Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 91 total)
  • Dropping to a 4 day week
  • aphex_2k
    Free Member

    Anyone dropped to 4 days a week? After talking to some colleagues who’ve done it (management begrudgingly accepting their own work/life balance policy) who say they really haven’t lost much money as they’re taxed less, and pick up the odd overtime here and there, I’m quite tempted. Just about to finish my 3 months paternity leave and back at work next Weds (boooo) I’m seriously considering just working thurs thru to sun. Really enjoyed my time off and even more, spending time with the kids and missus (I know, who’d have thought?)

    So anyone done the same? (home workers / self employed need not respond)

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    Not me, but a bloke here at work has just started doing a 4 day week, since his second child arrived on the scene a while back.

    I think that his wife has gone back to work part time, so he looks after the kids one day, his wife looks afte them a couple of days and he has a child minder for the rest of it.

    He seems to be the most cheerful bloke in the office!

    iamsporticus
    Free Member

    Me!

    I dropped a day just as the eldest went to school

    Its the best thing I ever did TBH, plus I get a sneaky mid week bike ride in too before the pick up 🙂

    The money is definitely an issue, but as you say after tax and NI its not a massive hit and if I wanted to I could do a bit of overtime however we just tightened our belts a bit and its OK

    Cheers

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    footflaps
    Full Member

    I did it a while back. Didn’t really work out as well as I’d expected as I reckon I did the same amount of work as 5 days, just got paid 80%. The other downside is that the missing 20% pay is all disposable income as your living costs don’t reduce, so you end up with a larger proportional drop in ‘spending money’, but a lot more time to do things which cost money.

    After about a year I went back to full time.

    I do keep thinking about going back down to 4 days though, I think a 5 day week is just too long!

    MSP
    Full Member

    I would jump at the chance given the opportunity.

    jam-bo
    Full Member

    works really well for me. been doing a 4d/30hr week since my wife finished maternity leave.

    thursday is the new friday.

    br
    Free Member

    A lot where I use to work managed 5 days in 4 days. Basically they were in early and stayed later.

    Didn’t see them do anymore than someone only working 4 days, but the pay was better 🙂

    cupra
    Free Member

    I was going to apply for it but neither my boss nor HR would support it so instead they have a somewhat disgruntled person working 5 days. The policy says they have to consider it. They did for all of about 2 seconds. Bitter, me, never.

    aphex_2k
    Free Member

    I’m a nurse so I wouldn’t get extra work or have to catch up, just one less shift and there’s always overtime. Missus is going back to work Mon to Thurs so we’d share the childcare duties / cooking BUT probs see each other less. So works out well! haha

    dknwhy
    Full Member

    I do a compressed 4 day week. 36 hours over the 4 days – 7.30am-5pm (1/2 hr lunch).
    Work is a 10 minute walk away so no long commute to worry about. Have been doing it for 4 years now. Really like the flexibility of having a day off in the week. Great for school holidays and being able to go to the kids events at school.
    Nice to have a “me” day and get out on the bike.
    Pay has stayed the same as i’m still working full time but holidays have been amended to hours rather than days, similar to part time workers.

    konabunny
    Free Member

    I’m thinking about it now but I’m worried I’ll end up just getting shafted with having to do just as much work or will just get an outright refusal.

    jaffejoffer
    Free Member

    i do 4 days, but i get a full 5 days worth of hours in.

    6am – 6pm mon – Weds
    6am – 12 on Thursday.

    40hrs

    obviously first half of the week is shite but its worth it come thursday dinner!

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    As above I think it depends on the deal, the perfect scenario is to do 5 days worth of hours in 4 days and get paid in full. If its 4 days and 80% of the money then you do need to look at what you’ll have to cut out (savings for retirement ?) vs how you can use the extra time. I know many people who have flex-time and get 1 extra day off a month or who have jobs where they can “work from home” one day a week, usually Friday, this is perfect as you do a half day or do your actual work Mon-Thur and Fri just answer emails/calls whilst you are out and about doing something more interesting

    deets
    Full Member

    I did it two years ago and now I’m less rich but much happier. It’s also given me some head space to develop some freelance work that’s more enjoyable – it’s not quite making up the shortfall yet, but mostly because I also sacked off my unpleasant management duties along with the five day week.

    mrblobby
    Free Member

    I did for about a year when mrs blobby when back part time after her maternity leave ended. Was great to have a day on my own with my boy. I’m self employed so it was pretty easy to sort out, did work out quite an expensive thing to do though.

