Reducing to 4 day week .. Can I ask?

antw23uk

Hi All

I was having lunch a moment ago and a couple of us were talking about how nice it would be to work four days a week instead of five.

So my question is, can I ask to reduce the amount of days I work and if i can how does one go about it? Do i need a reason other than i just want a better work/ life balance?

Your thoughts and any advise would be much appreciated.

Thanks

mynameistallulah

If you are a parent you have a statutory right to request flexible working. That request can be refused for business reasons. If you are not a parent you can still ask, but there is no specific process, and no legal recourse if your request is refused.

bugslet

No harm in asking, they can only say no.

I guess it depends on what your job is. i run a transport firm and it would be difficult for the drivers to do as the volume of work fluctuates wildly, admin jobs are probably easier. The other thing is that it might suit management if they are finding work slack. If work is busy, then you could always try and ask if you could tack an hour on the start and finish of the day, thereby doing the same hours, but only coming in four days a week. As I say, it depends on what your job is.

SueC_2

As above, it depends what your job is, but some roles lend themselves to working full time hours but over four days. ie. you still do your full 40 hours per week (or whatever your hours are), but do 4 ten-hour days instead of 5 eight-hour days. That way you get your three days off per week, but don't have to take a 20% pay cut.

nonnatus

Not got anything helpful to say, I'm afraid, but I work a 4 day week, monday to thursday, 8.30 to 4.30 and it's absolute BLISS. I highly recommend it!

Meadows

antw23uk wrote: »

Hi All I was having lunch a moment ago and a couple of us were talking about how nice it would be to work four days a week instead of five.
So my question is, can I ask to reduce the amount of days I work and if i can how does one go about it? Do i need a reason other than i just want a better work/ life balance?
Your thoughts and any advise would be much appreciated.
Thanks

You can but ask your employer and they can say yes or no dependent on what your job is and whether there is any flexibility for you to reduce hours but still have the job done to meet requirements on a daily/weekly basis. as it was better for me and suited my employer.

Once upon a time I cut mine from 5 to 3 days a week :T Now I do none :j:D

moneypuddle

You can only ask. I guess whether they will consider if would be dependent on a couple factors

- are you actually wanting to reduce your hours, or just the number of days you would be in work? Would you considered doing 4 long days to keep the same number of hours?

- would there be anyone to cover for the days/hours you weren't doing, or could they get someone in?

- would it adversely affect anyone on your team to have you do it?

tyllwyd

For a while my OH worked nine days per fortnight instead of the normal ten days. He worked extra days on the days he was in, to make up his hours so he could have one day off. It was supposed to be family friendly but he gave it up in the end, because it was too much working the long days, so he was too tired to help me with the kids on the day he had off, which was supposed to be the reason he was doing it. It might work better for someone else though.

mildred1978

When I was working (and long before I even thought about having a child) I requested, and got, a 4 day week. I worked 9 hour days and then had Friday off. Made life bearable and cut my commuting costs by 20%.

My colleague worked a 9 day fortnight. Her days were8 hours long and she was flexible about which day she took off.

Another colleague worked 9 hours Tues-Thurs and 4.5 hours on Monday afternoon and Friday morning because he had a long commute home each weekend. None of us had kids or other caring responsibilities - we just wanted better work life balance.

SandC

Of course you can ask! You can ask anything you want to ask at work - it's just that there's no guarantee of the outcome.

If it were me I'd approach my immediate boss. I would have in my head whether I would want to reduce my hours or condense my hours and have all the reasons why it work on both sides covered.

My friend has done it when she moved in with her fella who lived an hour or so away. When they split up and she moved back to the area she never went back to the 5 day week as she enjoyed the time to herself so much.

I am sure that if I asked my boss if I could do it he'd have no problem with it at all. I'm not sure whether it would be accepted on the basis of working longer hours on the remaining 4 days though because practically, me being here an extra 2 hours per day wouldn't necessarily mean my time would be spent productively - ie. being here after 5pm I wouldn't be dealing with many calls or queries from others as they would already have gone home. My employer would never differentiate between the flexible working needs/wants of someone with children or someone without though - not sure whether other companies would see it the same way.

*Scarlett

Maybe have a look here

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Flexibleworking/DG_10037051