Reducing to 4 day week .. Can I ask?

Savvy_Sue

antw23uk wrote: »

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?

You can ask. And if you have children - or, I believe, caring responsibilities - your employer has to consider the request. If you DON'T have those responsibilities they can just say a straight 'no' without considering it.

But: you have to bear in mind that while it might work for one of you to work a four day week, it might not work so well if ALL of you request a four day week. Especially if you all want Friday or Monday as your day off. So an employer will need to consider the implications of saying 'yes' quite carefully.

When I worked for a Housing Association, one of my team wanted to condense their days into a 9.5 day fortnight - no family, no caring responsibilities, just thought it would be nice. I referred it to HR, and they said 'No', because it could set a precedent which would rapidly become unworkable.