    I’m thinking about it now but I’m worried I’ll end up just getting shafted with having to do just as much work

    Found this tricky to manage at times, you do tend to end up doing 5 days of work in 4 days and only getting paid for 4.

    stumpy_m4
    Free Member

    Did a 4 day week for over 12 years … bloody loved having Fridays off 🙂 .. still full time hrs but over 4 rather than 5 days … in a different job now and hate doing a full week … But as from Friday i start shifts including nights but it does mean i only work a 3.5 day week ! .. and a 25% increase in money … gonna give it a go and see how i go

    hooli
    Full Member

    A few at my work have done it, seems unless you are very strict about it, you end up doing 5 days of work in 4 days but for 80% money.

    One guy in particular does 4 very long days a week and ends up responding to emails and doing a few hours on his day off.

    rocketman
    Free Member

    Anyone dropped to 4 days a week?

    yup since 2007

    Best decision evah

    MoreCashThanDash
    Full Member

    Not done it yet, but next year MrsMC aims to get her (better paid) career back on track so I will be looking to do 4 days or 5 short days to fit round school. A couple of colleagues have done it, loss of pay outweighed by family time and savings in child care.

    Worth thinking about potential loss of pension so I might top that up, and it may restrict my attempts at some professional development courses and switching roles/jobs.

    One thing having kids has taught us is how much time and money we wasted before we had them! No idea why childless couples work a full 5 day week!

    sprocker
    Free Member

    I am doing this when I move house, taking Monday so I will get additional leave for the bank holidays. Going to do 34 hours over 4 days, 3 day weekend every week, I cannot wait

    ourmaninthenorth
    Full Member

    Mrs North is considering it. But, since work is like crack cocaine to her, I only envisage the same stress levels and plenty of lost “non working” days that aren’t then taken back in lieu.

    ads678
    Full Member

    I dropped to 4 days about 3 years ago. The wife and I both do 4days each the MIL has the kids 1 day and the other 2 is child minder. Will probably change next year as both kids will be in school, but we’ll see.

    Full salary would be nice but we’re fortunate to be ok on 4 days salary each.

    gazc
    Free Member

    i’m going to 4 days next week, as my partner will be going back to work 3 days part time after maternity leave, albeit work will only let me have wednesday off which is a bit naff but cant begrudge them as they’ve been very supportive otherwise and are happy to review in a few months if i want to go back to 5

    whilst my pay will drop, when considering tax/NI and child care costs its not a huge amount per week (i’m not a big earner or the bread winner by any means) and quality of life for me and my family/spending time together means much more than a bit of extra pocket money

    also i’ll get to spend 3 days a week with my daughter rather than 2 currently – a 50% increase! 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

    long term we intend to both do 4 days if it works out

    austen
    Full Member

    Much as everyone else is saying it’s great to only do four days. My partner and I both work four days so that the little one only goes to nursery for three days a week, which seems to be just the right balance for us.

    Depending on your work you might find you feel like your trying to fit in a lot of work. My job is mainly deadline focussed and so I have to be more focussed to get through it all, but then I’m generally less tired/more motivated so this mostly isn’t a problem. Occasionally I have to pick up a call or send an email on my day off, but it’s certainly not intrusive and if we’re out having fun then work gets ignored!

    You won’t get better one to one time with your children, so I can’t recommend it enough.

    towzer
    Full Member

    I was told there were ramificatons for redundancy, so it may be worth getting info on that

    mrblobby
    Free Member

    One amusing consequence… having had 9 months of being told how hard it was looking after a baby, when I started to take days off to do it I found it really enjoyable and far more relaxing than a day at work 🙂 Not sure I’d say that now though with a 2 year old and a 7 month old!

    VanHalen
    Full Member

    best thing i ever did.

    less stressed, less ill, get to hang out with the nippers. whats not to like?

    when the little one goes to school i’ll get a trail build day! cant wait. (I’ll miss the wee nipper obviously…)

    crankboy
    Free Member

    I had this forced on me as a way of the firm saving money. In order to preserve some of my wage I did a regular night in a linked business . so I worked Monday through Thursday 9 – 5.30 ish then 5.30 to 1 am Thursday night Friday morning . because of the nature of my job I occasionally had a personal obligation to come to work and do a task on a Friday for no extra pay. This would mean I had to drop my night shift so I would also lose that pay. Big sob hard on me financially.

