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Woooh,
Don't know why I'm posting this on here, other than pure elation! Contract signed and sent back!
Had some tricky times with work stress over the last few years and have managed to negotiate a 4 day a week contract without most of my management responsibility, more importantly it see's me with a reasonably manageable pay cut.
I'll now have 156 days at work a year and 204 not!!!! (At work 39 out of 52 weeks).
No excuse for taking over 7 hours on the Fred Whitton this year now!
GET IN!!!!!!!
P.S.
Can I call myself semi retired? 🙂 Age 36
Me too! I'm going to alternating 5 & 4 day weeks next year, planning to drop to 4 days the year after and gradually wind down to 3 days a week.
Not quite the same, but I’ve been working from home the last 3 months, on account of my dickie foot. 15 hours a week of commuting saved, plus the £3-400 savings from not buying train tickets/lunches/drinks etc. Reckon imma try this for real since I’m better...
No excuse for taking over 7 hours on the Fred Whitton this year now!
Hardest part is getting a place, it sells out in about 40mins some years.
Footflaps, it's a ballot- has been for at least 2 years.
I had a chat about this with my sister recently. She reckons going to 4 days isn't worth it, you'll end up getting through the same amount of stuff you did when full time. To get any benefit from going part time it's 3 days a week for men and two days a week for women. She's a senior civil servant in the DoWP, this was based on stats she has access to and her own experience of part time working whilst recovering for cancer.
So she rather sit and spend and extra day twiddling her thumbs and lose and extra day off? That's nuts, just for extra pennies.
Personally I'd take the hit even if I was more productive during the 4 days.
Hardest part is getting a place, it sells out in about 40mins some years.
you can 'buy' a charity place these days..
My sister works 4 days a week and says she does 5 days worth of work in 4 days with 80% of the money. There is a constant threat of the company "having" to move her back to 5 days if the arrangement doesn't work out so she feels she cant keep telling them it is too much work for a 4 day week.
I guess it depends where you work and what you do though.
i used to work a 4 day week (30 hrs), its not a 20% paycut, works out more like 15%, with 20% less commuting costs. was great having a 3 day weekend every week.
needs must and back up to a 5 day week now but work from home 2/3 days a week.
currently looking at negotiating an extra 3-4 weeks of unpaid leave so we can take some decent family holidays.
adding to @pirahna's everyone else is wrong vibe.
Hardest part is getting a place, it sells out in about 40mins some years.
It's just a road loop so ride it on your own one of the other days of the year when it's not full of idiots and cake stall queues
adding to @pirahna’s everyone else is wrong vibe.
Oh the ironing...
i work 4 days a week as i have young kids. as soon as they hate spending time with me i'll reassess
not sure I've worked "full time" for 29 yrs.
Going back to full time on Monday after 10 years of WFH and lots of weekday riding time.
Not exactly pure elation here, but it'll be a change and I'll have weekends free at least.
I worked 3.5 days all from home for 8 years whilst the kids were young.
I’m now full time again with a couple of days from home but in a much better job. It’s not the hours, it’s the work!
I'm thinking about cutting back after next year when kids have finished uni and hopefully self financing.
Serious question - which day to drop? Fridays generally seem a bit more relaxed so a shame to miss the benefit of that. Monday's would mean missing bank holiday extra long weekends, but would mean dropping fewer work days so more pay. Or split the week weith a wednesday?
Serious question – which day to drop?
I've gone for Wednesdays on my 4 day weeks. I figured that you lose a bunch of Mondays due to Bank Hols so less benefit, Fridays are less intense anyway (and casual day here, and bike commuting works better Thurs/Fri for me), Tues & THurs leave an unbalanced week so Weds is the winner. Oh and on the bank hol weeks you can just take the Tuesday (or Thurs at Easter) and get a longer break for 1 day off.
Congratulations chilled76!
All ways good to work out which of the folk who I ride with are on here!
I've gone the other way and got made permanent yesterday!no escaping teaching any time soon for me.
Martin
OP: I have just passed the year mark of doing the same as you are about to begin. I had got to the point where, every day I was on the verge of just walking out. It has been a revelation and I could not contemplate going full time again. There is an element of doing 5 days work in 4 days,for 4 days pay. And you may need to stand firm at times. However, the weekends are longer and they come around far more quickly! I am the best part of twenty years older than you, how I wish I had been in the position to go part-time at 36!
Enjoy : )
20 hours a week, working from home in Scotland on Lahndan Whanka contractor wages.
Much cycling.
I’d happily do my 5 days work in 4 days for a 20% pay cut. Christ, I’d happily do 6 days work in 4 for a 4 day week being as 6 days is pretty much the norm anyway...
Cheers Guys!
Martin, thought that was you when you posted something a while back! Good loop you put on last weekend!
Those who are saying it's not worth it... bah humbug. I'll think of you whilst I'm riding my bike on a Monday
Cheers for the positivity everyone else,
Merry Christmas!
Oh and which day question... for me it's gonna be Monday's until September. After that it'll depend on other people's timetables. Will change each year.
