A four day week isn’t the answer
When I first returned from maternity leave I started working a four day week. I chose to work compressed hours, so I was working 90% of a regular working week, for 90% of the salary, over four days. Because of how childcare worked out I didn’t work on a Friday (my partner didn’t work on a Tuesday). This meant we only needed two days of paid childcare as my mother-in-law also did one day.
I was lucky that I worked for a great line manager, her main concern was that I make sure I only work for the 90% of the role I was being paid for. I hate to write that was a ‘lucky’ moment. But I know from friends and colleagues that working part-time hours often simply means less money for the same work.
Happy Fri-yay - the benefits of not working on Friday
In many ways having a Friday with my little girl was brilliant - a whole day together for fun (or sometimes for appointments). As Friday is such a popular non-working day there was often people to spend time with and more classes and activities to try out. It was also nice to start the weekend a day early!
Monday inbox overload - why I started working Friday’s again
A couple of months into working this pattern I started to realise I missed working on Fridays (I know?!). Here’s what I missed:
The calm of a Friday afternoon in the office when you can catch up on everything on your non-urgent list
The slower pace of a Friday which allowed time to make more casual connections
keeping on top of projects which others were working on on Fridays - avoiding spending half of Monday catching up
Realising this I decided to increase back up to 100% hours (and 100% pay!) and work a compressed fortnight, taking every other Friday off. this worked much better. But often you can’t make this sort of change as under current legislation you can only make one flexible working request a year (again - lucky to have an understanding line manager).
What would a helpful four day week look like?
In the UK there is currently a trial of a four day week run by the 4 Day Week campaign, think tank Autonomy and researchers at Cambridge University, Oxford University and Boston College. The aim is to demonstrate that the same productivity can be achieved in 80% of the time.
In these trials, everyone is working the four day pattern - this is completely different to individuals working part-time or compressed hours. Everyone can properly take that extra day off as a break from work, comfortable in the knowledge that things aren’t going to be pinging up in their absence to fix the following week.
Would you like to work more flexibly? Here’s what to do:
Start with what’s important to you - why are you looking for more flexibility? What does flexibility mean to you? Is it permanent? Is it just for now?
Learn about all the options - compressed hours, part-time, job-sharing, changing start/finish times, annualised hours, term-time hours, and much more! (Working Families have this guide which might be a good place to start.)
Think about your role and how you can deliver it in the pattern you’d like to work. This will help when it comes to talking to your employer.
Negotiate a trial period - it’s not in your interest or your employers to have you stuck working a pattern which doesn’t work for either of you. A trial is a great way to see how things can work in practice.
Looking for some help? Book in a free call with me
It’s not always easy to find the space to properly think these questions through, that’s where working with a coach can come in. I will work with you to dig into what’s most important to you and explore how that could work in a safe open conversation, before you start negotiating for what you need at work.
Take a look at my diary or email me - sam@thefloat.space