    However the three day weekend was ace I got to do the house work etc on Friday am and take my son out of nursery for adventures in the woods etc in the afternoon and then on a weekend there were less chores for me and the wife to do so we had more quality time .

    To be honest the constant tiredness from the 16 hour day on Thursday the need to do 5 days work in 4 and the disruption of the odd Friday work was a real pain far more of a negative than the partial wage cut .

    If you are not financially tight and enjoy “free activities ” parks gardening taking hyper active toddlers to waitrose on a weekday then it is really good fun and a much better quality of life than a 5 day grind.

    tang
    Free Member

    I do a 4 day week. Its Great!

    ads678
    Full Member

    Redundancy will be paid on your part time based salary. It’s something that you should be basing your work life balance on though! IMO.

    I can be hard at work sometimes when you don’t have as much time in the office and deadlines are looming but the time with the kids far out weighs that.

    Gary_M
    Free Member

    I used to do a 3 day week, well 3 nights. Thursday to Saturday night shift, 3*12 shifts and that was my work done for the week. So wish I could do that again, I loved it.

    ads678
    Full Member

    That should have said – It’s NOT something that you should be basing your work life balance on though! IMO.

    petey_pants
    Free Member

    Dropped from 5 to 3 days a week to look after the little one. It was hard at first juggling everything, but it was the best decision. Plenty of time with the boy and much happier now. Defiantly worth doing for the small shortfall in salary after taxes

    Mackem
    Full Member

    Me. I get paid shit anyway so I doubt i’ll notice. Just my 2nd week so far, but it’s a great feeling that i’m already half way thru the working week.

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    Yep. Since the start of August. I decided to do it after enviously reading similar threads on here. 😀

    Like dknwhy my company asked me to go to a compressed week, rather than dropping a day completely. So I went from 39 billable hours a week (8,8,8,8,7) to 36 hours (9,9,9,9,0).

    They also moved my place of work closer to home (I work in a serviced office) so I waste less time commuting, making it easier to get the hours in. 😀

    I now spend my Fridays having some quality daddy time with my one year old before picking my four year old up from school. It’s lovely.

    As others have said, the drop in pay isn’t as much as you’d think. I’ve only really dropped 3 hours a week and by the time you factor in income tax and NI, and the amount saved on childcare costs, it really isn’t too bad.

    My wife also works 3 days a week – so the kids get a decent amount of time with both of us.

    If you can afford to then DO IT. DO IT NOW. 😀

    No one has “I wish I spent more time at the office” on their gravestone!

    The policy says they have to consider it. They did for all of about 2 seconds. Bitter, me, never.

    Cupra: legally they have to properly consider it in a “reasonable manner” and give “good business reasons” if they can’t do it.

    If they just dismissed it out of hand then they are open for a tribunal.

    See https://www.gov.uk/flexible-working/overview

    FunkyDunc
    Free Member

    I didnt drop 5 to 4, but did 5 in 4.

    Never again it was knackering.

    recently dropped 1 hr per day and everyone in the family is feeling the benefit.

    twinw4ll
    Free Member

    Only work a 3 day week.
    I earn enough to pay a smidgin of tax, the other half works a 9 day fortnight, so we have a long weekend together. Wifey does not care i only earn a third of her salary, when she asks what i’ve been doing today i’ll say, walked the dog, went skateboarding, pub for lunch and then snoozed on the sofa for an hour or two, her reply will be something along the lines of “nice”.

    Yes, i am living the dream. 8)

    Rockape63
    Free Member

    Only work a 3 day week.
    I earn enough to pay a smidgin of tax, the other half works a 9 day fortnight, so we have a long weekend together. Wifey does not care i only earn a third of her salary, when she asks what i’ve been doing today i’ll say, walked the dog, went skateboarding, pub for lunch and then snoozed on the sofa for an hour or two, her reply will be something along the lines of “nice”.

    Yes, i am living the dream.

    You clearly don’t live in the SE.

    aphex_2k
    Free Member

    Overwhelming seems to be a good thing. Just need the missus to secure a job she likes and we can both do the 4 day dream.

    domino
    Full Member

    I do 4 days. A compressed week wouldnt work for me as I commute too far (I wish I didn’t). I can honestly say I don’t miss the money, it means my daughter is in nursery for three days rather than 4 and I have less Mum-guilt when I’ve spent one of the days at the weekend riding. Fridays are for doing fun stuff with my little girl.

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