected to use these skills to aid others in the team as well as do everything they're doing. I have IBS and this is massively affected through bad patches and can easily impact my general health.
I was given the heads up by my manager yesterday that they're going to advertise for a term time person to do the elements of the job I enjoy doing and none of the rubbish bits I hate. The impact of this will mean my role will change in that I'll do less of what I like doing and more of the stuff that makes me unwell. If I do apply for it and get it it will mean a 5k pay cut so £200 less a month.
I'm not career driven at all so taking a step down doesn't bother me at all. I'm very much work to live and the things I do outside of work are what make me. I don't have kids nor ever will so term time doesn't appeal other than less time working!
Has anybody made the change to term time and regretted it? Took a pay cut and regretted it? Does anybody subsidise their term time working with a job somewhere else in say the summer holidays?
It may seem an obvious decision and I know only I can decide if I can afford it but I'd be interested to hear any opinions whether possitive or negative!
It seems like the decision is obvious as you say not so much in taking on the new post but in the way you current job would change if you didn't. But its only a financial cut if you can't sell you time out of term time in other ways. There might be all sorts of interesting sessional and seasonal work available to you. You'd need to know you could at least manage on the reduced income but you'd have the options to either top it up or just live within your new means and enjoy yourself a bit more.
I went term time last year, so 18 months in.
Financially we are fine as we did it when MrsMC went full time, so we swapped roles. We can finally have proper family holidays instead for dividing the kids between us in the holidays like a divorced couple.
Workwise it's hard - case load hasn't decreased, so every 6 weeks I'm rushing to get ahead of myself before time off. Currently got 4 weeks left to get 7 weeks ahead of myself for the summer break. Also our processes and guidance changes regularly so I'm always playing catch up on that as well.
It works for us as a family. As and when kids don't need us, I'll look to increase my hours again.
Also, the salary drop impacts pensions and redundancy payments.
Go for it!
You and I seem to have very similar health issues brought on by work in the main. As you say, work to live. Tighten your belt elsewhere and enjoy all that time off. Your body and mind will thank you for it
I know lots of colleagues who have reduced their hours to 4 days a week. None of them regret it.
We (teachers) are term time only already, obviously. I love getting the long breaks with my family and think getting to spend time together has really helped how close we are.
If you can manage on the lower income then go for it. There's always the possibility to top your wage up during the holidays with schemes such as NCS if needs be.
i do the equivalent - 4 days a week though but same number of hours
Regret less tie at work - Not for a second
Its also good to know if i ever get skint I can easily earn more by simply doing another day
The only person I know who regretted it was essentially forced to the same amount of work but over less days/hours
Just as an aside, education liaison is a pretty small "industry" but the skills are also in demand, and your experience at the current college definitely isn't universal- thought about going elsewhere?
I work in education liaison for a university and while we do get a wee bit of target pressure it's very high level. The culture is still get the right kids to the right uni, help people who need help getting there, direct people who shouldn't go to us to where they should be, if I wasn't going to say to people "don't come here" when needed, I wouldn't be welcome in the team. It's not perfect but when it's good- like today- it's awesome, I went from a general "go to uni or college, it's ace" event with 2 local schools on our campus, to a graduation ceremony where my entire responsibility was to find kids i know and say congratulations. Full of the joys.
I worked in sales 4 years ago, but was getting increasingly bored/disillusioned so decided to go for a career change. I trained as a teacher. So I've moved to a term time only job. At the same time I also took a fair pay cut (3 years in I'm still well down on what I was earning) but I knew that was going to be the case when I went in to this.
The main difference between us is having a lad at school and the OH who is also a teacher. The big advantage for us is having long holidays together - I got 23 days holiday in my old job. The problem though is that during my old job I could pretty much do what I wanted out of work time - in teaching I struggle to do anything other than work during the week.
Do I regret the move... yes and no. I wish I had more time for myself (and family!) during term time, but love the long holidays. I definitely could do with earning a bit more than I do! The good days in school are fantastic but with some of the children I work with there tend to be less of those than I thought there would!
I have a term time job.....the nature of which requires me to go in for several weeks of the "holidays". Messed up there. However, I could never do a normal job with less time with family.
My wife works term time only - admin at a school - again a conscious decision because we have kids ourselves. The pay 'cut' is minor in comparison to the enjoyment of having time with them out of term time, and she has a few colleagues who don't have kids who supplement with eg: summer camps, or with overseas students who come to the UK for a summer school, etc.
Sounds like a great opportunity for you. I'd definitely go for it, as you can recharge over the summer, get out on the bike, and just relax as nature intended.
I's say go for it. The time off will be a massive bonus.
Only you can answer the ££ question based on your situation. 5k less a year is no big deal for a single person on 100k but it may well be for somebody on 15k with 3 kids to support.