Just got the ok from my employer to go 4 days/week from Feb1. Really looking forward to it, even more so given the comments above.

Thanks for sharing all your experiences!

I’ve floated the idea of 4 days at 0.9 whole time equivalent with my boss and done all the sums at home. Some budgeting will be needed, but buying 50% more free time for a c.6% drop in income is almost a no-brainer.

I don’t have a date because there are lots of things up in the air with a restructure, but I’m pretty confident that my proposal for 4 days will happen from 1st April.

That’ll be something really big for me to look forward to in 2020.

I don’t want to put you off, but just to temper your excitement a bit…
I went 4 days (0.8 FTE) about 18 months ago. Wouldn’t go back. But: while your 50% increase in free time may sound great, it’s a bit misleading. In reality, you’re buying an extra 8 hours a week – not a full day (24 hours fact fans). Yes, it’s great that it all comes in one chunk, but you weren’t working in the evening anyway (assuming your current hours are roughly 9-5) and you still need to spend the same time sleeping and eating.

The other thing is (and it’s an extension of the point above): don’t expect suddenly to have time to do ALL the things you want to do. You have time to do MORE stuff, but it’s not unlimited, and if you’re anything like most of us, there’ll still be more you want to do than anyone could possibly fit into a lifetime, job or no job. It’s not a panacea.

But it’s great, do it.

Only just seen this.

I went part time/term time 4 years ago – MrsMC has a real job and career that pays well that had been on hold while kids were at primary school in the village, it made financial sense for her to go full time and me part time.

I work 7 hrs, four days a week – I usually have Mondays off to counteract all my colleagues “working from home” and “visiting stakeholders” every **** Friday. It really works for us – I get a day off in the week to deal with elderly parents, get a ride in, get stuff done around the house and garden without interruptions, do a school run on a day my daughter can’t get home on the school bus, do a bit of volunteering, and my boss is ok about me swapping my non working day to fit in with stuff when necessary.

Initially had to get the union involved to get the part time deal – they were granting similar to several mums in the department but turned down me as the first bloke to request it. Having to fight for it really soured the enjoyment when I did get it.

I’m now 50 though, 17 years till state and civil service pension kick in, and I’m conscious that they need topping up with more hours, as I’m on 24/37 of the average wage (term time really eats in to your actual pay!) Plus wife is disabled and would like to drop a day to give her some time when I can make up the (vast) income drop that will cause.

Even though I’m happy to do more hours for a better paid role/career advancement, I suspect that the part time basis is proving a barrier. We are better off, though I feel poorer and I’m aware I may not be fulfilling my potential given some of my previous work experience. It has it’s downsides but the work/life balance, especially being pulled between school age kids and elderly parents, has been invaluable for my own sanity

Good luck and as everyone says it’s time that is precious. I’ve tried twice to do reduced hours and both times the problem has been me ! I’m in a senior position and have the mental angst of wanting to be ‘valued and commuted’ while also frankly not wanting to work much – I’m being really honest here. I’m now on a flexible pattern where I get 7 weeks unpaid leave to use as I wish – weeks off, days off per week etc and it sort of works.

DO IT!!!

I worked a 3 on / 9 off pattern for a few years, currently work 37/52 weeks. No regrets.

One of the common regrets amongst the dying is having worked too much.

To update…

Unfortunately, my work said “no”!

It’s back to the drawing board for me.

Very few people actually deserve to work 5 day a week. It’s a system I just cannot comprehend and something I will not entertain. I don’t make a lot of money, but I have a lot of freetime to go cycling, to see friends, to go camping and to go on bikepacking trips; basically, things that matter.

Sorry to hear that Ben! This is a toxic system we live in but one which is so well greased it’s difficult to stop.

Sorry to hear it didn’t work out, in a lot of ways it sounded like an ideal compromise.

My one concern when I looked at a similar change was a disproportionate effect on annual leave, the longer days I would have been working meant that to get a ‘day’ off I was using more hours. I was getting the right amount of hours but that added up to fewer whole days.

It wasn’t the deciding factor for me, but it was a consideration.

Matt

Well I went down to a 4 day week at the start of the year, took Wednesday off to go cycling with a group in Cambridge. However I’ve now gone down to a 0 day week as everyone was made redundant yesterday afternoon (it has been on the cards for ages, so no big surprise). I’ll see if I can stay on a 4 day week with my next job…..

Whilst I’m not on a 4 day week, having flexi time and working with a lot of colleagues in the US has been fantastic for my work/family/health balance over the last few years. I work from home twice a week so immediately that’s 4 hours of commuting I’ve got back for other things. The days I have calls later in the evening (i.e 6-7pm) I’ll go for a ride or swim in the morning and start work a bit later. Makes a huge difference to being stuck in the office or battling thousands of others on a commute.

I’d definitely recommend going to 4DW if you can!

ah, I just saw your update 🙁

Maybe worth asking for some WFH or flexi time?

To be fair, I could work from home about 2-3 days per week if I wanted (balanced with some horrendous travel) and I do generally have a slow day on Mondays to drop off and pick up kids from school. But it would be nice to avoid work altogether on a day, to do those things that take up more than just those snippets of time you get when you WFH!

I work full time. I love my job. However, when on my death bed, I expect I would regret it if I didn’t go part time given the choice. And maybe in 5 or so years time, the mortgage will be paid off, and I can do without the top end of income that mostly goes on tax anyway. Work just carries on and whatever big roles and responsibilities we have around work, in the grand scheme of things all don’t really matter. Unless your family is going to be massively hard up from going part time, I definitely would.

Even though your work have said no, perhaps find some other company that would say yes? At minimum that would focus the mind of your current company. You perhaps could even call their bluff in this regard.. although that would be risky.