Interested in this. I ran a small business, dozen of us, and 18 months ago (based on my own experience of enjoying a shorter work week, and being equally productive) I moved us all to a 4 day week. All pay, hols, conditions unchanged. And critically it was a 4 day week, not 5 days crammed into 4. The result. Great motivation boost. The team were brilliant at working smarter. All key P&L metrics improved, clients were supportive. All round win. It can work!
Something I will be looking into at some point - Wednesday's off sounds good, but we have a caravan so an extra day there would be a winner. I'm in a position where I could afford the drop now, but my bloody boss would want me in everyday. The other option is compressing 5 days into 4, or indeed 4.5 days into 4 easily as I'm in work just after 7am to avoid traffic. An extra 1/2 day could mean a quick stop at Llandegla on the way to our caravan...
Can I call myself semi retired? 🙂 Age 36
****, yes! We've been semi-retired/self-employed the last 8 or so years after being made redundant after the crash in 2008 🙂 Cut your cloth, do the work that needs to be done, ride your bike. We're both essentially unemployable now- **** working for some **** else 😆
Enjoy life while you're still physically able!
Senior management are about to get their knickers in a twist about some local working arrangements we've had for years based around the fact we work outdoors and want the daylight hours. General consensus is we'd rather do condensed weeks than shorter days, doubt they'll be happy at the idea of the place being deserted on a Friday either.
I worked a 4 day week for about a year, took Wednesday off as there was a Wed am ride with the local cycling club. In the end I went back to 5 days as I did the same amount of work bit only got paid 80%.
Enjoy. I've done 4 day week for the last year so started same age as you. One great thing I find is that you can save some of the money you lose in pay by having the time to do stuff that saves you money. In my case DIY such as painting my house, growing my own veg, making my own sourdough, time to shop well and cook from scratch, not needing the dog walker as much the list goes on. I think it's a great way to have a more balanced, healthy life.
Congratulations OP
I was asking about going to a 3 day week earlier this week.I drive trucks for one of the supermarkets & we've got a couple of dozen P/T drivers.The only downside is when you go part time you have to work either Thurs/Fri/Sat or Sun/Mon/Tues. I've been talking to a few of the P/T drivers about it & none of them regret making the move.
Last year I took a career break & had 13 weeks unpaid leave,never missed the place for a minute,unfortunately we can only do the career break every 5 years,otherwise I'd stay full time & take the Summer off every year.
Good work chilled76.
When my wife (also teacher) went from 3 days to 2 days with kids at school/nursery for 3 days still, she used the 3rd day to catch up on work so we could have family weekends together and basically being less stressed.
Enjoy more family time mate, I hope it works out for you.
After Brexit 4 days will be the new 5 days. You'll also have to work till you are 105 too or be turned into Soylent Green or something.
After Brexit 4 days will be the new 5 days. You’ll also have to work till you are 105 too or be turned into Soylent Green or something.
Except It's been heading that way since before the brexit thing reared it's head.
I was working solid from February 1972 till September 2016 which is.....44yrs & 7 moths. (i get butterfly's just thinking about it) Then went part time at 19.5 hrs a week. It was great until my Mrs became VERY ill with a dose of bowel cancer & I got sacked dismissed to look after her.
Enjoy your part time/semi retirement OP, you never know what's around the corner.
I'm on my third year of a similar part time/term time set up - great work life balance but youngest now at secondary school so looking at trying to restart a career at 50 with more days/hours, and more importantly, more money now and in my pension pot.
Woohoo, good on you, you won't regret it. I have just completed my first six months of working a 4 day week, its been amazing, i had banked on loosing about 20% of wage but it doesn't work out that bad. Boss was never happy about it but I got the opportunity when I appealed his decision. Final appeal meeting in the new year, I hope I win not sure I could face going back full time.
figured that you lose a bunch of Mondays due to Bank Hols so less benefit
Not unless your company is weird. If you work P/T they're supposed to pro rata the bank holidays etc. Look into this again.
Congrats on going part time. As folk get older they often start to realise time is more valuable than money. I certainly did.
However, as other folk have said, be careful you don't get sucked into the thing of still being expected to get through five days worth of work. I do know of people who have, for example, Fridays off but end up working very late on Thursdays.
Nice one Aus - I wish more employers had the courage and foresight to do this.
Been on a 4 day week since returning after 3 months of shared parental leave, 2.5 years ago. Wouldn't have it any other way just now, but battling with the idea of going to 5 days when school starts. Quite like the idea of keeping the extra day off for me.
As I neared the end of my “career” and approaching retirement I applied for a shorter working week. Refused due to “business needs” ie we are up for sale and the business promised any new employer a full complement of “experienced” employees. Never going to happen due to the average age of said work force!!!!!! Anyway, I could have just binned the job, took my pension etc but decided to just tale their ££££££S until next year.
In my wake I will leave a “team leader” of some 6mtns, an ex submariner employed less than a year ago and an apprentice out of his “time” by a few months....... Yet “your” 40yrs of “experience” is what we really need.....
At the end of the day it’s all about “fixed cost”reduction. Whoever replaces me will be on a contract which save the company a few grand.... FA to do with Brexit......